NYC Heat Law: A Landlord's Guide to the 2026–27 Heat Season (Temperatures, Penalties, and HPD Inspections)

NYC heat law requires building owners to keep every apartment at 68°F or warmer between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. whenever the outside temperature drops below 55°F, and at 62°F or warmer between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. no matter how mild it is outside. The rules apply every day from October 1 through May 31, and hot water must reach 120°F every day of the year.

The numbers are easy to remember; meeting them in an older building through a New York winter is harder. HPD logged 344,437 heat and hot-water complaints in the 2025–26 heat season, up from 282,606 the season before, including 6,144 on February 8, 2026 alone. By our analysis of HPD's records, which start in 2003, no season has produced more. A heat violation has no grace period: the penalty clock starts the day an inspector posts the notice in your vestibule. And starting with the 2026–27 heat season, HPD inspectors must try to inspect every apartment that files a non-anonymous complaint, not just the first one in the building.

This guide covers the rules, what HPD does after a tenant calls 311, what a violation costs (with the math), the defenses that hold up, why steam buildings run hot and cold at the same time, and the dates on an owner's heat-season calendar.

NYC Heat Law at a Glance

These are the NYC heat rules an owner is held to, and where each one is written.

The overnight rule changed on October 1, 2017 (Local Law 86 of 2017). Before that, apartments had to be 55°F at night only when it was below 40°F outside. State law (Multiple Dwelling Law §79) still carries the older standard, but HPD enforces the city's stricter one; our guide to HPD violations covers the violation classes and how corrections are certified. A bill to raise the minimums to 70°F by day and 66°F at night (Int. 252-2026) has sat in a City Council committee since January 29, 2026. It is not law.

When Does the Heat Turn On in NYC? Heat Season 2026–27

The NYC heat season for 2026–27 runs from October 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027. During the day, the duty to heat switches on whenever the outside temperature falls below 55°F. At night it never switches off: from October 1, every apartment must be at 62°F or warmer between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., however mild the evening.

That second half is where buildings get caught. Some buildings wait for the first real cold snap before firing the boiler. That works for the daytime rule: inspectors record the outdoor temperature at every inspection, and HPD says a daytime violation can be issued only when that reading is under 55°F. The overnight rule has no outdoor trigger. An apartment that drifts to 60°F at 2 a.m. on a cool October night is in violation, even if the afternoons are still mild. "It's warm out" is a daytime defense, never a nighttime one.

The same logic applies at the other end. Heat season ends May 31, not with the first warm week of April, and the overnight minimum applies every night until June.

NYC Heat Requirements: What the Law Asks of Owners

NYC heat regulations set a floor for every room people live in, not an average across the building. The statute requires the minimum temperatures "in every portion of such dwelling used or occupied for living purposes," so a warm living room doesn't excuse a cold bedroom, and a comfortable second floor doesn't excuse a cold fifth.

These rules sit in the Housing Maintenance Code, one layer of NYC landlord-tenant law, and they reach past the thermostat.

Hot Water: 120°F, Every Day of the Year

The NYC hot water law, Section 27-2031 of the Administrative Code, requires hot water at a constant 120°F at every bath, shower, washbasin and sink from 6 a.m. to midnight, every day of the year. Showers and tubs with anti-scald mixing valves can deliver as low as 110°F. State law separately requires hot water at all hours in most multiple dwellings. Hot water deserves as much attention as heat: in fiscal 2026 (July 2025 through June 2026), HPD issued 18,118 hot-water violations, more than the 11,883 heat violations it issued in the same period (Mayor's Management Report).

When the Tenant Pays for the Heat

Where apartments are heated by individual gas or electric units, Section 27-2032 says the owner doesn't have to pay for the gas or electricity unless you've agreed otherwise. The heat duty doesn't move, though. The units must deliver the same temperatures a central system would, the owner must keep each one "in good repair and good operating condition" no matter who installed it, and each new tenant must be shown how to use it. A broken unit is the owner's violation, at the same penalty rates.

The Boiler Room, the Key and the Notices

HPD's inspectors must be able to reach the heating system. If the boiler room is locked, a key has to be kept on site with a person you designate (your resident super, if you have one), and you have to post a notice, in a form HPD approves, naming that person and where to find them (§27-2033). It's one of the easiest violations to avoid, and it's common: in the 2025–26 heat season, HPD issued 14,608 violations at 7,806 buildings for failing to give inspectors ready access to the heating system or failing to post the key-holder notice (Meraki analysis of HPD violation data).

Two more rules belong on the same list. During heat season, a heating system can't be fitted with any device that could stop it from meeting the minimums; safety devices required by law are exempt, and the penalty is $50 a day, with a $2,000 minimum (§27-2029(b)). And planned work that cuts heat or hot water for more than two hours needs a written notice, in English and Spanish, in the lobby and on every floor at least 24 hours ahead (28 RCNY §25-101). For emergency repairs, post one as soon as possible once the outage runs two hours.

