The Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP), explained

The Alternative Enforcement Program is what happens when ordinary enforcement fails. HPD writes violations building by building and condition by condition; AEP treats the whole building as the problem. Once a year, the agency names a list of the most distressed multiple dwellings in the city and puts them into a program they cannot leave until the building, not just the individual violations, is fixed.

How buildings are selected

On or about January 31 each year, HPD designates that year's participants. Selection is arithmetic, not discretion: the core criterion is the concentration of open Class B and Class C violations issued in the preceding five years, on the order of five or more per dwelling unit in the aggregate, combined with the dollar value of Emergency Repair Program charges the building has generated. The program covers buildings with three or more units, with thresholds set separately for smaller and larger buildings. An owner does not apply, cannot decline, and finds out by notice.

That selection math is why the counts on this site matter. Open hazardous violations per unit is the statistic AEP runs on, and every building page here shows the numerator and its age.

The four-month exit

The notice starts a clock. An owner who, within four months, corrects all qualifying conditions, pays every outstanding fee and charge (or enters a payment agreement with the Department of Finance), and holds a current property registration is discharged before the heavy machinery starts. This window is the cheapest moment in the program's entire timeline, and the buildings that stay enrolled are the ones whose owners let it pass.

What enrollment means

Past the four months, HPD performs a building-wide inspection and issues an order to correct the underlying conditions, not just the cited symptoms: roofs, boilers, plumbing risers, whatever is generating the violations. If the owner does not do the work, HPD does, through its own contractors, and bills the owner with program fees on top. Charges that go unpaid follow the same path as any HPD charge: the Department of Finance bills them, and past-due balances become tax liens against the property that bear interest and can be sold or foreclosed.

Discharge requires meeting the program's criteria, which include correcting the qualifying conditions and settling the charges. Until then the building stays on the public AEP roster, which lenders, buyers, and title searches read.

Reading it in the record

The city publishes the AEP selection list as open data, and the fingerprints show up throughout a building's record here: a dense band of open Class B and Class C violations, Emergency Repair Program charges, and then a wave of corrections in a short span when the program forces the issue. For tenants, an AEP building is the strongest documented signal available that ordinary complaints were not working; for buyers, it is a building the city itself has classified as among its worst. This guide is general information about public records, not legal advice.