Your landlord must supply every bath, shower, washbasin and sink with hot water at a constant minimum of 120 degrees Fahrenheit at all times between six in the morning and midnight, every day of the year. Section 27-2031 of the Housing Maintenance Code sets that window, and the window is what nearly every page on this subject leaves out.
Two qualifications come with it. Hot water carries no season, so the duty runs in July as in January. And a bath or shower fitted with certain mixing valves may run below 120 degrees, though never below 110.
The Text of Section 27-2031
The hours and the valve exception sit inside one long sentence:
"Except as otherwise provided in this article, every bath, shower, washbasin and sink in any dwelling unit in a multiple dwelling or tenant-occupied one-family or two-family dwelling shall be supplied at all times between the hours of six a.m. and midnight with hot water at a constant minimum temperature of one hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit from a central source of supply".
A multiple dwelling, under section 27-2004, is a building occupied as the home of three or more families living independently of each other, so the rule reaches most apartment buildings in the city. It also reaches a one-family or two-family house once a tenant lives in it.
The exception follows in the same sentence. Baths and showers equipped with balanced-pressure mixing valves, thermostatic mixing valves or combination pressure balancing and thermostatic valves "may produce a discharge temperature less than one hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit but in no event less than one hundred ten degrees Fahrenheit". Sinks and washbasins get no such allowance.
Gas or electric water heaters can stand in for a central supply only with HPD approval, and section 27-2032 holds them to the standard a central system would have to meet, keeps each one in the owner's repair column whoever installed it, and leaves the gas bill with you unless your lease says otherwise.
Hot Water Hours Against Heat Season Hours
Heat is seasonal and conditional. Hot water is neither.
| Requirement | Season | Hours | Minimum | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot water | All year | 6 a.m. to midnight | 120F to the fixture, 110F at a mixing-valve bath or shower | 27-2031 |
| Heat, daytime | October 1 to May 31 | 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 68F indoors when it is below 55F outside | 27-2029(a)(1) |
| Heat, overnight | October 1 to May 31 | 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. | 62F indoors, whatever the outside temperature | 27-2029(a)(2) |
The heat rules that opened on October 1 carry a condition no hot water rule has. HPD can write a daytime heat violation only where the inspector records the outside temperature below 55 degrees at the moment of inspection.
Article 8 picked up a third subject this year. Local Law 23 of 2026 renamed it Heat, Cooling, and Hot Water and added section 27-2030, a cooling duty that starts on June 1, 2030 with tenant opt-in from March 1, 2028. The hot water section beside it was untouched, which is why 27-2031 still reads six a.m. to midnight.
Where the Round-the-Clock Version Comes From
The city's own plain-language material states the duty without the hours. HPD's ABCs of Housing tenants guide tells renters on page 9 that owners "must ensure that tenants have hot water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at a minimum constant temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit". Its Heat and Hot Water page repeats the 365 days and the 120 degrees, and gives no window at all.
Those are summaries. The inspector's paperwork shows which text HPD works from: the standard order on a no-hot-water violation reads "27-2031 ADM CODE PROVIDE HOT WATER AT ALL HOT WATER FIXTURES", citing the section by number. Of the 18,504 Class C violations citing 27-2031 in the twelve months to October 1, 2026, 18,503 carry that wording.
Violation Class and Correction Window
No hot water is an immediately hazardous violation, Class C, and it occupies the one row in HPD's correction table with no time to fix at all. That table reads "No time" against heat and hot water, where the correction date printed on the notice is 24 hours for other Class C conditions, 21 days for lead paint, window guards, mold, mice, cockroaches and rats, 14 days for self-closing doors, 30 days for Class B and 90 days for Class A.
The 24-hour figure that circulates for no hot water is the general immediately hazardous deadline in section 27-2115, and heat and hot water sit outside it. Penalties run from the day HPD affixes the notice at the building, and the code presumes the condition continues. The range is $350 to $1,250 per day, rising to $500 to $1,500 a day for a later violation at the same building inside two consecutive calendar years.
One escape exists, and it explains the paperwork you may get. On a first violation the penalty counts as satisfied if the owner fixes the condition within 24 hours of the notice going up, then files a notice of correction with a $250 payment inside ten days. A false notice carries at least $250 of its own, and a third or later hot water violation at one building in a calendar year adds a $200 fee per inspection. Where the owner does nothing, HPD's Emergency Repair Program may send contractors and bill the owner.
