How to read an HPD violation notice

An HPD Notice of Violation is a dense document, but every field on it controls something: what must be fixed, by when, and what happens next. Here is how to read one, whether it arrived in your mail as an owner or you found it on a building's public record as a tenant.

The fields that matter

• Violation ID: the unique number for this violation. It is the key to everything: status lookups, certification, and the public record all run on it.
• Class: A, B, or C. This sets the correction window (90 days, 30 days, or 24 hours for most Class C conditions) and how seriously to take the condition.
• The cited law: the notice opens its description with the section of the Housing Maintenance Code or Multiple Dwelling Law the condition violates, written like "§ 27-2005 ADM CODE". This site has a page for every cited section showing how often it is enforced and how long repairs actually take.
• Order number: HPD's internal code for the standard order written, one number per kind of condition. Two violations with the same order number describe the same kind of problem in the same words.
• The description: what the inspector found and the ordered correction, with the apartment or location. Read it precisely; the certification must address exactly this condition at exactly this location.
• Inspection date and certify-by date: when the condition was observed and the deadline for the owner to certify the correction to HPD.

If you are the owner

The certify-by date is the operative deadline. Fix the condition, then certify correction with HPD by that date, electronically through eCertification or on the paper form the notice references. Three traps recur. First, certification requires a current property registration; a lapsed registration silently blocks it. Second, certifying without doing the work is a separate offense, and HPD re-inspects a sample of certifications and records the ones it rejects. Third, a missed deadline does not close the matter; the violation stays open, penalties can accrue, and for Class C conditions HPD can make the repair itself and bill you.

If you are the tenant

The notice is confirmation that an inspector saw the condition and the clock is running. Keep your own record: the violation ID, photos of the condition, and dates. If the certify-by date passes and nothing has been fixed, that fact is visible in the public record as an overdue open violation, and it strengthens both a fresh 311 complaint and an HP action in Housing Court if it comes to that. If the violation shows as closed but the condition is back or never left, the closure was a self-certification; say so in your next complaint, because false certification is itself punishable.

The same record, publicly

Everything on the notice appears in the city's open data within days, which is what this site indexes hourly. Searching the violation ID or the address brings up the building's full history, and the section page for the cited law shows how that section is enforced citywide. This guide is general information, not legal advice.