A boiler record answers two questions well. It shows whether somebody inspected the device in a given cycle, and it shows whether that same device has been written up before. It cannot show whether your radiator will be hot in January, because nobody measured your apartment to produce it.
Heat season began on October 1, putting the record in front of renters now.
What a Recorded Defect Means
A defect is an inspector's note that something on the device failed the check. The public file carries a yes or a no on that one field and no description, so a worn relief valve and a cracked section land in the record looking identical. You learn that the inspector wanted something fixed, not what it was.
Defects are uncommon and steady. Of the 95,593 initial filings for the 2025 cycle, 6,450 recorded one, which is 6.75%. Counting by device rather than by filing, the share ran 7.64% for the 2023 cycle, 7.22% for 2024 and 6.79% for 2025, every figure taken from the inspection date field on October 2, 2026. Nothing there suggests a citywide swing; a defect points at one device.
Building size moves the base rate you compare against, because a building that files more reports has more chances to collect a flag. Across the 2025 cycle, 6.6% of the 57,489 buildings that filed for a single boiler recorded a defect, against 10.7% of the 9,533 filing for two and 13.2% of the 4,358 filing for three or more.
Building age runs against what renters assume. Joined to the city's building footprint file, which carries a construction year for 70,689 of the 71,380 buildings that filed an initial report for 2025, the pre-1930 stock recorded a defect at 7.2% and the 1930 to 1959 stock at 7.3%, while buildings from 1960 to 1989 recorded one at 11.4% and buildings from 1990 or later at 7.5%. The 1970s recorded 13.1%, but the 1990s also reached 12.5%, above the 1960s at 11.5% and the 1950s at 10.9%. A pre-war address tells you nothing useful about the boiler.
The Follow-Up Filing After a Defect
The line underneath a defect matters more than the defect. Once an inspector records one, the owner owes a follow-up inspection and a subsequent report, and the file shows whether that report arrived.
For the 2024 cycle, where the correction window has long closed, 6,711 boilers had an initial filing recording a defect. Of those, 2,117 filed a subsequent report inside the 104 days DOB allows, which is 31.5%. And 3,675, which is 54.8%, have no subsequent filing anywhere in the 2024 or 2025 record.
That gap is a missing document. Whether the boiler got repaired is a question the file does not answer, since a device can be swapped out or taken off the duty, and DOB answers a missing affirmation of correction with a violation code of its own. What the pairing gives you is whether the owner closed the loop on paper. A defect with a follow-up filing beside it reads differently from one with nothing after it.
Repeat Defects Against a Single One
One defect in one cycle puts a building in a group of thousands. The same device flagged twice running puts it in a much smaller one.
Of the 86,423 boilers that filed an initial report in both the 2024 and the 2025 cycle, those flagged in 2024 came back flagged in 2025 at 31.3%. Those clean in 2024 picked up a defect in 2025 at 4.6%, so a prior defect goes with close to seven times the chance of another one.
| 2024 initial filing | Boilers inspected in both cycles | Recorded a defect again in 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded a defect | 6,020 | 1,883, or 31.3% |
| Recorded no defect | 80,403 | 3,665, or 4.6% |
The same test on buildings rather than devices gives 32.5% against 5.1%, across the 65,944 buildings that filed in both cycles. Widen it to three cycles and the persistent group gets small: of 81,545 boilers inspected in 2023, 2024 and 2025, only 784 recorded a defect in all three, under 1%, while 69,043 of them, 84.7%, recorded none in any of the three.
Read the sequence rather than the latest row. A flag two cycles back followed by two clean cycles describes a building that fixed something. Three flags in three cycles describes about one boiler in a hundred, and that is the pattern to ask an owner about.
What a Gap in the Record Means
Absence takes more care than a defect, and sometimes it carries more information.
Several gaps mean nothing. Residential buildings with five families or fewer sit outside the annual filing duty, so a blank for a small brownstone is the expected result. A building with no filing yet for the current cycle has missed no deadline.
Device turnover explains plenty of blanks on its own. Comparing the two cycles on October 2, 2026, 6,564 boilers filed an initial report for 2024 and none for 2025, while 7,955 filed for 2025 having filed nothing for 2024. The file carries a make and a model but no installation date, so it will not tell you which of those were swapped out and which went unfiled.
