If you are a tenant without heat or hot water, contact your landlord first. This is the easiest way to resolve a housing quality issues. If your landlord is unresponsive, file a complaint by:
- Calling 311 or TTY (212) 504-4115
- Using 311ONLINE or 311MOBILE
Tenants can file complaints with 311 anonymously if they choose to do so; in this case, the Inspector will randomly choose an apartment to attempt to inspect.
Once a tenant files a 311 complaint related to heat or hot water, HPD:
- attempts to notify the building owner or managing agent to advise them that the building may have no heat
- may also attempt to contact the tenant to see whether service has been restored.
- attempts to conduct an inspection if the tenant indicates that heat has not been restored or we are unable to reach the tenant
- will issue a violation if:
- the temperatures are taken 6 AM and 10 PM AND
- the outside temperature is below 55 degrees (the inspector takes the outdoor temperature on every inspection) AND
- the indoor temperature is below 68 degrees
- the temperatures are taken 6 AM and 10 PM AND
OR
- the temperature is taken between 10 PM and 6 AM
- the indoor temperature is below 62 degrees
If the Inspector comes to conduct an inspection and you are not home, the Inspector will leave a card for you indicating that an inspection will be attempted at another apartment in the building.
If an owner fails to restore heat and hot water after receiving a violation, HPD’s Emergency Repair Program (ERP) may contract with private companies to restore essential services and bill the owner for the cost of the repairs, plus related fees if the indoor temperature was below 64 degrees between 6 AM and 10 PM or below 58 degrees between 10 PM and 6 AM.
To learn more about the general complaint and inspection process, inspections in general (and what Inspectors look for) and the issuance of other violations besides heat, visit our webpage on what to expect.
To see if there are any open heat and hot water violations on your building or to check the status of your heat and hot water complaint, visit HPDONLINE.
You can also see if HPD initiated litigation against the property owner for a lack of heat and hot water on HPDONLINE by looking at the Litigation Tab.