Hot Water Rights Beyond a 311 Complaint
Two provisions apply to hot water and almost never appear in tenant guides.
The first covers planned outages. Under section 27-2005, the owner of a multiple dwelling must post notice at least 24 hours before work that will cut hot water for two or more hours, keep it up until the service returns, and name the service, the work and the expected start and end dates, in English, Spanish and any other language HPD prescribes. An interruption under two hours or one from emergency repairs needs no advance notice, though if it runs past two hours the notice must go up as soon as practicable. A sign taped to the lobby door that morning is not the twenty-four hours the section asks for.
The second covers the aftermath. When the owner files that notice of correction, section 27-2115 requires HPD to mail you inside five business days, say when the owner reported the condition corrected, and tell you how to object. If the water is still cold, your objection is what keeps the violation alive.
The ordinary route runs alongside. You complain through 311 by phone, through 311Online or the 311 mobile app, anonymously if you prefer, in which case the inspector picks an apartment at random. Where a violation has been issued and not corrected, the tenant who asked for it can apply to the housing part of the civil court for an order directing the owner and HPD to appear, and because the condition is immediately hazardous the usual thirty-day wait is waived. Housing Court calls that an HP proceeding. In Hayes v. Toju Realty Corp., a New York City Civil Court decision described subdivisions (h) and (i) of section 27-2115 as creating a private right of action for tenants.
What the Records Show
Heat and hot water is the city's biggest housing complaint category by a wide margin. Filtering the 311 dataset erm2-nwe9 on created_date, HPD took 359,087 heat and hot water complaints in the year to October 1, 2026, against 136,876 for unsanitary conditions, the next category down.
The heat and hot water category in 311 groups two services, but its second descriptor separates them: NO HEAT, NO HOT WATER, and NO HEAT AND NO HOT WATER. On the same dataset and date field, New Yorkers filed 17,263 combined-category complaints between June 1 and October 1, 2026; 16,272 read NO HOT WATER and 991 read HEAT ON IN SUMMER. The off-season total is therefore mostly hot-water complaints, though not every one of them.
Violations tell the same story in smaller numbers. Filtering dataset wvxf-dwi5 on inspectiondate, the twelve months to October 1, 2026 produced 18,504 Class C violations citing 27-2031, of which 5,893 were still open when we pulled the file and 3,045 came from that out-of-season June to September window.
Every count here was retrieved on October 5, 2026. HPD and 311 backfill records, and open statuses change, so a later query can return different figures for the same window.
Checking a Building Before You Sign
A building with a tired boiler leaves a trail. HPD violations and 311 complaints both carry dates, and the 311 record also says whether the complaint covered one apartment or the whole building. Of the year's complaints to October 1, 2026, 236,310 named the entire building and 122,777 one apartment.
Before you sign a lease, look up the building's open violations and complaint history and read the pattern rather than the count.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my landlord required to provide hot water in NYC?
Yes, in a multiple dwelling or a tenant-occupied one-family or two-family house. Section 27-2031 requires hot water at every bath, shower, washbasin and sink at a constant minimum of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, at all times between six in the morning and midnight, all year. It must reach the fixture from a central supply, or from heaters HPD approved instead.
What is the legal minimum hot water temperature in NYC?
120 degrees Fahrenheit, as supplied to the fixture. A bath or shower on balanced-pressure, thermostatic or combination mixing valves may discharge below 120, but never below 110 degrees. Sinks and washbasins have no such allowance, so a kitchen tap at 112 degrees is a violation.
How long does my landlord have to restore hot water?
No grace period at all. HPD's correction table gives heat and hot water conditions "No time", unlike other Class C violations, which carry 24 hours from service. Civil penalties of $350 to $1,250 a day accrue from the day HPD posts the notice. The 24-hour deadline people quote is the general immediately hazardous rule, which hot water sits outside.
Does the hot water rule cover a two-family house?
It covers a one-family or two-family house once a tenant occupies it. The section names a "tenant-occupied one-family or two-family dwelling" alongside multiple dwellings, so a rented floor of a two-family house carries the same duty as an apartment in a tower. An owner-occupied house with no tenant falls outside.
My landlord says the hot water is fixed and it is not. What now?
HPD has to mail you inside five business days of receiving the owner's notice of correction, saying when the owner reported the fix and how to object. Object in writing within the time the letter gives. A fresh 311 complaint brings a new inspection, and the $250 settlement is open only on a first hot water violation, meaning the first of the current or previous calendar year.
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