Raising rent above 10% in Paterson, NJ

[Vignesh Kumar Subramanian]

I have a 2-unit house in the Northside area of Paterson, NJ where i am looking to increase the rent of my tenant. Its a 2 bed, with 1 attic room used as bedroom, so 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. The tenant was previously paying 1250$ before i got it in June 2021. Since it was covid time, i extended the same rent.  With the new lease, I want to raise the rent to 1500$ for the following reasons.

1. Inflation - 8% Because of this all raw materials and service cost will increase.
2. Maintanence of the house - this one is very old house built pre 1900. After i acquired it, i am paying 100-200$ average for routine maintenance. 
3. Average rent for comparable properties are till $1700.
4. Other unit, i have not received rent from September 2021 and i am at loss. Even this tenant is behind rent for 3 months.

With above reason, I gave the new lease to $1500. But the tenant contacted the rent levelling department and after hearing my points, they convinced the tenant to pay only till 1350$. They are asking me to agree on 1350$ for the new lease.

Should i agree for 1350$ rent for new lease terms or contest it in court filing eviction? Are my reasons valid for rent increase? 

[Henry T.]

rent levelling department??? Seriously? Um, maybe I'm out of touch, but WTF is that?

Where is the price leveling dept for gas, or food? ? Or is this just an organization that gets to discrimante against landlords?

I thought that crap only happened in Russia.  Last I heard the USA is a free country. That's what they keep telling us.

Free to charge what you want. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Am I wrong?  Feel free to set me straight or fill me in.