The city will soon be investigating each individual complaint regarding heat that tenants submit, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Sunday.
The initiative, which intends to reform how the city responds to heat complaints, is set to launch in a little over a week and a half, when "heat season" officially begins on Oct. 1. It changes previous city policy that allowed multiple reports from a single building to be consolidated. CityLimits reported in April the past policy allowed the city to close out thousands of individual reports without looking into them further.
Mamdani told other mayors from throughout the world during the 2026 Urban 20 Summit Sunday that the city heard repeatedly from residents about heat concerns during the series of “rental ripoff” hearings his administration held for tenants this year.
“And [this change] is a result of tenants coming forward at these hearings and saying, ‘For me, one of the quickest ways to feel relief, if that is what you are interested in, is to ensure that I have heat, and that I know how to get it resolved when I don't have heat,’” Mamdani said about the initiative.
Mamdani pledged to make reforms to the heat complaint process when he released a housing plan in May, and his office said in a report on the rental ripoff hearings this summer that inspectors “will be required to attempt an inspection for all apartments that file non-anonymous complaints,” without considering multiple complaints from a single building duplicates. However, multiple complaints from any one apartment will be considered duplicates, the report says.
Other reforms that came out of the hearings include allowing tenants to schedule certain building inspections and improving response times for elevator outage complaints.
New York City requires building owners to provide tenants with heat between Oct. 1 through May 31. Between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., if the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees, the inside temperature must be at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the inside temperature must be at least 62 degrees.
New Yorkers can make heat complaints about residential buildings by calling 311 or by using the 311 online portal. According to the site, before filing a complaint, tenants should try to resolve issues with their landlords, managing agents or supers. From there, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development will investigate the complaints.