What Happens After a Heat Complaint

When a tenant files an NYC heat complaint through 311, HPD tries to reach the building's registered owner or managing agent first, then may call the tenant back to ask whether heat has been restored. If it hasn't, or HPD can't reach the tenant, an inspector is sent. If the readings fall below the legal minimums, a violation is posted in the building that day.

Step by step:

1. A tenant files a complaint with 311, by phone or online.
2. HPD tries to reach the owner or managing agent listed on the building's registration. HPD's October 2026 bulletin is direct about why that matters: "HPD will try to reach you before conducting an inspection."
3. HPD may call the tenant to ask whether heat is back. If the tenant confirms it is, the complaint closes.
4. If not, an inspector is sent. You won't be told when.
5. The inspector records the outdoor and indoor temperatures. If the complaint was anonymous, the inspector picks an apartment; if the tenant who complained isn't home, the inspector tries another apartment in the building.
6. A violation is posted. If the readings are below the minimums, the inspector posts a Notice of Violation in the building's vestibule that day, and a Report of Violation is mailed to your managing agent or the responsible party on the registration.
7. Penalties start. They run from the posting. There is no correction period for heat or hot water.

Most complaints never become violations, and the reason matters. Of the 179,564 unique heat and hot-water complaints HPD handled in the 2025–26 season (repeat calls about the same outage removed), 51.8% closed because heat was back on by the time HPD called or arrived, 21.9% closed because the inspector couldn't get into any apartment, and 9.4% ended in a violation (Meraki analysis of HPD complaint data). The warning call is the window: a violation depends on what the inspector measures, so heat restored before the inspector arrives usually closes the complaint without one.

Pre-war buildings carry most of the exposure in Manhattan. In the 2025–26 season, one in three Manhattan properties built before 1947 with 5 to 50 apartments had a heat or hot-water complaint, and about one in 16 received a heat violation. Together they drew about three-quarters of Manhattan's 3,144 heat violations, a total 62% higher than the season before (Meraki analysis of HPD and NYC Department of City Planning data).

Heat Violation Penalties: What a Cold Night Costs

A heat or hot-water violation issued on or after December 8, 2023 carries a civil penalty of $350 to $1,250 for each day it goes uncorrected, and $500 to $1,500 a day for a repeat violation at the same building within two consecutive heat seasons. Penalties start the day the notice is posted, and the law presumes the condition continues until you show it was fixed.

HPD seeks the civil penalties in Housing Court: its Housing Litigation Division asks for an order to correct and penalties, and the court sets the amount within the range. Unpaid court-ordered penalties become a judgment against the owner and the property. Fees and repair charges come through your Department of Finance bill instead.

Here's what the ranges add up to when each cold apartment is its own violation (our arithmetic on the statutory ranges):

Those totals come before any $200 inspection fees, an Emergency Repair Program bill, or a tenant's rent abatement in your own nonpayment case.

The $250 Option, Step by Step

For a building's first heat violation across the current and prior heat seasons, the law offers a way out of the daily range:

1. Restore heat within 24 hours of the violation being posted.
2. File a notice of correction and pay $250 within 10 days of the posting, by mail or through HPD's eCertification.

The Notice of Violation says whether the building is eligible, and HPD tells the tenant about your certification so they can dispute it. Miss either deadline and the full daily range applies. A false notice of correction carries its own penalty, so certify only a real, documented fix.

The $200 Fee and Repeat Buildings

After the first two inspections in a season that find a heat violation, each further one costs $200 on top of the penalties, and becomes a lien if unpaid. In the 2025–26 season, 1,896 buildings were cited for inadequate heat on two or more separate days, and 852 on three or more (Meraki analysis of HPD violation data). Any heat violation also turns the next one, in the same season or the following one, into a repeat at $500 to $1,500 a day.

When the City Fixes It for You

If an owner doesn't restore heat after a violation, HPD's Emergency Repair Program can send a contractor to fix the boiler or deliver fuel, then bill the property, "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," according to HPD's heat page. HPD itself warns that City contracting and wage rules may make the work "significantly more expensive than the price the owner could obtain independently."

In fiscal 2025, the program billed about $3.26 million for heat repairs and emergency fuel deliveries at 285 buildings, and the heat-repair charges ran about one and a half times what HPD paid its contractors (Meraki analysis of HPD charge data). Unpaid charges become a tax lien, and while any are pending you can't certify violations or request a dismissal inspection. They also count toward selection for HPD's Alternative Enforcement Program, alongside a high rate of open violations: $2,500 over five years for a building with 15 or more apartments, $5,000 for a smaller one.

