NYC DOB Violation Codes: Classes, Penalties, and Correction

NYC DOB violation codes are organized by severity class under §28-201.2 of the Administrative Code, and the class printed on your notice, Class 1, 2, or 3, determines your deadline to correct, your dollar exposure, and whether you can clear the violation without ever appearing in court.¹ A Class 1 violation can carry up to $25,000 plus $1,000 per day until the condition is fixed, and skipping your OATH hearing multiplies the standard fine by five.²

What the Class on Your Notice Means

Every violation falls into one of three classes.

Class 1 is immediately hazardous. The condition severely threatens life, health, safety, or property, and correction cannot wait. If the danger is imminent, the commissioner can issue a vacate order on the spot, verbally, with a written version to follow.³

Class 2 is major. The condition affects life, health, safety, or property but does not require immediate action. Many Class 2 violations are cure-eligible: fix the problem and file a certificate of correction before the hearing date, and no penalty is imposed.²

Class 3 is lesser. The condition has a limited effect on safety or public interest. No civil penalty is imposed if you correct and certify within the time the commissioner sets. The violation still sits on the building’s record until a certificate of correction is approved, and title companies will flag it during a sale or refinance.

The specific code section on your notice, cross-referenced against the DOB’s penalty schedule in 1 RCNY §102-01, tells you the standard penalty amount, whether the violation is cure-eligible, and whether a stipulation is available.⁴ That schedule is the document to pull up when you want to know what a specific code actually costs.

Penalty Ranges by Class

Civil penalty ranges under §28-202.1 are wide. The specific code section, the severity of the condition, and your citation history determine where you land.

Class 1: $1,000 to $25,000 per violation, plus up to $1,000 per day until corrected.
Class 2: Up to $10,000 per violation, plus up to $250 per month the violation remains open.
Class 3: Up to $500 per violation, with no daily or monthly accrual.

Within each class, the schedule assigns a standard penalty, an aggravated penalty for repeat or worsening conditions, and a default penalty. Default is what you pay for ignoring the OATH summons entirely. For most violations the default is five times the standard. Working without a permit, for example, carries a standard Class 1 penalty of $2,500; miss the hearing and that becomes $12,500.⁴

Class 1 daily penalties are where owners get hurt. They accrue at $1,000 per day from the date of the commissioner’s order to correct. A few weeks of inaction on an unknown open violation can push a $2,500 problem into five figures.

Common Code Categories

Boilers

Every building with a boiler must file annual inspection reports for low-pressure and high-pressure systems. A late filing costs $50 per month per boiler, up to $600. Miss the filing window entirely and the penalty becomes $1,000 per boiler for failure to file. Fail to submit an affirmation of correction for defects found during the inspection, and the DOB stacks a separate $1,000 penalty plus another $50-per-month late fee.⁵

Elevators

Most elevator violations come from missed or late inspection filings. Category 1 is an annual no-load safety test; Category 5 is a full-load test required every five years. Both reports have a 21-day filing window after the inspection. If a report is not filed by the 21st day of the month following the deadline, DOB will not accept it, and a failure-to-file violation is issued.⁶ Expired operating certificates and failed safety tests can restrict elevator use until the building returns to compliance.

Facades

Buildings taller than six stories require exterior wall inspections every five years under the Façade Inspection and Safety Program, still widely called Local Law 11.⁷ A qualified exterior wall inspector files a report classifying the building as safe, safe with a repair and maintenance program, or unsafe. An unsafe finding triggers mandatory sidewalk sheds or other pedestrian protection until repairs are done. Failing to file or to make repairs in the required timeframe generates violations that carry both penalties and ongoing public-safety obligations.

Work Without a Permit

Construction work performed without a required DOB permit is among the most expensive violations an owner can draw. For a one- or two-family home, the fine is 14 times the permit fee that should have been paid, with a $2,500 minimum and $10,000 maximum. For any other building, it rises to 21 times the permit fee, with a $6,000 minimum and $15,000 maximum.⁸ If part of the work was done before the permit was obtained, the penalty is reduced proportionally based on how much remained.

These violations frequently trigger stop work orders. Violating one carries its own civil penalty: $6,000 for the first offense and $12,000 for each subsequent violation, payable before the order is lifted.⁹

Your Options When the Summons Arrives

Every DOB violation comes with a summons to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), the city tribunal that handles building code enforcement. You have five responses, and the right one depends on whether you can fix the condition before the hearing date.

