NYC Building Violations by the Numbers (2026 Data Study)

01 · THE HEADLINE NUMBERSNYC's violation load, quantified

New York City is carrying a staggering backlog of open building violations. We analyzed the city's published violation records in June 2026. The short version: roughly 582,000 active DOB violations and 273,000 active ECB violations are on the books right now — and the city has imposed $3.10 billion in ECB penalties over time, with $805.7 million still unpaid.

02 · BY BOROUGHBrooklyn leads by a wide margin

Active DOB violations are not spread evenly. Brooklyn alone accounts for 41% of every open DOB violation in the city — more than Manhattan and the Bronx combined.

03 · THE BIGGEST CULPRITBoilers drive 58% of DOB violations

One category dominates everything else. Boiler-related violations — low-pressure, high-pressure, and Local Law 62/91 boiler filings — account for roughly 337,500 active DOB violations, about 58% of the citywide total. Heating equipment, and the paperwork around it, is the single biggest source of DOB exposure in New York.

• Low-pressure boiler violations: 180,899
• Local Law 62/91 boiler filings: 142,559
• High-pressure boiler violations: 14,124
• Other top categories: construction (74,730), elevators (27,295), and energy benchmarking (19,455).

04 · THE FINES$3.1 billion imposed, $805 million unpaid

On the OATH/ECB side — where violations turn into money owed — the numbers are eye-watering. Across more than 1.8 million ECB violations on record, the city has imposed $3.10 billion in penalties. Owners have paid about $1.38 billion of it. That leaves $805.7 million still outstanding — a quarter of every dollar ever imposed, sitting unpaid.

Of the active ECB violations, the largest serious tier is Class 1 (hazardous): roughly 486,000 records. These are the violations that escalate fastest and carry the steepest penalties when ignored — and a missed OATH hearing defaults straight to the maximum.

05 · WHAT IT MEANS FOR OWNERSThe takeaways

• Open violations are the norm, not the exception — with 582,000 active DOB items alone, most owners will deal with one. The differentiator is how fast you catch it.
• If you own in Brooklyn, your odds are highest — 41% of active DOB violations sit in one borough.
• Watch the boiler. If 58% of DOB violations are boiler-related, your heating system and its filings are statistically your single biggest compliance risk — especially heading into heat season.
• Unpaid fines compound. $805.7M outstanding is what happens when violations get ignored: penalties escalate, balances default, and they follow the building into every sale and refinance.

06 · METHODOLOGYHow we ran the numbers

This analysis draws on New York City's published building-violation records — the Department of Buildings (DOB) Violations dataset and the OATH/ECB Violations dataset — retrieved in June 2026. "Active" counts reflect each record's current status at the time of retrieval; ECB penalty figures are cumulative totals across all violations in the dataset. Citywide DOB borough totals sum the five boroughs (a small share of records carry non-standard borough codes and are excluded). Figures are point-in-time and will shift as the city updates its records.

Last updated: June 2026. Found this useful? Cite or link this page — the data is public; the analysis is ours.

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