Violations & compliance
Violations and compliance.
HPD, DOB, OATH, FDNY, DEP and DOHMH violations corrected, certified and dismissed. Stop Work Orders and vacate orders lifted. Recurring Local Law filings kept on a calendar. Available for buildings we do not manage.
How it works
Audit. Correct. Certify. Dismiss.
Audit
Every open HPD, DOB, OATH/ECB, FDNY, DEP and DHCR record pulled, cross-referenced and ranked by penalty exposure and deadline. You get one list, in order, with dates.
Plan & price
What needs a licensed trade, what needs a permit, what needs a hearing, what can simply be certified. Fixed fees per item. Your contractor or ours.
Correct
Work done, photographed and documented the way the agency wants to see it. Permits pulled where required. Lead and asbestos handled by the right licence.
Certify & file
HPD certifications, DOB Certificates of Correction, FDNY and DEP filings submitted inside the window, with affidavits and evidence attached.
Hearings
OATH appearances on your behalf, mitigation and dismissal requests, settlement where cheaper, Pay-and-Dismiss where faster. Never a default.
Keep it clear
Recurring filings calendared with reminders; quarterly record pull to catch anything new before the penalty attaches.
Agencies
Six agencies, one list.
Housing Preservation & Development
HPD
Housing Maintenance Code violations (Class A, B, C and I), lead-paint orders, heat and hot water, AEP and Underlying Conditions programs, property registration, bedbug filings, emergency repair liens.
Department of Buildings
DOB
Work-without-permit, illegal occupancy, façade (FISP / Local Law 11), boilers, elevators, gas piping (Local Law 152), Stop Work Orders, vacate orders, Certificates of Correction and the DOB NOW filings that close them.
Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings
OATH / ECB
The summonses that carry the penalties. Hearings, defaults, cure periods, mitigation, Certificates of Correction and settlements. Missing a hearing turns a $1,250 summons into a default judgment.
Fire Department
FDNY
Sprinkler and standpipe inspections, fire alarm, fire-extinguisher, rubbish and egress violations, Certificates of Fitness and the FDNY summons track at OATH.
Environmental, sanitation and health
DEP · DSNY · DOHMH
Backflow-prevention filings, noise and asbestos (DEP); sidewalk, recycling and set-out summonses (DSNY); pests, mold and lead orders (DOHMH).
Homes & Community Renewal
DHCR
Rent-stabilization registrations, overcharge complaints, reduced-service orders and MCI / IAI applications that go wrong when filings are missed.
Every agency that can write your building up
We correct, certify and dismiss with all of them.
- NYC Housing Preservation & Development
- NYC Department of Buildings
- NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings
- Fire Department of the City of New York
- NYC Department of Environmental Protection
- NYC Department of Sanitation
- NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- New York State Homes and Community Renewal
Agency names and marks belong to their agencies and are shown to describe the work we do; none endorses Bulwark.
The calendar
The filings that come back every year.
Most penalties in New York are not for a broken thing, they are for a missed date. These are the dates.
| Law / filing | What | When |
|---|---|---|
| Local Law 11 / FISP | Façade inspection every 5 years for buildings over 6 stories | Cycle 10 sub-cycles run 2025–2029 by block number |
| Local Law 97 | Carbon emission limits for buildings over 25,000 sq ft | First reports were due May 2025; penalties by the ton |
| Local Law 152 | Periodic gas-piping inspection by a licensed master plumber | By community district on a 4-year cycle |
| Local Law 84 / 87 | Energy benchmarking (annual) and energy audit (every 10 years) | Buildings over 25,000 sq ft |
| Local Law 55 | Indoor allergen hazards: pests, mold, annual notice and inspection | All multiple dwellings |
| Local Law 1 / 31 | Lead-paint: annual notices, turnover work, XRF testing of every pre-1960 unit | XRF deadline passed Aug 2025, late buildings face HPD orders |
| Local Law 157 | Natural-gas detectors in every unit with gas | Required since May 2025 |
| Local Law 126 | Periodic parking-garage structural inspections | By community district, 6-year cycle |
| HPD registration | Annual multiple-dwelling registration | Due every September 1; lapses block court and raise fines |
| Boilers & elevators | Annual inspections and filings with DOB | Late filings carry automatic penalties |
| Bedbug filing | Annual electronic report to HPD | Due December 1 – 31 |
| Backflow | Annual DEP device test | Where a device is installed |
Emergencies
Stop Work Orders, vacate orders, AEP.
Need a permit, CO or licence instead? That is our separate expediting service.
Some violations stop a building, not just a wallet. A Stop Work Order freezes a renovation and the rent behind it; a vacate order empties units until the condition is lifted; an AEP designation hands HPD your repair budget. These get same-day attention: on site, agency contact made, a rescission plan filed within days.
- Stop Work Order rescission requests
- Vacate order lifts with HPD / DOB coordination
- AEP exit plans and underlying-conditions work
- Emergency repair lien resolution
- Lead-based paint orders and clearance testing
Yes. Violation clearance is a stand-alone service. Send the address, we pull every open record for free, and you get a written plan with fixed pricing per violation or per building.
A fixed fee per violation or per building, quoted after the free review, plus the actual cost of any repair work (which you can have your own contractor do). Filing fees and penalties are passed through at cost with the receipt.
HPD certifications post within days of filing if the correction is documented properly. DOB violations tied to an OATH summons clear once the Certificate of Correction is accepted and the penalty is resolved, usually a few weeks. Items needing permits or a hearing take longer; you get a date for every one.
The Alternative Enforcement Program: each year HPD picks the roughly 250 worst buildings by open Class B and C violations and takes over the correction work at the owner’s expense, with fees and liens. The way out is clearing the violations and underlying conditions quickly; the way to avoid it is never accumulating them.
Not usually. We can appear on your behalf with the correction evidence, request mitigation or dismissal, and settle where that is the cheaper route. Defaulting is the one thing never to do: it adds the maximum penalty and removes the right to cure.
Start with the free report.
Enter the address and we e-mail you every open HPD, DOB and OATH record. Then ask us for a clearance plan with fixed pricing.