Filing a 311 Heat Complaint in NYC

File a 311 heat complaint by phone at 311, online at 311ONLINE, or through the NYC311 mobile app. Once you file, HPD calls your landlord to demand the heat get restored, then tries to reach you to confirm whether it worked. If it did not, or if HPD cannot reach you, an inspector gets sent to take an official temperature reading and, if the apartment fails, issue a violation on the spot.

Three Ways to File

All three channels reach the same system and create the same kind of record, so pick whichever is fastest for you in the moment. A complaint filed by any method during heat season, October 1 through May 31, is treated as a housing emergency once you select the heat or hot water category.

By Phone

Call 311, or TTY (212) 504-4115 if you need a text telephone line. This is the fastest option if you want to talk to a live person, confirm the category is right, and get a service request number read back to you before you hang up.

Online at 311ONLINE

File through the 311ONLINE portal from a browser on your phone or computer. This is the easiest way to attach photos of a thermometer reading, which is useful documentation even though HPD's own inspection reading is what determines whether a violation gets issued.

Through the 311 Mobile App

The NYC311 app lets you file a request, upload photos from your camera roll, and check back on the status later without hunting for a paper confirmation number. It uses the same categories and routes to the same HPD queue as the phone and web options.

What to Include

Give your full address, apartment number, and a short description of the problem: no heat, insufficient heat, or no hot water. You can file anonymously if you are worried about your name being tied to the complaint. An anonymous filing still gets an HPD response, but instead of inspecting your specific unit, the inspector randomly selects an apartment in the building to check, so an anonymous complaint about your own unit will not necessarily result in your own unit getting measured.

Before you file, it helps to know exactly which rule your apartment is failing. The full temperature thresholds, day and night, are laid out in NYC's heat season laws; the short version is 68 degrees indoors from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. when it is under 55 outside, and 62 degrees overnight no matter what it is outside.

What HPD Does After You File

Filing the complaint is the start of a set process, not the end of one. HPD's own description of the workflow breaks into four steps: the agency tries to notify the building owner or managing agent that the building may be without heat, then tries to reach you to ask whether service has been restored, then attempts an inspection if you say it has not been restored or if HPD cannot reach you, and finally issues a violation if an inspector's reading confirms the apartment is below the legal minimum at the time of inspection.

Real outcomes lean toward getting fixed without a visit. A city comptroller review of complaints filed during the 2022 through 2024 heat seasons found that 56 percent were closed after the tenant confirmed by phone that heat had been restored, and another 15 percent closed after an inspector was told by someone else in the building that the problem was fixed. Not every case gets that clean: the share of complaints closed because an inspector could not get into the building or the unit rose from 13 percent to 17 percent over the same stretch, so being reachable and answering the door matters as much as filing in the first place. If nobody is home when the inspector comes, they leave a card and try another apartment in the building rather than rescheduling with you directly.

A confirmed violation matters because of what it triggers. Heat and hot water sit in HPD's most serious violation tier, Class C, immediately hazardous, which unlike other Class C conditions carries no grace period at all once it is posted. A building owner who racks up a second violation at the same address in the same or the following heat season faces a steeper fine, and HPD adds a $200 inspection fee once a building reaches a third failed inspection in one season. None of that happens on the strength of your 311 call alone, which is why the inspector's own reading, not your thermometer, is what moves a complaint into a violation.

How Many Heat Complaints NYC Gets in a Season

Heat complaints are not rare. HPD's own published statistics, current through the close of the 2025-26 heat season on May 31, 2026, show 344,437 heat complaints that season, up from 282,606 the season before. The single busiest day of the season was February 8, 2026, with 6,144 complaints citywide. An independent count against the underlying Open Data complaints dataset returns figures within about one percent of HPD's published totals for both seasons, so the scale is not an artifact of one data source. Only a small share of complaints turn into an actual violation, historically around 3 percent citywide and closer to 4.5 percent in the strongest recent year, mostly because so many get resolved by phone before an inspector arrives.

Tracking Your Complaint

Write down your service request number when you file, whether an agent reads it to you on the phone or the app or website displays it on screen. You can look up the status of that SR, and separately search whether HPD has any open heat and hot water violations on the building, through HPDONLINE using the address. HPDONLINE also has a litigation tab that shows whether HPD has taken the owner to Housing Court over a lack of heat or hot water, which is a stronger signal than an open complaint on its own.

Keep that number even after the complaint closes. If the heat fails again a week later, referencing the earlier SR when you file a new complaint helps establish that this is a repeat problem at the same address rather than an isolated night, and it is exactly the kind of record a Housing Court judge wants to see if the case ever gets that far.

If the Heat Keeps Going Out

One complaint that gets resolved is normal. A pattern across the same winter is not, and it is worth knowing whether the building has a longer history before you rely on a single fixed complaint. If the same apartment keeps failing after repeated 311 complaints, a tenant can escalate past HPD entirely by filing an HP action in Housing Court, which asks a judge to order the repair directly. The full playbook for that escalation, including what to bring and what a judge can order, is covered in forcing a landlord to fix no heat or hot water. If you are weighing whether to rent in a building at all rather than fixing a problem in one you already live in, the more useful move is checking that building's heat complaint history before you sign, or searching the address in the free building lookup to see its full violation and complaint record.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does HPD Take to Respond to a Heat Complaint?

HPD does not publish a fixed response-time guarantee. The automated call to the owner and the attempt to reach you come first, and most complaints close at that stage without an inspector ever visiting. If neither side confirms the heat is back, an inspection follows, and how quickly depends on inspector availability, which stretches thinner on the coldest, highest-volume days of the season.

Can I File a 311 Heat Complaint Anonymously?

Yes. HPD accepts anonymous heat complaints, but the inspector then checks a randomly selected apartment in the building rather than your specific unit, since there is no named tenant to confirm which apartment to inspect.

What Happens if the Inspector Can't Get Into My Building?

The complaint closes without a violation being issued, and the inspector leaves a card noting the attempt. If the problem is still happening, you need to file again and be available, or answer the buzzer, when the next inspection is attempted.

Can I Withhold Rent if My Heat Still Isn't Fixed?

Stopping rent payments on your own is risky and can expose you to a nonpayment case even when your heat complaint is legitimate. The safer route is an HP action, where a judge can direct your rent into a court-supervised account while ordering the repair, rather than withholding it outright.

Do NYCHA Residents Call 311 for a Heat Complaint?

No. NYCHA residents report heat and hot water outages to NYCHA's own Customer Contact Center or the MyNYCHA app rather than 311, since NYCHA buildings are not enforced through HPD violations the way privately owned buildings are.

What Is a Service Request Number and Why Does It Matter?

It is the tracking number 311 assigns to your complaint the moment you file, by phone, online, or in the app. Keep it. You need it to check your complaint's status, to reference the complaint if you file again for the same recurring problem, and as a timestamped record if you later need to show a pattern to a judge in an HP action.