The gap that should bother you is an enforcement gap. The City Comptroller reported on March 3, 2025 that of 1,283 buildings where tenants complained of inadequate heat more than five times in each heat season from 2017 to 2021, 901 still had severe heat problems after two further seasons. Of those 901, a fifth had no violations recorded against them and no other HPD enforcement action across the seven years to 2024.
Limits of a Single Inspection
The annual check is an external inspection of a device, carried out on one day by an inspector the owner selected and paid. It looks at the boiler. It does not take a reading in your living room, and it does not follow the steam up the riser, so the pipes, traps and valves that decide whether heat reaches a top-floor radiator sit outside its scope. A building can hold a clean filing and run cold on the fifth floor without either document being wrong.
The sign-off works the same way. Of the 1,959 devices with a subsequent report filed inside the window for 2025 defects, carrying 2,006 reports between them, 1,922 record that no defects remain, the owner's inspector clearing the owner's device a second time. The file holds no repair invoice and no installation year, so it cannot tell you the condition of the equipment, only what a licensed inspector attested on two dates.
Boiler Records Against the Heat Complaint Record
Administrative Code 27-2029 sets the standard a renter feels. It requires centrally supplied heat from October 1 through May 31, at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit between 6am and 10pm when the outside temperature is below 55, and at least 62 degrees overnight. An HPD heat violation records that an inspector measured a failure against that floor. Getting one usually starts with a tenant picking up the phone.
The city weights that record over the boiler file in its own enforcement. Under Administrative Code 27-2033.1, HPD selects 50 class A multiple dwellings a year for internet capable temperature sensors in every unit, and the statute names two selection criteria: the number of 27-2029 violations over the preceding two years and whether heat complaints came from more than one dwelling unit. HPD may consider other criteria; boiler filings are not listed in the statute.
The two records do line up. Counting heat violations written under either of the two heat order sections, buildings whose pre-season 2025 filing recorded a defect drew one during the 2025-26 season at 11.6%, against 6.0% for buildings whose filing was clean. That is an association and not a cause. Deferred maintenance across every system, the size of the building, the number of tenants able to complain and who manages the property all push both numbers at the same time, and the outcome depends on a tenant calling 311 and an inspector getting inside. The other side of the same count shows how little the flag carries alone: 2,167 buildings with clean filings drew a heat violation that season, against 324 in the defect group.
The boiler file belongs beside the complaint history rather than in front of it. Read the filings for the device and the 311 heat record for what tenants lived through, then pull the full record for the address before you sign anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a recorded boiler defect mean the heat will fail?
No. It means an inspector found something on the device that needed attention on the day of the visit. Buildings whose pre-season 2025 filing recorded a defect drew a confirmed heat violation during the 2025-26 season 11.6% of the time, so most of them did not. The flag raises the odds and settles nothing.
How many NYC boiler filings record a defect?
About one in fifteen. Of the 95,593 initial filings for the 2025 cycle, 6,450 recorded a defect, which is 6.75%. Counted by device the share was 7.64% in 2023, 7.22% in 2024 and 6.79% in 2025, all read on October 2, 2026. Buildings filing for three or more boilers recorded one more often, 13.2%, because they file more reports.
What does it mean if a building has no boiler filing?
Usually that the building sits outside the duty, since buildings with five families or fewer are exempt, or that the device changed identifiers. On October 2, 2026, 6,564 boilers had a 2024 filing and no 2025 one. Treat a gap in a building that used to file every year as a question for the owner.
Is a repeat boiler defect worse than a single one?
Much worse. A boiler flagged in the 2024 cycle was flagged again in 2025 at 31.3%, against 4.6% for boilers that were clean in 2024. Of 81,545 boilers inspected in all three cycles from 2023 to 2025, only 784 collected a defect in each one. A device in that group has a documented pattern.
Can I tell how old a building's boiler is from the record?
No. The filing carries the make and the model of the device, which tells you what it is, but no installation date and no repair history. Age has to come from the owner or the managing agent. If a boiler disappears from the file and a new identifier appears for the same building, that suggests a replacement without proving one.
Do boiler records predict heat complaints?
Weakly, and in one direction only. The defect group drew heat violations at close to twice the rate of the clean group last season, yet 2,167 buildings with clean filings drew one as well, against 324 in the defect group. For how a building behaves in February, the 311 heat complaint history carries far more signal.
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