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It’s already October?! What every renter needs to know about heat season.
By
David Brand
Published Oct 1, 2023
Modified Oct 1, 2024
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Photo by Mike Tauber/Getty images
By
David Brand
Published Oct 1, 2023
Modified Oct 1, 2024
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It’s officially October. For millions of New Yorkers, that means it’s heat season — an eight-month span where the city requires landlords to keep their apartments warm.
Heat season officially begins on Tuesday and lasts until May 31. During that span, whenever the outdoor temperature drops below 55 degrees, property owners must turn on the heat and keep indoor temperatures at 68 degrees or higher between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and at 62 degrees or higher at night.
Here’s Gothamist’s explainer on what New Yorkers need to know when the temperatures drop.
What should I do if it’s cold in my apartment?
First off, let the landlord know by giving them a call or by sending a text or an email to tell them it’s too cold in the apartment.
Rasheed Barnes owns a two-unit building in the Bronx's University Heights neighborhood. He said he communicates regularly with his tenants about the heat and responds quickly.
“If there’s a problem, they usually text me,” he said. “One had newborns so their need for heat is a little different.”
But not every landlord is responsive or easy to reach. Large companies with big portfolios may not even let you speak with an actual person.
In those cases, it’s still a good idea to inform the landlord or management company and document the correspondence in case the heat outage becomes a chronic problem that requires legal intervention, said Adam Meyers, the head of litigation at the tenants’ rights group Communities Resist.
“It’s helpful to make a record of how you communicated,” Meyers said. “That puts the landlord on notice of the problem in case you’re eventually going to seek additional relief in court.”
But many tenants might feel uncomfortable notifying the owner if they owe rent money, fear retaliation or are concerned about their immigration status.
If that’s the case, or if the landlord doesn’t immediately respond or attempt to resolve the heat outage, tenants should call 311, or use the city’s online 311 portal, to make a complaint.
What happens after I call 311?
Once you call 311, the complaint goes to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
HPD will contact the building’s manager and then call you back to see if the problem got fixed.
If they can’t reach you, or you say it’s still too cold, an inspector will visit to check the heat, and also examine the smoke detectors and other potential problems, like mold or mice.
New Yorkers made over 236,000 heat and hot water outage complaints during the last heat season, according to HPD.
But the agency only had about 300 inspectors to handle those complaints, so calling 311 won’t lead to an immediate fix, said HPD Deputy Commissioner AnnMarie Santiago.
Santiago said HPD investigates each claim, takes a reading of the temperature inside and issues fines as needed. It also sometimes takes landlords to court for especially egregious outages.
She encouraged owners to communicate with tenants if the heat’s not working.
“If you know there is an issue, keep your tenants informed about what's being done to fix it,” Santiago said. “Let your tenants know, ‘I'm aware that the heat is out. We have a plumber coming in a few hours.’”
That also limits the strain on the city’s inspectors, she said.
“Boilers break. They’re machines,” Santiago said. “And keeping people informed helps stop a lot of unnecessary calls to 311 where something might be going on already to fix it.”
What if my heat doesn’t come back on?
Absentee or especially neglectful landlords might never respond, even after HPD inspectors visit and issue fines.
In those instances, tenants can take their landlords to court through a process known as an “HP” action where they can ask a judge to order the owner to make repairs.
Attorneys and organizers advise tenants to track the temperature in their apartments and log it in a notebook to show the judge as proof of the problem. The organization Heat Seek distributes Wi-Fi-enabled sensors that will document the temperatures in an app. Low-income New Yorkers can also qualify for a free sensor.
But even taking a landlord to court probably won’t lead to immediate relief.
In the meantime, tenants might have some leverage when it comes to withholding their rent. They could refuse to make payments until the problem is fixed. But housing attorneys caution that could lead to an eviction case and suggest tenants set the money aside to pay later on, once the heat is back on.
“With rent strikes, the first thing [that's] always important is to save the money. Each month that you're on rent strike, put it away," New York Legal Assistance Group attorney Jared Riser told Gothamist in 2022. "You shouldn't expect or assume ‘I'm getting an abatement, I'm getting a discount on rent because of the heat, I'm not going to have to pay this.’ I think it's always a good idea to save the money."
What can public housing tenants do?
Heat outages are a chronic problem across NYCHA campuses, often due to ancient equipment breaking down.
The number of heat and hot water outages at NYCHA apartment buildings has declined in each of the past two years, according to agency data. In 2022, a federal monitor overseeing NYCHA operations even praised the agency’s preventive maintenance program and prompt response times.
But that’s cold comfort for public housing tenants still stuck in freezing apartments.
When the heat is out, NYCHA tenants should call 311 or the Customer Contact Center at (718) 707-7771, or use the MyNYCHA website to lodge a complaint and find out when the heat is coming back on. Tenants in NYCHA complexes turned over to private managers can also use the Customer Contact Center.
Tenants can track the status of their outages on the NYCHA website.
What if it gets too hot?
It’s not ideal, but many New Yorkers have been there: The radiator is cranking and clanking, the apartment is sweltering and you have to open a window on a chilly day to let the hot air out.
In a lot of buildings, especially older ones, the heat system works unevenly for each apartment or floor, so landlords often turn up the temperature. That means it might be comfortable in one unit and stifling in another.
But HPD said there are no regulations around maximum temperatures during heat season and encouraged renters to ask their landlord to turn down the heat.
The heat season rules only apply when the outdoor temperature dips below 55 degrees.
So if the radiator is blasting and it’s 80 degrees out, tenants should contact the landlord or property manager — turning off the heat in those instances makes everyone more comfortable, and saves the property owner money.
Tagged
new york city
housing
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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