Tenant Harassment Findings in NYC Housing Court

Findings of harassment are rare. HPD's litigation records list 23,122 tenant harassment cases in Housing Court, and 337 of them (1.5%) carry a finding that the landlord harassed tenants. Most of those findings (257 of 337) came after an inquest rather than a full trial, and the most common penalty recorded is $2,000, the legal minimum for a first finding.

How a harassment case gets into this data

HPD says tenants can start an action in Housing Court based on a claim of harassment. Its tenant harassment page gives examples such as unjustified eviction notices or illegal lockouts, repeated interruptions of heat, water or electricity, threats and intimidation, overcharging for rent-regulated apartments, and deliberately causing construction problems. HPD also posts on HPD Online the addresses where a court has found harassment. Read our guide to tenant harassment in NYC for what counts and how to fight it.

In the Housing Litigations dataset these cases have the case type "Tenant Action/Harrassment" (spelled that way in the data). A separate field, findingofharassment, records the outcome where one was entered: "After Trial," "After Inquest" or "No Harassment." The New York courts describe an inquest as a process to decide a case where only one side is present to testify. In other words, the finding was reached after hearing only one side, typically because the owner did not appear.

Findings by year

Findings run in the dozens per year, not the hundreds. The busiest year was 2023, with 51 findings. There were 30 in 2025 and 17 so far in 2026. Findings after trial were uncommon before 2021 and have stayed at roughly 5 to 16 a year since. Two findings in the data have no finding date and are left out of this chart.

Filings rose much faster than findings. Tenants opened 900 harassment cases in 2015 and 2,761 in 2024, the most of any year in the data, followed by 2,476 in 2025. The number of findings did not rise in step, so the share of cases that end with a finding has fallen. Many recent cases are still open, though, so the newest years will gain findings as cases finish.

Where findings happen

Brooklyn stands apart. It accounts for 5,996 cases (26% of the total) but 214 findings, 64% of all findings citywide. Queens has the most cases of any borough (8,568) yet only 55 findings. The Bronx had 6,097 cases and 44 findings. The data does not explain the gap. It could reflect differences in the types of buildings, how cases are brought and defended, or how outcomes are entered, and we cannot tell which from these records.

What penalties look like

Under Local Law 165 of 2017, a court that finds harassment must impose a civil penalty of $2,000 to $10,000 for each dwelling unit where a tenant was harassed. If the owner had a prior harassment finding within five years, the minimum rises to $4,000. The court can also order the owner to stop the conduct. The law was approved on August 30, 2017 and took effect 120 days later; before that the minimum was $1,000, so some older findings in the data were decided under the lower floor.

The penalty field in the data matches that pattern. Of the 337 findings, 137 list exactly $2,000, and the median is $2,000 whether the finding came after trial or inquest. 59 findings list $0. 23 list more than $10,000, which the per-unit rule allows when several apartments are involved. The largest single amount is $558,320. Recorded penalties across all findings total $2,713,372. These are amounts entered in the record. The dataset does not say how many units each penalty covers or whether it was ever paid.

The Certification of No Harassment list

A finding of harassment can follow a building. HPD's Certification of No Harassment (CONH) pilot covers buildings with six or more units that meet at least one listed criterion, and one of them is a determination of harassment by a court or by New York State Homes and Community Renewal after October 31, 2016. Owners of covered buildings need a certificate from HPD before the Department of Buildings will accept permit applications for demolition and certain major alterations. Local Law 140 of 2021 had extended the pilot through September 27, 2026. In August 2026 the City Council passed Int. 839-A to make the program permanent and add new criteria; Council records list it as Local Law 138 of 2026, enacted September 12, 2026. Check HPD's CONH page for how the changes are being applied.

On our query date the pilot list had 1,599 buildings. Most qualify through other criteria: 1,054 are flagged under the Building Qualification Index for distress and 644 through the Alternative Enforcement Program. 78 buildings are flagged for a harassment finding, and 54 of them are in Brooklyn, consistent with where court findings cluster.

The full table

This table groups cases by the year they were opened, not the year of the finding, so its counts differ from the chart above. Cases opened before 2015 are not shown; the outcome field is almost always blank for them.

What the data can and cannot tell you

Check a building or get help

Look up any address on Roofy's NYC building lookup to see its HPD record, and read what HPD litigation records reveal. If you think you are being harassed, HPD says to call 311 to reach its Anti-Harassment Unit, and low-income tenants may qualify for a free lawyer under Right to Counsel. Our guide to HP actions explains how tenant cases in Housing Court work.