Despite this winter's ridiculously balmy weather, New Yorkers have registered more than 50,000 complaints with the city about inadequate heating in their apartments since Oct. 1.
The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 115,848 unique complaints via 311 about indoor heating between Oct. 1 and May 31, when landlords are legally required to heat apartments at or above certain temperatures.
The complaints were mainly concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods including Flatbush and northern Crown Heights, Washington Heights, and Bedford Park in The Bronx, according to an interactive map created by the apartment rental listings website RentHop using city data.
However, a few of New York's more affluent neighborhoods appeared in the top of the list as well: East Village residents have registered 88 percent more complaints than the rest of the city; Upper West Siders have registered 95 percent more than the citywide average.
Credit:RentHop
HPD issued 9,214 violations, collected $1,855,293 in fines, and completed more than $4 million in emergency repairs to keep New Yorkers warm.
Complaints are more likely to come from tenants whose buildings aren't well maintained and whose building managers are less accessible, according to RentHop's analysis.
"We saw more complaints from rent-stabilized apartment walkup buildings than non-rent stabilized walkup buildings," said RentHop chief executive Lee Lin, in an email to DNAinfo. "Our hypothesis is that rent-stabilized units were generally less well maintained in terms of insulation, boiler and window upgrades."
As for luxury apartments with doormen and elevators — and likely more responsive building managers — rent-stabilization appeared to be less of a factor in the volume of tenant complaints, Lin said.
Under the law, landlords must keep inside temperatures above 68 degrees Fahrenheit when outside temperatures fall below 55 degrees between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and have to keep apartments above 55 degrees when outside temperatures fall below 40 degrees at night.
You can report your heat problems here.
