DOB vs HPD violations, explained

New York City splits building enforcement mainly between two agencies, and their records behave differently enough that mixing them up leads to wrong conclusions. HPD polices the conditions inside occupied homes. DOB polices the building as a structure and everything built, altered, or operated in it.

What HPD handles

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development enforces the Housing Maintenance Code in residential buildings. Its territory is habitability: heat, hot water, leaks, mold, peeling paint, pests, broken locks, missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and similar conditions inside apartments and common areas. HPD violations carry a class — A, B, or C by severity — and are typically triggered by tenant complaints to 311, which HPD follows up with an inspection.

An HPD violation is closed when the owner certifies the correction, a self-reported sworn statement. HPD violations do not carry a fine by default; penalties come later, if HPD sues the owner in Housing Court over uncorrected conditions or performs emergency repairs and bills for them.

What DOB handles

The Department of Buildings enforces the Building Code and zoning rules. Its territory is the structure and its systems: construction with or without permits, structural stability, elevators, boilers, facades, illegal conversions, and unsafe work sites. When a DOB inspector finds a problem, two things can happen, often together. The agency records a DOB violation against the property, and it can issue a summons that sends the owner to a hearing at OATH, the city's administrative court, where real dollar penalties attach.

DOB also has its heaviest tool: stop work orders, which halt construction on a site, and vacate orders where occupancy itself is unsafe.

Why the records read differently

The same building can look clean in one system and terrible in the other. A structurally sound building with a neglectful landlord accumulates HPD violations and no DOB record. A building mid-renovation with an aggressive contractor can rack up DOB violations and OATH penalties while its apartments show nothing in HPD's file.

Closing also works differently. HPD violations close on certification. DOB violations generally require the owner to file a certificate of correction with documentation before the violation is resolved, and any related OATH summons has its own life: a hearing, a decision, and a penalty that may remain unpaid long after the physical condition is fixed. That is why a building page can show closed conditions but open fines.

Where your complaint goes

When you call 311, the routing follows the split above. No heat, no hot water, mold, pests, or a broken front door lock go to HPD. Construction noise at illegal hours, work that looks unpermitted, cracks in the building, a shaking floor, or a suspicious conversion of a basement into apartments go to DOB. FDNY handles fire protection systems and egress; DOHMH handles some pest and health conditions; DSNY handles sanitation.

On this site, every record shows the agency that produced it, so you can tell at a glance whether a building's problems live in its apartments, in its structure, or in both.