HPD violation lookup: finding housing violations by address

1. 1

   Open HPD Online and search the address

   Enter the house number, street and borough. HPD Online covers residential buildings subject to the Housing Maintenance Code, which is most multiple dwellings and many smaller rental properties.

2. 2

   Open the building, then the violations tab

   The building page carries registration, complaints, violations and charges. The violation list is what most people are looking for; the registration page matters more often than owners expect, because an unregistered building cannot certify corrections.

3. 3

   Filter to open violations

   By default you may see the full history. Narrow to open violations to see what is actually outstanding, then widen it again if you are doing due diligence and want the pattern over time.

4. 4

   Read the dates on each row

   Each violation carries the date it was issued, the date by which the condition must be corrected, and — once one has been filed — a certification date. The gap between those three is where most problems live.

Class

A is non-hazardous, B is hazardous, C is immediately hazardous. The class sets how quickly the condition must be corrected and how seriously HPD treats it.

Order number

The provision of the Housing Maintenance Code cited. Two violations with the same order number are the same kind of condition in different places.

Apartment

Where the condition was found. Apartment values are entered by inspectors as free text, so the same unit can appear as "2A", "2-A" or "APT 2A" across rows.

Status

Whether the violation is open, has been certified as corrected, or has been closed by HPD. A certification filed by the owner and a closure confirmed by HPD are not the same thing.

HPD publishes the same violations to NYC Open Data, where they can be queried in bulk. The two are not always in step: the dataset is refreshed on a schedule, so a violation issued or closed today may appear in one before the other.

For a single building, HPD Online is the record to trust. For tracking many buildings, the dataset is the only practical route — but anything you intend to act on is worth confirming on HPD Online first.