How to Look Up NYC Building Violations on Your Own Property

You own a NYC building, a broker or lender just asked for a clean violation record, and now you need to know exactly what is sitting against your address. The problem is that "the violation" is rarely in one place. A single condition on your property can leave a trail in three or four separate city systems, each run by a different agency, each with its own portal and its own idea of what "open" means.

Tip: Want the fast version first? Pull your building's record on Building Health X to see recent heat, pests, safety and violation signals across 30 and 90 days, 1 year and 3 years, then use the official portals below to confirm the detail.

Each type of violation actually lives in a different place, and the trap that catches the most people is a record that looks resolved in one system while a fine quietly compounds in another.

Which Agency Issued It Decides Where to Look

NYC does not keep one master violation list. The Department of Buildings (DOB) handles the physical building, its permits, and its structural and mechanical code. The Housing Preservation and Development department (HPD) handles habitability in residential buildings with three or more units, which covers heat, hot water, leaks, mold, pests and lead. The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) is where the civil penalty, the actual dollar fine, is adjudicated once DOB writes a summons.

Because the agencies do not share a single front door, an owner has to check each one that could plausibly hold a record. A gas or facade issue lives with DOB. A tenant complaint about no heat lives with HPD. The fine attached to a DOB summons lives with OATH. Miss one system and you can walk into a sale believing your building is clean when a five figure penalty is still open somewhere you did not look.

Every one of these databases searches by property address or by Building Identification Number (BIN), not by owner name. That is worth knowing before you start, because you cannot pull "all my buildings" in one query. You search each address, one at a time, and you reconcile the results yourself.

DOB: BIS and DOB NOW

The Department of Buildings splits its own records across two platforms for a historical reason. The legacy Buildings Information System (BIS) holds older permits, complaints and violations, roughly the era before the department migrated online. DOB NOW holds newer filings. A building that has been standing for decades will almost certainly have entries in both, so checking only one gives you half the picture.

In the BIS Property Profile Overview you will see a count of open DOB violations along with the underlying complaints and permit history. DOB NOW carries the more recent activity, including the workflow you will use later if you need to file a Certificate of Correction. The city's own Department of Buildings violations page lays out the categories of DOB violation and points to both portals, and it is the authoritative reference when a record's status is ambiguous.

OATH: Where the Fine Actually Sits

This is the step owners skip most often. When DOB issues a summons for a code condition, the penalty side of that summons is processed by OATH, formerly handled under the Environmental Control Board (ECB) name you will still see on older paperwork. The DOB violation and the OATH fine are two separate obligations. Correcting the physical condition can close the DOB violation, but the money owed does not disappear until it is paid or resolved at OATH.

The consequence is blunt. A DOB record can read as resolved while the associated ECB summons still shows an unpaid civil penalty in OATH's system. An unpaid OATH judgment can convert into a lien against the property, and liens surface in title searches and have to be cleared before a closing or a refinance goes through. So when you pull your record, do not stop at DOB status. Search OATH separately by address or summons number and confirm the fine is genuinely settled, not just the condition.

HPD Online for Residential Buildings

If your building has three or more residential units, HPD Online is the second portal you cannot skip. HPD enforces the Housing Maintenance Code, so this is where tenant-driven conditions register: no heat, no hot water, leaks, mold, pest infestations and lead paint hazards. These carry their own class ratings and their own correction and certification process, separate from anything DOB tracks. The mechanics of pulling and reading those specific records are covered in the walkthrough of HPD Online for building violations, which is worth a pass once you know your building falls under the code.

Reading What You Find Without Panicking

A raw violation printout looks alarming because it lists everything the building has ever accumulated, including items that were corrected years ago. The status field is what matters. An "open" violation is a live obligation. A closed, dismissed or resolved entry is history. What you are triaging is the open set, and within that set, class or severity tells you how urgent each one is.

