When you look up an NYC building, you'll often see two separate categories of violations — HPD and DOB. People conflate them constantly, but they come from different agencies, cover different problems, and tell you different things about a building. Knowing which is which changes how you read a building's record — especially before signing a lease.
At a glance
- HPD = Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Governs living conditions inside apartments and residential buildings — heat, hot water, leaks, pests, paint, mold.
- DOB = Department of Buildings. Governs the physical structure and construction — the building's bones, systems, and safety, plus illegal or unpermitted work.
- A building can have a clean HPD record and a troubling DOB record, or vice versa — you need both.
- HPD violations most directly affect tenants day-to-day; DOB violations can signal larger structural, legal, or safety problems.
HPD: how the building is maintained
HPD enforces the Housing Maintenance Code — the rules about whether a residential building is livable. Its violations are the ones tenants feel: no heat in January, a leak that won't get fixed, a roach infestation, peeling lead paint, broken door locks. HPD violations are graded Class A/B/C by hazard level, and they're the record that most directly reflects your day-to-day experience as a resident. Here's how to read an HPD violation record in detail.
If your quality of life in an apartment is the question, HPD is the record to read.
DOB: how the building is built and altered
DOB regulates construction and building safety — the structure itself, elevators, boilers, facades, electrical and plumbing work, and whether alterations were done legally with proper permits. DOB violations flag things like: work done without a permit, failure to file required inspections (facade, elevator, boiler), illegal conversions (e.g., a basement turned into apartments without approval), and unsafe structural conditions.
DOB violations matter in different ways. An illegal conversion can mean your apartment isn't a legal dwelling unit — which affects your rights and the building's stability. Unaddressed facade or boiler violations can mean deferred major-systems maintenance. A history of unpermitted work can signal an owner who cuts corners in ways that eventually reach the apartments.
Why you need to read both
Because they're separate systems, a building can look fine in one and troubling in the other:
- Clean HPD, messy DOB: the apartments may be maintained day-to-day, but there could be structural or legal issues (unpermitted work, open safety violations) that surface later.
- Messy HPD, clean DOB: the bones may be sound, but the building isn't being maintained for the people living in it right now.
- The buildings you most want to avoid show patterns in both.
| HPD | DOB | |
|---|---|---|
| Agency | Housing Preservation & Development | Buildings |
| Governs | Living conditions inside residential buildings | Structure, construction, building safety |
| Typical violations | No heat/hot water, leaks, pests, paint, mold | Unpermitted work, facade/boiler/elevator, illegal conversions, unsafe structure |
| Who feels it | Tenants, day-to-day | Building-wide, longer-term |
| Graded by | Class A / B / C (hazard level) | Violation type & severity |
There's also an ownership signal: an owner who lets both records pile up is telling you how they operate. A single old DOB violation is noise; a pattern of open violations across both agencies is a decision.
How to check both at once
You don't need to visit two agency websites and cross-reference. Every building report in our catalog pulls HPD and DOB records together in one place, translated into plain English, so you can see the full picture — living conditions and structure — before you sign anything. Look up any NYC building for free. And for the fuller set of tenant protections tied to what you find, start with whether your apartment is rent-stabilized.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between HPD and DOB violations? They come from two different city agencies and cover different problems. HPD — the Department of Housing Preservation and Development — enforces the Housing Maintenance Code, governing living conditions inside residential buildings: heat, hot water, leaks, pests, paint, and mold. These are the violations tenants feel day-to-day, and they're graded Class A, B, or C by hazard level. DOB — the Department of Buildings — governs the physical structure and construction: the building's bones, systems, and safety, plus illegal or unpermitted work. HPD violations most directly affect your daily quality of life; DOB violations tend to signal larger structural, legal, or safety problems that surface over the longer term. A building can look fine in one system and troubling in the other.
Why do I need to check both HPD and DOB records? Because they're separate systems, a building can look clean in one and troubling in the other, and each tells you something the other doesn't. A building with a clean HPD record but a messy DOB record may be maintained day-to-day while carrying structural or legal issues — unpermitted work, open safety violations — that surface later. The reverse, messy HPD but clean DOB, means the bones may be sound but the building isn't being maintained for the people living in it right now. The buildings you most want to avoid show patterns in both. So reading only one record gives you half the picture; to judge a building before signing a lease, you need both together.
What do DOB violations tell me about a building? DOB violations flag problems with the building's structure, systems, and legality rather than its day-to-day upkeep. Typical ones include work done without a permit, failure to file required facade, elevator, or boiler inspections, illegal conversions (like a basement turned into apartments without approval), and unsafe structural conditions. These matter in specific ways: an illegal conversion can mean your apartment isn't a legal dwelling unit, which affects your rights and the building's stability; unaddressed facade or boiler violations can signal deferred major-systems maintenance; and a history of unpermitted work can signal an owner who cuts corners in ways that eventually reach the apartments. A single old DOB violation is noise, but a pattern is a decision.
How do I check both HPD and DOB records for a building? You don't have to visit two separate agency websites and cross-reference them yourself. Every building report in Weverit's catalog pulls HPD and DOB records together in one place, translated into plain English, so you can see the full picture — living conditions and structure — before you sign anything, for free. When you read them together, watch for the ownership signal: a single old violation in either system is noise, but an owner who lets both records pile up is telling you how they operate. A pattern of open violations across both agencies isn't bad luck — it's a decision about how the building is run.
Weverit provides independent, tenant-side research from New York City public records. This article describes the roles of HPD and DOB in general terms and is not legal advice.
