Heating Complaints in New York

With the approach of winter do you have a heat complaint in NYC? Is your heat in your apartment or rental not working properly? My husband and I just last year had a problem with this and thought I would share our experience and what we did to fix it with you.

One evening we came home after work to a very cold apartment. We had radiant heaters in our apartment and we checked all the heaters. We turned the heaters up as high as we could but still no heat would come out of them. There was no hot water either which makes sense. We decided we needed to get hold our our landlord. It was late at night and we had a hard time getting hold of him. Lucky for us we had a small electric space heater that we could plug in and get heat in one room at a time.  Long story short we had to eventually get a mediator to help us get the heat back on in our apartment. Mind you we were current on our rent and had not done anything that would cause our landlord to turn off the heat.

When our mediator started to work with the landlord, we found out that the broiler unit had gone out and all the tenants in the building were without heat and hot water. The landlord did contact the proper people and the broiler was fixed in our building and our hot water heat was back on. Our heat complaint was resolved. The Rental Protection Agency can help you if your landlord is not helping to resolve an issue like this.

We were lucky that our heat complaint did not last more than a few days because it was getting really cold outside.  There are times that the landlords just don’t do anything and then you are left literally in the cold. There is a warranty of habitability that applies to all places which states that you are entitled to a safe, clean and liveable environment and when you have a heat complaint because you don’t have heat in your apartment or rental or even running hot water, then this code is being violated and you as a renter have a right to get this fixed immediately.


In NYC your landlord is required to provide you with heat and hot water.  They must provide you with hot water 365 days per year with the constant minimum temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. They are required to provide you with heat between October 1st and May 31st under the following conditions:

If the outside temperature between the hours of 6:00 Am and 10 PM falls below 55 degrees, the inside temperature must be at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit

If the outside temperatures are below 40 degrees between the hours of 10 PM and 6  AM, the inside temperature must be at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

So as you can see, you have rights and if your tenant rights are being violated and you are cold or are going without hot water remember these are some of your options to get it resolved.

• Contact Landlord to fix your heat complaint first.  If this doesn’t resolve the issue, then
• Contact Customer Service Center at 311 to file a complaint and/or
• Contact the Rental Protection Agency to file a complaint.