Which NYC Neighborhoods Have the Most Heat Complaints?

Highbridge in the Bronx draws more heat and hot water complaints per apartment than any other New York City neighborhood we measure, at 336.7 per 1,000 apartments against a citywide 124.8, measured on October 2, 2026 over the 12 months to September 22. Seven of the ten neighborhoods at the top of this list also sit in the top ten of our ranking by all 311 housing complaints, so the order is not the finding.

Heat adds a calendar no other category has. 95.5% of the 358,072 complaints filed over those 12 months arrived inside the 243 days of heat season, the legal window from October 1 to May 31. January runs 20.4 times August, where our own pest measurement puts that category's calendar high at under 1.5 times its low.

Overlap With Our Other Two Rankings

Three measures built on three different numerators keep landing on the same neighborhoods. Wakefield and Woodlawn, Highbridge, Hamilton Heights, University Heights, Fordham, Belmont and Prospect Lefferts Gardens all sit in our top ten for 311 housing complaints, and six of the twelve places in our ranking by violations per 100 apartments go to the same places.

Three names are new at the top when the measure narrows to heat: Washington Heights, Inwood and Morris Park. Each carries a heat and hot water share of its own complaint mix above 42%, against 39.8% citywide. Washington Heights and Inwood hold the oldest stock of the three, at 82.4% and 74.0% pre-war.

How We Count Heat Complaints

Every figure here comes from the 311 Service Requests dataset, identifier erm2-nwe9, filtered to agency HPD and complaint type HEAT/HOT WATER on the created date. That returned 358,072 service requests for the 12 months from September 22, 2025 to September 22, 2026 when we ran it on October 2, 2026. Citywide grouped queries time out on this dataset, so we chunked by borough and by date range.

Each record also carries a second descriptor that names the failure, in the field 311 publishes as descriptor_2. Its four values separate the two duties, which the complaint type on its own does not, and the next section uses them.

Apartments come from the city tax lot file, pulled the same day, restricted to lots holding three or more apartments: 2,868,881 apartments across 172,485 lots. 311 records carry a ZIP code rather than a neighborhood boundary, so each neighborhood rate below covers the ZIP codes holding that area's apartments. Our neighborhood housing data uses the same basis, and this re-run matches its published heat rate to a median difference of 0.07 per 1,000 across 106 areas.

HPD and 311 keep adding records for weeks, so a total for a fixed past window rises every time anyone runs it. We re-ran every number here.

Separating Heat From Hot Water

The two duties sit under one complaint type and run on different clocks. Heat is owed from October 1 to May 31. Hot water is owed at 120 degrees every day of the year. The descriptor_2 field splits them, and the split falls almost perfectly along the season.

Not one of the 211,741 NO HEAT records falls outside the season, and only a single NO HEAT AND NO HOT WATER record does. Hot water behaves the opposite way. NO HOT WATER appears in every month of the window, between 107.7 complaints a day in November and 199.6 in February, a spread of under 2 to 1. Inside the season it runs 158.0 a day against 125.2 outside, a ratio of 1.26. NO HEAT runs 871.4 a day in season and nothing at all out of it.

The whole category runs 1,406.7 complaints a day inside the season against 133.2 outside, a swing of 10.6 to 1, and the split above shows that swing is heat alone rather than a weather effect on plumbing. It also means the off-season figures below read as a hot water measure directly: 94.0% of the 16,248 complaints filed outside the season carry NO HOT WATER, and the remaining 976 are HEAT ON IN SUMMER, the opposite complaint.

The Shape of the Heat Season

We ran the same filter by month across 36 whole months, September 2023 to September 2026, so each calendar month appears three times. That gives 900,025 complaints over 1,096 days, an average of 821.2 a day, which the index column sets at 100. The third column counts how many of those days saw a Central Park high below 55 degrees, the outside temperature that turns the daytime duty on.

October breaks the easy story. Two October days in three years had a daytime high below 55, and October still runs 791.9 complaints a day, within 4% of the annual average. The night rule explains it. Between 10pm and 6am the inside temperature has to reach 62 degrees whatever the weather does, and 58 of those 93 October nights dipped below 55.

October to May holds 95.2% of the three-year total in 66.6% of the days, at 1,173.6 complaints a day against 118.4 from June to September. Volume is also climbing. The 12 months to August 2024 brought 248,274 complaints, the year to August 2025 brought 293,931, and the year to August 2026 brought 357,820, up 21.7%. The city reports the same direction: the FY2026 Mayor's Management Report counts 188,559 heat and hot water problems requiring an HPD response, up 17% on FY2025.

The First Cold Snap of a Season

The season opens on a date and the duty turns on at a temperature, so the two can be separated. In 2025 they were. October 1 landed with a Central Park high of 69 degrees, and the four days from October 4 to 7 reached 82, 84, 80 and 80. Those four days inside the open season averaged 160 complaints, against 127.6 a day across the nine days of September that fall inside our window.

October 9 brought a high of 59 and a low of 48, the first day of the season under 60 degrees. Complaints went to 612 that day and 887 the next, 3.3 times and then 4.8 times the October 1 to 8 average of 184.1. The heaviest day of the autumn was November 11, with 3,896 complaints on a high of 41.

