NYC Heat and Hot Water Complaints: 2025-26 Season vs Last Season

NYC tenants filed 340,196 heat and hot water complaints with HPD during the 2025-26 heat season (October 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026). That is 61,008 more (+21.9%) than the 279,188 filed in the 2024-25 season. The Bronx again had the most complaints, and January 2026 was the busiest single month of either season.

What counts as a heat complaint

Building owners must provide heat from October 1 through May 31 and hot water at 120°F or more all year. During the day (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.), when it is below 55°F outside, the inside temperature must be at least 68°F. At night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) it must be at least 62°F whatever the outside temperature, according to HPD. Tenants report problems through 311, and HPD logs each one in its Housing Maintenance Code complaints dataset. This report counts distinct complaint IDs in the HEAT/HOT WATER category. Check your own apartment with the heat season temperature checker.

Month by month: higher in every month

The 2025-26 season ran above 2024-25 in every month from October to May. The gap was biggest at the start: October 2025 had 31,692 complaints against 19,758 a year earlier (+60.4%). February was also far higher (+44.7%). December was nearly flat (+1.5%). Both seasons peaked in January, and January 2026 alone accounted for 23% of the season.

Complaints do not stop when heat season ends, because hot water is required all year. Between June and September 2025, tenants filed 14,760 complaints in this category, between 3,229 and 4,541 a month. That is the baseline the October jump starts from.

Every borough went up

All five boroughs had more complaints in 2025-26. Brooklyn grew fastest (+30.1%), followed by Manhattan (+24.2%) and Queens (+20.4%). The Bronx rose +15.4% and still led by a wide margin, but its share of the city total slipped from 36% to 34%.

About two-thirds of complaints were filed as building-wide outages rather than a single cold apartment. A building-wide outage often draws many complaints from different tenants for the same problem, so complaint counts track how many people reported, not how many separate outages there were. (The two categories add up to slightly more than the total because a few complaints list both.)

Which community districts had the most

The ten busiest community districts accounted for 141,297 complaints, about 42% of the city total. Manhattan Community District 12 (the northern tip of Manhattan) led with 21,438, followed by several Bronx districts. Complaints rose in 53 of the 59 districts. The largest percentage jumps came in districts with smaller totals, so a few hundred extra complaints moves the percentage a lot. 6 districts fell: Bronx CD 12, Queens CD 5, Queens CD 8, Queens CD 10, Queens CD 13, Staten Is. CD 2. The biggest drop was in Bronx CD 12, from 12,931 to 11,857.

The new season so far

The 2026-27 heat season started on October 1, 2026. In its first ten days (October 1-10), tenants filed 4,317 heat and hot water complaints, compared with 2,975 in the same ten days of 2025 (+45.1%). Ten days is a short window and early October weather varies a lot from year to year, so this is not a forecast for the season.

What this data can and cannot tell you

• Complaints are not violations. A complaint is a report. HPD may find heat restored, be unable to get into an apartment, or issue a violation. See HPD complaints vs violations.
• The data does not explain the rise. Weather, how often people use 311, and building conditions all affect counts. This report does not adjust for temperature, so a colder month or season will push numbers up on its own.
• Counts are not per person or per unit. Districts with more rental apartments will usually have more complaints. Compare a district with its own past, not only with others.
• Some records lack a valid district. 277 complaints in 2025-26 carried a community board code outside the 59 districts and are left out of the district table, but are included in the city and borough totals.
• Data is revised. HPD updates the dataset daily. Figures here were pulled on 2026-10-12, with the latest record received on 2026-10-11.

All 59 community districts

Method

We queried NYC Open Data dataset ygpa-z7cr on 2026-10-12 with SoQL, filtering to major_category = HEAT/HOT WATER and received dates inside each heat season (October 1 to May 31), then counted distinct complaint IDs grouped by borough, month and community board. Seasons cover the same eight months, so they compare like for like. The exact query URLs are stored with this report's data file.