The Heat Sensor Program

Every year by July 1, HPD selects 50 buildings for its Heat Sensor Program, based on heat violations over the prior two seasons and complaints from more than one apartment. Owners must install an internet-connected temperature sensor in one living room of each apartment by October 1 (the tenant picks the room and can refuse), record readings hourly, send the data to HPD monthly, and host HPD inspections at least twice a month from October through January. A building stays in for up to four years, or leaves early after a season with no heat violations and full compliance; open sensor violations can be resolved at $500 each.

The July 2026 list was the most Manhattan-heavy yet: 18 of the 50 buildings, up from 7 to 9 on the lists before 2025. And 34 of the 50 have between 5 and 50 apartments (HPD; Meraki analysis).

Defenses, Gray Areas, and the Record That Wins

Heat penalties can be defended or reduced, but only with proof, and each defense the Administrative Code allows is, in practice, a document. Section 27-2115(k)(3) lists them:

• It wasn't cold. The condition didn't exist when the violation was placed.
• You started promptly and were delayed by "technical difficulties, inability to obtain necessary materials, funds or labor, or inability to gain access" to the apartment or the part of the building the repair required.
• A permit held you up, despite a prompt application.
• Someone outside your control caused it: the "act or negligence, neglect or abuse" of someone who doesn't work for you or take your direction.
• A repeat that shouldn't count as one. Documented "prompt and diligent efforts" on an earlier violation can bring a later one back to first-violation rates, though not when both fall in the same heat season.

A court can reduce or forgive penalties on that showing, but it wants "competent proof": invoices, parts orders, records of access attempts, permit applications.

Outages carry a second risk. Under the Housing Maintenance Code, repeated interruptions of essential services, or a single interruption serious enough to substantially impair habitability, can amount to harassment, with civil penalties of $2,000 to $10,000 per apartment. The owner's affirmative defense is that the interruption wasn't meant to push anyone out and that the owner acted in good faith to fix it promptly, "including providing notice to all affected lawful occupants." The outage notice in the lobby is evidence, not just a courtesy.

Some cold apartments are cold for reasons inside the apartment: a window left open, a radiator blocked by furniture, a one-pipe radiator valve turned off. Those facts can matter if you can prove them, but we found no published HPD rule on how inspectors treat a reading taken with a window open, so don't count on the inspection to sort it out.

In rent cases, the evidence cuts both ways. In 195-24, LLC v. Titus (App. Term, 2d Dept. 2016), a trial court cut a tenant's rent by about a quarter for inadequate heat; the appellate court reversed and awarded the landlord the full $8,939.20, because the tenant offered no details on indoor or outdoor temperatures. In 191 St. LLC v. Roa (Civ. Ct., Bronx County, 2026), abatements of $15 to $20 a day for heat and elevator outages wiped out the landlord's $8,115.27 claim for back rent, and the court noted the landlord "presented no rebuttal case." Our guide to the warranty of habitability covers how courts price these claims.

The records that make those defenses work:

• Boiler and burner service records, with dates
• Fuel delivery tickets
• The annual heating-plant inspection report and the DOB boiler filing
• Outage notices as posted, photographed with the date
• Written requests for access to apartments, and records of refusals and no-shows
• HPD complaint numbers and their outcomes from HPD Online
• Notices of correction, eCertification receipts and payment confirmations
• Temperature records, if you keep them. HPD's own sensor-program standard (hourly readings, paired with the outdoor temperature, kept 90 days) is a sensible benchmark, though a violation turns on the inspector's reading.

On the buildings we manage, the portal keeps much of that history automatically, time-stamped: every request, the scheduling messages, completion notes and photos. And we certify HPD violation corrections ourselves.

Steam Heat in Pre-War Buildings: Why One Apartment Freezes While Another Opens the Window

In a steam-heated building, one apartment freezing while another opens its windows is usually a distribution problem: air trapped in the pipes, poor venting, controls that read the outdoor temperature instead of the apartments. Turning up the boiler doesn't fix it; it overheats the warm apartments and leaves the cold ones short.

Steam is the norm in older housing. By Urban Green Council's 2019 estimate, about 90% of the residential floor area in New York's small buildings (5,000 to 25,000 square feet) is heated by steam, most of it one-pipe steam. That's the stock of pre-war walk-ups and elevator buildings across the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, the East Village and Greenwich Village. In a one-pipe system, steam rises to each radiator and the condensed water drains back down the same pipe. Two-pipe systems use a separate return line and a steam trap at each radiator.

Steam has to push air out of the pipes before it can fill them. When the vents at the ends of the steam mains and the tops of the risers are missing or clogged, apartments near the boiler heat first and overheat while those at the far end of the run, often the top floors, wait. Many boilers are oversized, and many controls fire on an outdoor sensor regardless of how warm the apartments already are (NYC Accelerator; Department of Buildings). Raising the heat-timer setting or the steam pressure to rescue one cold apartment overheats everyone else and burns fuel (U.S. Department of Energy).

