How a violation is corrected, start to finish

A condition exists

Something at the property does not comply with a provision of law the Department enforces. Enforcement is overwhelmingly complaint-driven.

311 complaint or inspection

An inspector attends. Complaints come from the public through 311, from other City agencies and from DOB's own inspectors — and not every violation starts with a complaint: development inspections and required periodic filings produce them too.

• The complaint is given a priority code, A to D(continues)

  How fast DOB aims to send someone depends on how serious the complaint sounds — within a day for the most hazardous, about 40 days for serious ones, longer for the rest. These are targets DOB sets for itself, not deadlines it owes you, and for the two least urgent categories it has set no required time frame at all.

• The inspection finds nothing — no violation is issued(ends here)

  A complaint is a report, not a finding. It can close with no violation, and the complaint record is not itself a penalty.

The summons is served — and it is an ORDER, not just a charge

Two separate legal things arrive on one piece of paper: a charge to answer at OATH, and the Commissioner's order to correct AND certify. Read four fields off the face of it — the class, the CURE Date, the infraction code, and whether it says you must appear.

Note: Work to FORTY days, counted from the earliest date on your paper — in practice the issue date printed on the summons. The rule itself says sixty (amended November 2022), but DOB and OATH material printed as recently as 2026 still says forty, and being early costs nothing while being late can cost the whole zero-penalty cure. If forty days has already passed, file anyway: you are very likely still inside the rule's sixty. A printed CURE Date overrides the arithmetic entirely.

Answer the summons at OATH

A separate obligation from correcting. Every summons needs a response, and the response and the correction do not substitute for each other.

Note: Five times the standard penalty, subject to a ceiling: no default penalty in the rule's schedule exceeds $25,000, and Class 2 and Class 3 defaults stop at $10,000 — so on the largest standard penalties the multiple works out smaller. The Charter states it as the maximum prescribed by law for that charge, which is what the schedule then sets. What yours would be is fixed by the infraction code printed on your summons.

• Cure — zero penalty, no hearing(continues)

  Correct everything and get an acceptable COC in by the CURE Date. It is an ADMISSION, and it counts as a predicate against you if you are cited again. Never available on an Aggravated I or II charge, whatever the schedule's cure column says.

• ⚠ Tick the Cure Request box — or the cure does not happen(continues)

  A silent failure the City itself flags: everything else done right, the box unticked, and you get an ordinary approval plus a hearing you must attend.

• Stipulation — reduced penalty, 75 more days(continues)

  An admission that buys 75 days from the first scheduled hearing date to correct AND file. Miss that and any reduced penalty is put back up to the standard one. A decision on a stipulation cannot be appealed.

• Admit and pay before the hearing(continues)

  Paying is an admission and waives the hearing and any appeal. It does not close the violation.

• Move the hearing — once per party, per summons(continues)

  For someone who cannot attend, this is the difference between a hearing and a default. OATH also offers phone, online and by-mail hearings.

• Hearing — dismissed(ends here)

  The only ending needing neither certification nor payment. DOB may still re-inspect, reissue, or appeal.

• Hearing — in violation, or a mitigated (half) penalty(continues)

  Even a mitigated penalty leaves the Commissioner's order standing: an acceptable certificate must still be filed.

• Do nothing — default(goes nowhere)

  Every fact alleged is deemed admitted and the maximum penalty prescribed for the charge is imposed, with no hearing. The violation ALSO stays open. Then: notice, a 30-day window to avoid judgment, judgment (capped at $25,000 per respondent, alive 8 years), collection, loss of City licences and permits, and ultimately a tax lien.

• Reopen a default — once, and not only within 75 days(goes back)

  A first request within 75 days of the default DECISION is granted as of right. After that, within one year with a reasonable excuse, a Hearing Officer decides. Default twice on the same summons and there is no third chance.

• Appeal — 30 days, and pay first(goes back)

  Filed within 30 days of the decision (35 if mailed), and the penalty must already be paid in full. You cannot appeal a default, a refusal to reopen one, or a plea. For DOB summonses the Appeals Unit only RECOMMENDS — the Board issues the final determination.

Get any permit the correction needs

A correction done without the permit it required is not an approvable correction. Permits and job numbers go into the description of what was done — and the job must be signed off. DOB's own plan review can run past the correction deadline.

Correct the condition — all of it

Class 1 must be corrected forthwith. For Class 2 and 3 the rule allows sixty days, and that window has to cover filing the certificate as well as doing the work — though we advise planning around forty, for the reason given at step 3. Partial correction is not acceptable, and where one summons lists several conditions, a single certificate must cover them all.

Note: Work to FORTY days, counted from the earliest date on your paper — in practice the issue date printed on the summons. The rule itself says sixty (amended November 2022), but DOB and OATH material printed as recently as 2026 still says forty, and being early costs nothing while being late can cost the whole zero-penalty cure. If forty days has already passed, file anyway: you are very likely still inside the rule's sixty. A printed CURE Date overrides the arithmetic entirely.

Get any Stop Work or Vacate Order lifted

An order still live at the place of occurrence blocks the COC. The issuing unit lifts it — not AEU.

Pay or waive the DOB civil penalties

A different pot of money from the OATH penalty, and it blocks approval. Work Without a Permit penalties cannot be paid online — they are paid at the borough office that issued the summons. For an AEUHAZ penalty the block is statutory and also stops permits, a C of O and the lifting of a Stop Work Order.

File the Certificate of Correction in DOB NOW: Safety

Online only, with an NYC.ID account. Three roles must be named — Submitter, Certifier (personal knowledge of the correction) and Corrector (who did the work) — and if the submitter is neither the respondent nor the owner, the owner logs in SEPARATELY to attest. Documents: how it was corrected, proof the DOB penalties were paid, and supporting proof.

Note: Get it notarized. The documents conflict — the rule requires it, DOB's FAQ says the attestation replaced it — and the two mistakes are not the same size: a notarisation that was not needed costs a few dollars and an errand, while missing one that was required costs a disapproval and weeks off a deadline already running. Nothing is ever rejected for being notarized. Note also that the June 2026 guide still requires it for a LICENSED PROFESSIONAL'S statement regardless.

AEU reviews it

DOB reviews everything submitted and notifies you either way. No published turnaround: the only figure on record is an internal goal of 21 days, reported for a submission channel that no longer exists.

• Approved(continues)

  The summons is resolved. If a default penalty was imposed, acceptance also cuts it: halved, or down to the standard penalty, whichever is greater.

• Disapproved — resubmit, or dispute (not the same choice)(goes back)

  RESUBMIT replaces the rejected document or adds what was missing. DISPUTE is judged on what you already sent and nothing can be added — so a disapproval for a missing document is almost never a dispute. Ten of each, maximum.

• Approved — then re-inspected anyway(continues)

  DOB audits a sample of approved certificates by re-inspecting, to check the work was really done and the documents were not false. What happens to an approval that fails that audit is not something the City publishes anywhere we could find.

The record changes: Dismissed or Resolved

Only now does the public profile change, and the entry is not deleted — its status changes. An uncorrected Class 1 meanwhile draws a fresh FTC summons every 60 days, so the record grows while it waits.