The two previous seasons ran the same way. The first sub-60 day was October 8 in 2023, with 613 complaints then 1,208, and October 15 in 2024, with 2,128 then 2,333.

Across all 365 days of our window, the daily complaint count and the Central Park daily high correlate at minus 0.85 on a Pearson measure, and minus 0.81 inside the season. Outside it the relationship vanishes, at plus 0.07. Cold weather moves this queue only while the duty exists.

Grouping the 365 days by their daily high gives the slope. Days under 40 degrees averaged 2,781 complaints, days from 40 to 50 averaged 1,587, days from 50 to 55 averaged 1,233 and days from 55 to 60 averaged 1,182. There is no step at 55, because tenants call when the apartment feels cold rather than when the thermometer crosses a statutory line.

Neighborhoods With the Highest Heat Season Rates

The table ranks the 106 footprints we measure by complaints per 1,000 apartments inside the 243-day season, with the full-year rate beside it.

Highbridge leads the full year and Wakefield and Woodlawn lead the season, and the fourth column explains the swap. At the quiet end the list is Manhattan below 96th Street, with the Financial District and Battery Park City at 9.9 per 1,000 in season, Co-op City at 14.2 and Long Island City at 14.7. The spread from top to bottom runs about 33 to 1. By borough the Bronx takes 240.7 for the year on 122,360 complaints, against 87.7 in Queens.

The Complaints That Arrive Out of Season

Since 94.0% of out-of-season complaints carry NO HOT WATER, the off-season column below ranks neighborhoods by hot water rather than by heat. Citywide, 4.5% of the year's complaints landed outside the season.

East New York is the row worth reading twice. It sits mid-table on the full year and holds the heaviest off-season load of any area with more than a thousand complaints, at 20.9 per 1,000 apartments and 10.8% of its year. A renter there should ask about the hot water, not only the radiators.

The Heat Season as a Legal Counter

Section 27-2029 of the Housing Maintenance Code sets the duty. From October 1 through May 31 the apartment has to reach 68 degrees between 6am and 10pm whenever the outside temperature falls below 55, and 62 degrees between 10pm and 6am regardless of the weather. A heat or hot water violation is immediately hazardous and carries no correction time before civil penalties.

The season then works as a counter. Penalties start at $350 to $1,250 a day and rise to $500 to $1,500 for a subsequent violation at the same building, and for heat that repeat clock counts two consecutive October to May periods rather than two calendar years. The 24-hour cure that settles a first violation for $250 closes off if the building drew a heat violation in the prior season.

Limits of a Neighborhood Heat Rate

Three things bend these rates. NYCHA repairs never enter this file, so any area with a large development reads quiet. Two thirds of the requests name a building-wide failure, so one cold boiler can put dozens of records on the same address. And our published location file reads 369.5 and 324.7 per 1,000 for Parkchester and Morris Park against 258.9 and 258.6 on this re-run, so the tables above use the re-run throughout; the other 104 footprints reproduce within 5 per 1,000.

None of this judges an address. Put the address in and search the building's records for its own heat and hot water complaints, HPD violations by class and status, registration and legal actions, DOB violations and permits, executed evictions, rodent inspections and rent stabilization status. No login and no charge.

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions below come from searches on the head term.

Which NYC neighborhood has the most heat complaints?

Highbridge in the Bronx, at 336.7 heat and hot water complaints per 1,000 apartments over the 12 months to September 22, 2026, against a citywide 124.8. Wakefield and Woodlawn follow at 333.6. By raw count the biggest boroughs lead instead, because a count tracks how many apartments an area holds: the Bronx logged 122,360 of the city's 358,072 requests.

Does a 311 heat complaint mean no heat or no hot water?

The descriptor_2 field on the record says which. Over our 12 months, 211,741 complaints read NO HEAT, 91,694 read NO HEAT AND NO HOT WATER, 53,661 read NO HOT WATER and 976 read HEAT ON IN SUMMER. Hot water appears in 40.6% of them. Reading the complaint type alone merges two duties that run on different calendars.

Does my landlord have to turn the heat on October 1?

Not on its own. From October 1 the daytime duty applies only when the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees, and then the apartment has to reach 68 between 6am and 10pm. The night duty is unconditional, at 62 degrees between 10pm and 6am. Four 80 degree days in early October 2025 produced near-summer complaint volume.

When do heat complaints peak in New York City?

January, by a wide margin. Across 36 months to September 2026, January averaged 2,134.2 complaints a day citywide against 104.5 in August, a ratio of 20.4 to 1. December runs second at 1,745.9 and February third at 1,530.0. January 2026 at 79,928 is the heaviest single month in the series.

How long does a landlord have to fix no heat in NYC?

There is no grace period. HPD treats heat and hot water as immediately hazardous, and the correction time in its penalty schedule reads as no time at all, against 24 hours for most other Class C conditions and 21 days for pests and lead paint. Penalties accrue from the day the notice goes up at the building.

How do I check heat complaints for one address?

Look up the building and read its own record rather than its neighborhood average. Three things matter: how many heat and hot water complaints it drew last season, whether the records say no heat or no hot water, and whether the same condition returns year after year. Filing a 311 heat complaint of your own adds a dated record.