Rent-Impairing Violations in NYC: How Many and Where

HPD flagged 67,393 housing code violations from 2025 inspections as rent impairing. That is 7.3% of the 917,928 violations HPD recorded that year. As of 2026-10-12, 20,070 of them (29.8%) were still listed as open. The Bronx had the most, and Bronx ZIP 10458 topped the ZIP list.

What "rent impairing" means

New York's Multiple Dwelling Law § 302-a defines a rent-impairing violation as a condition that is, or will become if not promptly fixed, "a fire hazard or a serious threat to the life, health or safety of occupants." HPD keeps the list of which violation types qualify, and every violation in its open dataset carries a yes/no rent-impairing flag.

The flag matters because of what the law lets tenants do. If a rent-impairing violation stays on HPD's record for six months after notice is mailed to the owner, the owner can't collect rent for an apartment where the condition exists while it stays uncorrected. A condition in a common area or another part the owner controls, counts as existing in every apartment. There are limits. The tenant has to raise it as a defense in a rent case and deposit the rent with the court, and it doesn't apply if the tenant caused the condition or refused the owner access. Read Can I withhold rent for repairs? before you act on it.

The trend: up 53% since 2018

HPD recorded 44,037 rent-impairing violations from 2018 inspections and 67,393 from 2025 inspections. The count fell to 31,287 in 2020, a year when total violations also fell sharply (to 424,855), held at about 44,000 in 2021 and 2022, then jumped in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 it was nearly flat against 2024 (66,992), even though total violations fell from 995,412 to 917,928. That pushed the rent-impairing share up to 7.3%, just below 2020 (7.4%) and above every other year since 2018.

What kinds of conditions get the flag

The rent-impairing list is short but covers the conditions that make an apartment hard to live in. Among 2025 rent-impairing violations, 38,947 were Class C (immediately hazardous), 27,567 were Class B (hazardous) and only 879 were Class A. The most common HPD order numbers, with a plain-English summary of the wording we saw when sampling their descriptions:

Missing hot water leads by a wide margin, followed by inadequate heat and leaking roofs. Items left in public halls, plumbing defects, no cooking gas, rats and illegal fastenings on doors come next. See what to do with no heat or hot water and cooking gas outage rights.

Where they are: boroughs

The Bronx had 24,443 rent-impairing violations from 2025 inspections, more than any other borough. Brooklyn was close behind. Raw counts follow the number of inspections, though, so it helps to look at the share. In Manhattan, 9.5% of all 2025 violations were rent impairing, the highest of the five boroughs. Queens had fewer, but 36.5% of its 2025 rent-impairing violations were still open, the highest open share.

Where they are: ZIP codes

9 of the 15 ZIPs with the most rent-impairing violations are in the Bronx. Together those 15 ZIPs account for 26,351 violations, 39% of the citywide total. Brooklyn's 11226 is the only non-Bronx ZIP in the top five, and Manhattan's 10031 is the only Manhattan ZIP in the top 15.

Limits of this data

• Counts follow inspections. Violations only appear where HPD inspected, so a ZIP with more complaints, more old buildings or more apartments will tend to show more violations. These are not rates per apartment.
• One condition can produce several violations. A building without hot water can get a violation for each apartment inspected.
• "Open" is not the same as "unfixed." A violation stays open on HPD's record until it is cleared, for example after the owner certifies the repair. Some open violations may already be fixed but not yet cleared.
• The flag alone doesn't stop rent. The six-month clock under § 302-a runs from notice to the owner, and a court decides whether the defense applies.
• The dataset updates daily. These numbers are a snapshot taken on 2026-10-12; the live counts will drift as violations close.