Cure the violation. If the summons shows a date in the Cure Date box, correct the condition and submit a certificate of correction before that date. An approved cure means no hearing and no penalty.²
Admit and pay. Submit the standard penalty to OATH before or on the hearing date and skip the hearing.
Accept a stipulation. For eligible violations, OATH mails a stipulation offer: admit the violation in exchange for 75 days to correct and roughly half the standard penalty.
Contest at a hearing. Appear before an OATH administrative law judge, bring evidence and witnesses, and argue the case. Win and the violation is dismissed. Lose and you retain the right to appeal in writing.
Do nothing. You are found in default and charged five times the standard penalty.²

Showing up almost always pays. For many violations, an OATH judge who sees that the condition is already corrected can impose a mitigated penalty at roughly half the standard rate. The gap between mitigated and default can be tenfold.

How Long You Have to Correct

Correction windows run from the class. Immediately hazardous conditions must be corrected right away. Major and lesser violations carry a 30-day window from the date of the commissioner’s order, and the commissioner can grant 30-day extensions for good cause.

For Class 3 violations, correcting and certifying within the allotted time means no civil penalty at all, though the record still shows the violation until the certificate of correction is approved. Not every Class 2 violation is cure-eligible; the penalty schedule in 1 RCNY §102-01 marks which ones are. If yours is not, a stipulation offering 75 days at a reduced penalty is usually the next-best path.⁴

Looking Up a Violation on Your Building

Two city systems hold DOB enforcement records, and you often need both.

The Building Information System (BIS) at a810-bisweb.nyc.gov is the legacy database with permits, job applications, complaints, inspections, and violations predating DOB NOW.¹⁰ Search by address and you get the cited code section, the class, and a description of the condition. BIS is the standard tool for title searches and real estate due diligence because it holds decades of history.

DOB NOW handles newer activity. Its inspections module tracks scheduled and completed inspections, inspector notes, and the real-time status of enforcement actions.¹¹ A building can have open items in BIS that do not appear in DOB NOW, and the reverse is true for newer filings. If you are buying or refinancing, check both.

Filing the Certificate of Correction

Clearing a violation from the building’s record requires a certificate of correction (COC) proving the problem is fixed. The old paper forms are gone: AEU2, AEU20, and AEU3321 are no longer accepted. Information is entered directly into the COC request through the DOB NOW portal.¹²

The online submission asks for the violation number, a description of the corrective work, and references to relevant permits or job applications. You upload supporting documents: high-resolution photographs of the corrected condition, permits obtained for the remedial work, and paid receipts from licensed contractors. The more specific the documentation, the less likely the city rejects the filing.

For general questions about a certificate of correction or an OATH summons, the Administrative Enforcement Unit can be reached at (212) 393-2405 or through the DOB help form at nyc.gov/dobhelp.¹³ The old AEU customer service email has been decommissioned.

When the DOB Issues a Vacate Order

The most serious enforcement tool is the vacate order. When a condition is imminently dangerous to life, safety, or property, the commissioner can order a building evacuated. An inspector can deliver the order verbally during an inspection, with a written version to follow specifying the deadline to certify correction of the triggering violations.³

A vacate order is rescinded only after the dangerous condition is corrected and the building is deemed safe for occupancy. Until then, no one is allowed inside. For a residential building that means displaced tenants; for commercial property it means lost revenue on top of repair costs. Vacate orders are relatively rare, but they are the reason Class 1 violations demand immediate attention. Once DOB escalates to a vacate, the window for negotiation has closed.

1
American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 28-201.2
2
NYC Buildings. OATH Hearings and Penalties
3
American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 28-207.4 Vacate Order
4
New York City Department of Buildings. 1 RCNY 102-01 Violation Classification and Certification of Correction
5
NYC Department of Buildings. Boiler Compliance
6
NYC Buildings. Elevator Compliance
7
NYC Buildings. Facade and Local Law
8
American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 28-213.1
9
NYC Buildings. Civil Penalties Increased for Violation of a Stop Work Order
10
NYC Buildings. Find Building Data
11
NYC Department of Buildings. DOB NOW Inspections
12
NYC Buildings. Certificate of Correction
13
New York City Department of Buildings. Contact Us