Indoor-sensor controls let the boiler respond to apartment temperatures, and Con Edison's 2026 multifamily program lists incentives for them at market-rate buildings: $1,500 for 10 to 19 apartments, $3,000 for 20 to 40, and $6,000 for 41 to 99 (amounts can change). One caution, which is our reading rather than a published rule: a control that stops once the median sampled apartment is warm can still leave the coldest one under 68°F, and the inspector measures whichever apartment they walk into. Put sensors in the units that run cold, and balance the system first.

Steam buildings also have a new paperwork obligation. Local Law 151 of 2025, in effect since May 7, 2026, requires a steam-radiator inspection at least every two years in each apartment where a child under 6 lives, and in the common areas of those buildings. Defects must be fixed within 14 days; a hazardous radiator comes out of service within 24 hours and is repaired within seven days. Each year starting in 2027, between January 1 and 16, owners must ask tenants whether a child under 6 lives there (the annual lead-paint notice can carry the question) and report non-responding apartments to HPD by March 1. An inspector who finds an uncontrolled steam leak or severe corrosion must shut the boiler down, so schedule these inspections outside the coldest weeks.

The Owner's Heat Season Calendar

Heat compliance runs on several agencies' calendars at once (HPD, the Department of Buildings, the Health Department and the utilities), and they don't line up with each other, or with a facade cycle under Local Law 11.

The NYC Boiler Inspection: 14 Days, Not 45

Buildings with six or more families need an annual boiler inspection by a qualified inspector and a report filed with the Department of Buildings; buildings with five or fewer families are exempt. The cycle runs January 1 to December 31, and the report is due within 14 days of the inspection. Two DOB web pages and many vendor guides still say 45 days, but DOB's rule (1 RCNY §103-01, amended in October 2024) says 14. Defects must be corrected within 90 days. Late reports are accepted until January 14 of the following year at $50 a month per boiler, up to $600; after that the report expires and the penalty for failing to file is $1,000 per boiler. The filing fee is $30. This is separate from the Health Code's May-to-October heating-plant inspection, and a boiler violation runs on the Department of Buildings' track, not HPD's; our guide to DOB violations explains how that works.

Running out of fuel is an avoidable way to get a no-heat violation, and an expensive one. New York residential heating oil averaged $6.42 a gallon before taxes in the week of October 19, 2026 (U.S. Energy Information Administration), while stabilized renewals are frozen at 0% for leases starting October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 (see our guide to rent-stabilized apartments). A building that runs dry in a cold snap pays for the emergency delivery and the violation. No. 2 oil delivered in the city must contain at least 10% biodiesel (Local Law 119 of 2016), and 2026–27 is the last heat season a boiler can burn No. 4 oil (Local Law 32 of 2023).

Before October 1, the checklist from HPD, the city's efficiency programs and equipment manufacturers comes down to:

• Burner tuned and boiler cleaned, with the boiler water skimmed and flushed where needed
• Low-water cutoff blown down weekly during the season and inspected annually, and never bypassed
• Main and radiator air vents checked and replaced; steam traps tested in two-pipe systems
• Makeup-water meter logged, so a leak shows up as a number
• Heat timer and sensors verified
• Fuel contract in place, and the burner confirmed compatible with B10 oil
• Window drafts sealed, and tenants encouraged to remove or cover window air conditioners
• Registration current, and tenants given the right number to call

On the buildings we manage, the boiler is serviced and heat tested before October 1. We monitor fuel so an oil building doesn't run dry mid-season.

Where Professional Management Fits

None of this is exotic: one temperature standard, enforced apartment by apartment, a penalty clock that starts the moment a notice goes up, and a calendar spread across several agencies. What makes it hard is that it never stops between October and May, and the cost of a slow night lands on the owner.

That's the work we do on the buildings we manage. Every request goes through one maintenance portal that tenants, the owner, the manager and the super all use, with a time-stamped history. We respond to every request within 24 hours and complete work within 48 to 72 hours, faster for emergencies; we certify HPD violation corrections; and the boiler and fuel work above is part of the job. If you'd rather have that running on your building than build it yourself, that's what our property management service does.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

The NYC heat law fits on an index card: 68°F by day when it's under 55°F outside, 62°F every night, 120°F hot water, October 1 through May 31. The hard part is the system behind it: no grace period, an inspection for every apartment that files a non-anonymous complaint starting with the 2026–27 season, higher penalties for repeats, and paperwork on several agencies' calendars. Owners who answer HPD's call, keep the boiler and the fuel ahead of the season, and keep a dated record of every repair give each complaint the best chance of closing without a violation. If you're not sure your building is set up that way, start with your HPD registration and your open violations on HPD Online.