HPD violation classes A, B and C, and how to clear each one

Published October 6, 2026 · 7 min read · By Bulwark

Every HPD violation on your building has a class, and the class tells you three things: how fast you must fix it, how much it can cost you, and how much trouble it can cause beyond the fine. Here is what each means and how clearance actually works.

The three classes

• Class A, non-hazardous. A missing apartment number, a small area of peeling paint in a hallway, a broken light fixture. Correction window: 90 days. Fines are small but they accumulate, and unresolved A violations keep a building from ever reading “clean”.
• Class B, hazardous. Leaks, defective flooring, broken windows, mice, a missing smoke detector, inadequate lighting in a public hall. Correction window: 30 days. Civil penalties of $25–$100 per day in some categories if not corrected and certified.
• Class C, immediately hazardous. No heat or hot water, lead-paint hazards, no gas, a vermin infestation, a defective fire escape, illegal apartments. Correction window: 24 hours for heat/hot water, 21 days for lead and most others. Penalties run $50–$150 per day for most C violations and up to $250–$500 per day for heat and hot water, with a minimum of $500 per violation, and HPD can do the work itself through its Emergency Repair Program and bill you with a lien.
• Class I, information orders. Not a violation to fix but an order to act: register the building, correct an illegal occupancy, a vacate order. Ignoring these is where buildings go badly wrong.

Rent-impairing violations

A subset of Class B and C violations are designated rent-impairing. If one stays open more than six months after notice, a tenant can legally withhold rent for the period it remained open. HPD Online lists rent-impairing status on each violation; we treat them as the first thing to clear on any building.

How clearance works: correct, then certify

Fixing the condition is half the job. HPD does not send an inspector back to check; you must certify the correction in writing, under penalty of perjury, within the correction window, plus a few days for mailing. Certification is filed through HPD’s eCertification portal (or by paper form) and needs the date the work was completed and who did it. Certify late and the violation stays open; certify falsely and the penalty multiplies.

Missed the window? You can still correct and certify, and you should: HPD will usually accept a late certification but may keep the civil penalty. For lead-paint (Local Law 1) violations the certification requires a clearance test by an EPA-certified firm, not just a painter’s word.

Dismissal requests and reinspection

When a violation was issued in error, duplicates another, or was corrected before the notice arrived, you can request a Dismissal Request inspection. HPD sends an inspector; if the condition is not found, the violation is dismissed. There is a fee per dismissal request and a limit on how many violations each request covers. Dismissal requests are also how you close old violations whose certification window passed years ago.

What a big open count does to a building

• Every open Class B or C counts toward HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP) selection each January, the roughly 250 worst buildings in the city, where HPD takes over repairs at your expense and imposes fees.
• Lenders, buyers and insurers pull HPD Online before they commit. Open C violations show up in every due-diligence report.
• Open violations are evidence in Housing Court. An HP action (a tenant suing for repairs) moves faster and ends worse when the record is long.
• A lapsed HPD registration, which is a Class I order, blocks you from starting an eviction at all.

Our approach

We pull every open violation on the building, sort by class and deadline, and clear Class C and rent-impairing items first. Licensed trades do the work; we photograph before and after, file the certifications inside the window, request dismissals for anything stale, and pull the record again a month later to confirm it closed. Run the free violation check to see what is open on your building now, or read about the service.