DOB and HPD both grade violations by hazard. The lowest tier is largely administrative, the middle tier needs correction on a schedule, and the top tier signals an immediately hazardous condition that the city expects fixed fast. If you are staring at a list and unsure how heavily any single line weighs, the class framework in the primer on what a certified-corrected status actually means explains how a violation moves from open to genuinely cleared, which is the distinction that decides whether your record is closing-ready.

One more reconciliation habit saves owners real money. Cross-check the DOB list against the OATH list line by line. If a DOB summons appears resolved but you cannot find a matching paid or dismissed entry at OATH, treat the fine as still open until proven otherwise. That mismatch, a corrected condition with an unpaid penalty behind it, is exactly what quietly becomes a lien.

Verifying Against the Raw City Data

The agency portals are the front-end views, but the underlying records are also published as open datasets, and for an owner doing careful due diligence that raw layer is useful. The DOB and HPD violation datasets on NYC Open Data let you download the full history for a BIN and confirm dates, status changes and penalty amounts without clicking through one summons at a time. It is the same data the portals draw on, presented so you can audit it in bulk.

This matters most when a record looks inconsistent. If a portal shows a status that does not match what your contractor or expediter told you, the dataset lets you see the timestamped history and settle which version is current. For a single closing you may never need it. For a portfolio, or for a building with a long and messy history, it is the difference between a guess and a documented position you can hand to a lender.

When Lookup Turns Into a Real Problem

Pulling the record is the easy part. Acting on it is where owners get stuck, because a genuinely open violation with an attached penalty is not something you clear by logging in and clicking a button. Depending on the type, resolving it can mean correcting a physical condition, filing a Certificate of Correction through DOB NOW with a notarized statement and proof of payment, and in some cases appearing at an OATH hearing to argue for a reduced penalty. Each of those steps has a deadline, and missing a hearing date can trigger a default judgment at the full maximum fine rather than the amount you might have negotiated.

If your lookup surfaces open items ahead of a sale, a refinance, or a compliance deadline, that is the point to bring in a licensed professional who handles NYC violation resolution day to day. An expediter or code consultant can tell you fast which of your open lines are quick administrative closes and which need real remediation, and can file the correction paperwork correctly the first time so a clerical error does not send you back to the start.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I look up violations on my NYC building?

Search each city system that could hold a record for your address. Use DOB's Buildings Information System (BIS) and DOB NOW for building code violations, OATH for the civil penalties attached to DOB summonses, and HPD Online for habitability conditions in residential buildings with three or more units. All of them search by property address or Building Identification Number, not by owner name, so you check one address at a time.

Why does my DOB violation show resolved but I still owe a fine?

Because the physical violation and the money are two separate obligations. DOB tracks the code condition, while OATH tracks the civil penalty attached to the summons. Correcting the condition can close the DOB violation, but the fine stays open until it is paid or resolved at OATH. Always confirm the penalty status in OATH's system rather than assuming a resolved DOB record means you owe nothing.

Can an open violation stop me from selling or refinancing?

It can. Open violations, and especially unpaid OATH civil penalties that have converted into liens, surface in title searches and generally have to be cleared before a closing or refinance can proceed. Pulling and reconciling your full record early gives you time to resolve open items before they hold up a transaction.

Is there a difference between a DOB violation and an ECB violation?

ECB is the older name for the civil penalty side, now handled by OATH. The DOB violation is the citation for the code or permit issue. The ECB or OATH violation is the fine attached to it. They are resolved through different processes and you have to close each one separately.

Do I need a professional to clear a violation, or can I do it myself?

Some low-tier administrative violations can be resolved directly by correcting the condition and filing the paperwork. Others require a Certificate of Correction, supporting documentation, payment of penalties, and sometimes an OATH hearing. If your building has open items tied to a deadline, a sale or a refinance, a licensed expediter or code consultant can identify which is which and file the corrections correctly so a missed step does not compound the penalty.