NYC Housing Maintenance Code § 27-2005 · cited Mar 5, 1963 – Aug 6, 2026
4,966,705 NYC housing violations have been issued under NYC Housing Maintenance Code § 27-2005, which is 44.6% of every HPD violation attributed to a section. 1,159,963 are still open, 1,124,616 of them past the legal deadline on the notice.
The median legal deadline on a § 27-2005 notice is 35 days. The median violation that got fixed took 363 days to reach “violation closed”, measured across 2,608,113 closed violations.
The owner of a multiple dwelling has to keep the building, and every part of it, in good repair, and is responsible for complying with the Housing Maintenance Code except where the code puts the duty on the tenant instead. It is the catch-all repair obligation, which is why inspectors cite it for everything from a broken floor to a defective ceiling.
Do the repair the notice describes, then certify the correction to HPD before the deadline on the notice. Certifying without doing the work is itself an offence, and HPD re-inspects a sample.
The same section also carries the owner's duty not to harass tenants, and the duty to give notice before interrupting heat, hot water, gas or electricity for two hours or more.
The most common orders written under this section, in HPD’s own wording.
| BROOKLYN | 474,030 | |
|---|---|---|
| BRONX | 260,709 | |
| MANHATTAN | 206,294 | |
| QUEENS | 187,733 | |
| STATEN ISLAND | 31,197 |
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§ 27-2005 Duties of owner.
a. The owner of a multiple dwelling shall keep the premises in good repair.
b. The owner of a multiple dwelling, in addition to the duty imposed upon such owner by subdivision a of this section, shall be responsible for compliance with the requirements of this code, except insofar as responsibility for compliance is imposed upon the tenant alone.
c. The owner of a one- or two-family dwelling shall keep the premises in good repair, and shall be responsible for compliance with the provisions of this code, except to the extent otherwise agreed between such owner and any tenant of such dwelling by lease or other contract in writing, or except insofar as responsibility for compliance with this code is imposed upon the tenant alone.
d. The owner of a dwelling shall not harass any tenants or persons lawfully entitled to occupancy of such dwelling as set forth in paragraph 48 of subdivision a of section 27-2004 of this chapter.
e. 1. The owner of a multiple dwelling shall provide lawful occupants of such multiple dwelling with notice prior to making repairs, or performing other work, that will cause an interruption of any heat, hot water, cold water, gas or electricity service expected to last for two or more hours. The department shall by rule prescribe the form, timing and placement of the notice, provided that the notice shall be publicly posted in a prominent place within the multiple dwelling at least twenty-four hours before the interruption of such service is expected to commence and shall remain posted until such interruption ends. Where the owner expects that an interruption of any heat, hot water, cold water, gas or electricity service will last for less than two hours or where such interruption is due to emergency repairs or work, as defined by department rule, advance notice need not be posted, provided that where such interruption lasts for two or more hours, notice shall be posted as soon as practicable after the commencement of such interruption. Such notice shall identify the service to be interrupted, the type of work to be performed, the expected start and end dates of the service interruption. The notice shall be updated as needed. Such notice shall be posted in English, Spanish and such other languages as the department may provide by rule. 2. Repairs made pursuant to section 27-2125 of this code shall be exempt from the provisions of this subdivision.
f. The owner of a dwelling shall deliver or cause to be delivered to each tenant and prospective tenant of such dwelling, along with the lease or lease renewal form for such tenant or prospective tenant, and shall post and maintain in a common area of the building containing such dwelling, a notice, in a form developed or approved by the department, regarding the procedures that should be followed when a gas leak is suspected. Such notice may be combined with any existing required notices and shall instruct tenants to first call 911 and then call the relevant gas service provider, whose name and emergency phone number shall be set forth on such notice, before contacting such owner or an agent thereof when a gas leak is suspected.
g. The owner of a multiple dwelling shall obtain for each dwelling unit, where available, the previous four years of rent amounts from the New York state division of housing and community renewal, and provide such rent amounts to the current tenant of such dwelling unit.
h. The owner of a multiple dwelling shall keep all unoccupied dwelling units in such multiple dwelling in good repair. (Am. L.L. 2015/047, 6/2/2015, eff. 9/30/2015; Am. L.L. 2016/153, 12/6/2016, eff. 6/4/2017; Am. L.L. 2019/113, 6/8/2019, eff. 10/6/2019; Am. L.L. 2024/001, 1/6/2024, eff. 8/3/2024)
Current through Local Law 2026/116, enacted July 11, 2026 · enacted municipal law, in the public domain · official publication
NYC Housing Maintenance Code § 27-2005, "Duties of owner: keep the building in good repair", is cited on a violation when an HPD inspector finds the condition it covers. The owner of a multiple dwelling has to keep the building, and every part of it, in good repair, and is responsible for complying with the Housing Maintenance Code except where the code puts the duty on the tenant instead. It is the catch-all repair obligation, which is why inspectors cite it for everything from a broken floor to a defective ceiling.
Each notice carries its own deadline set by the violation's hazard class. Across 4,966,705 § 27-2005 notices, the median legal deadline was 35 days from the notice date.
Measured across 2,608,113 § 27-2005 violations that reached "violation closed", the median took 363 days from the notice date, against a median legal deadline of 35 days.
299,437 of 4,966,705 § 27-2005 notices (6.0%) are marked rent-impairing by HPD. When a rent-impairing violation goes unrepaired, New York's Multiple Dwelling Law § 302-a can let tenants deposit rent with the court instead of paying the owner. The specifics depend on the case.
1,159,963 § 27-2005 violations are open as of Aug 7, 2026, and 1,124,616 of them are already past the legal deadline on the notice.
Counted from HPD’s Housing Maintenance Code Violations dataset. Each notice is attributed to a section by HPD’s own order number where one is on record, otherwise by the section its notice text cites. 11,131,117 of the city’s 11,136,167 HPD notices are attributed that way; the share above is a share of those. Figures recomputed Aug 7, 2026.
Browse open § 27-2005 records in the live feed · All violation codes
In the glossary: Housing Maintenance Code · order number · Class C violation · rent-impairing · all terms