NYC Heat Regulations for Apartment Buildings

If you have ever been to England or Scotland, you know that people there are used to chilly rooms ( it took a long time for central heating to make it there, and Brits, like most Europeans, prefer life at"room temperature"-- such as in "wine served at room temperature," which is a lot lower than what the average American finds comfortable. 

What is at the base of this is that only America for a very long time was rich enough to heat rooms adequately and had the energy resources to do that...

Just as Americans were the first to embrace air conditioning ( which is not needed in places like Europe very often...though many Brits now own an a/c unit for their occasional heat wave--oh yes, to them temperatures in the high 70's seem terribly warm...)

Anyway, back to NYC and its laws which establish minimum heat requirements for rental apartments...if you think about it, these rules are REALLY minmalistic. For instance, at night the temperature has to fall below 40 degrees-- which only flies because so many fat New Yorkers cannot sleep unless it is pretty cool) ( it never occurs to the "overheated" obese people to simply open the window a crack)

Daily Heat Complaints
October 1st through May 31st is "Heat Season" in New York City. Building owners are also required to provide tenants with heat as follows:

• Between the hours of 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM, if the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees, the inside temperature is required to be at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit; and,
• Between the hours of 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM, if the temperature outside falls below 40 degrees, the inside temperature is required to be at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

The statistics below offer a snapshot of the numbers of complaints received in the previous 24 hours, as compaired with that time period in the previous year. You can also compare year-to-year totals to date and find out which day had the highest numbers of complaints.

For more information on Heat Season requirements, please click here.

To register a complaint about lack of heat or adequate hot water, or any other housing emergency to which your landlord has not responded, please call 3-1-1, the City's 24-hour assistance number or vistit 311.
 

HPD Heat Complaint Statistics as of Yesterday, October 30, 2014 # of Heat Complaints Yesterday 953 Min. Temp. (F) Yesterday 48 # of Heat Complaints YTD Current Heat Season 15413 # of Heat Complaints YTD Previous Heat Season 14548

Day with Highest Complaint Volume Current Heat Season

Date # of Heat Complaints Monday, October 20, 2014 1966

Heat season is from October 1 – May 31.