· VeriCrib Team
Class C Means Someone Could Die. A Quick Guide to NYC Violation Classes.
Class A, B, and C HPD violations, decoded: what each class means, the legal repair deadlines, and why the open date matters more than the count.
HPD sorts violations into three classes by severity: Class A (non-hazardous, 90 days to fix), Class B (hazardous, 30 days), Class C (immediately hazardous, 24 hours). Class C is the one to read closely — and how long it's been open matters more than how many there are.
The city grades apartment problems on a three-letter scale, and the letters carry legal deadlines.
Class A — non-hazardous. Peeling paint in a hallway, a missing sign. Annoying, not dangerous. The landlord gets 90 days.
Class B — hazardous. Broken plumbing, mold, roaches, mice. The stuff that makes daily life worse and health slowly worse than that. 30 days.
Class C — immediately hazardous. No heat. No hot water. A gas leak. Lead paint where children live. The law gives the landlord 24 hours, because the condition is judged capable of hurting someone today.
That 24-hour deadline is the number to hold onto, because here's what the records show happens to it. Right now, across the last two years of city data, 212,190 Class C violations sit open. Of those, 76,617 blew past their legal correction deadline more than a year ago. The deadline was one day. The wait has been four hundred.
One building makes the scale concrete: 530 East 169th Street in the Bronx currently carries 250 open Class C violations — 250 conditions the city classified as immediate threats — and the oldest has been open for 730 days. The deadline for each was 24 hours. That is not a building having a bad month. That is a building telling you, in the city's own records, exactly what your winter there would look like.
So when you read a building's file, don't just count. Ask three questions. Which class? A pile of Class A is cosmetic; a handful of open Class C is not. How long open? Fixed-last-month means things break and get repaired; open-for-two-years means they break and stay broken. And is there a pattern — the same condition, season after season?
One reassurance so the letters don't scare you off a decent building: most NYC buildings have something on file. A closed Class B from last spring is normal city living. Open Class C with birthdays is the thing this scale exists to warn you about.
Check any building's classes, deadlines, and open dates in one search. Your first three reports are full reports, free.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a Class C violation in NYC?
- An immediately hazardous condition — no heat or hot water, gas leaks, lead paint hazards — that the landlord is legally required to fix within 24 hours.
- How long does a landlord have to fix each class?
- Class A: 90 days. Class B: 30 days. Class C: 24 hours.
- Are violations a dealbreaker?
- Usually not alone — most buildings have some record. Open Class C violations that have aged past their deadline are the strongest warning sign in the file.
- What does "rent impairing" mean?
- A designated subset of serious violations that can affect rent obligations when left uncorrected — they're flagged separately in the record.