New York City sets legal minimum temperatures that residential building owners must maintain during the colder months. If you’re a tenant left in the cold, or an owner trying to stay compliant, here’s how the rules work.
When is “heat season”?
Heat season in New York City runs from October 1 through May 31. During this window, owners of residential buildings are required to provide heat that meets the city’s minimum indoor temperatures.
The required indoor temperatures
- Daytime (6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.): when the outdoor temperature falls below 55°F, the indoor temperature must be at least 68°F.
- Nighttime (10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.): the indoor temperature must be at least 62°F. Recent city rules require this overnight minimum regardless of the outdoor temperature.
Owners must also provide hot water at a minimum of 120°F year-round, not just during heat season.
These are the figures the city publishes as its heat and hot water standards. Rules can be updated, so if you need the current legal text, check NYC’s Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) resources or call 311.
What to do if your building has no heat
- Tell the owner or super first. Often it’s a boiler that failed and needs a technician. Give them a chance to fix it, and note the date and time.
- Document it. Record the indoor temperature and the dates. A cheap indoor thermometer is enough.
- Call 311. You can report a heat or hot water complaint to the city, which logs it against the building.
- Get a tech moving. Owners and supers can call us to connect with a licensed boiler contractor and restore heat quickly.
For owners and supers
A no-heat complaint during heat season is both a tenant hardship and a compliance risk. The fastest way to close it out is to get the boiler diagnosed and running. We connect owners and managing agents with licensed, insured technicians around the clock, and we prioritize building-wide outages. Keeping up with an annual boiler tune-up before October is the best way to avoid a heat-season failure in the first place.