Heat In An Apartment
Multiple Dwelling Law § 79 — 68 degrees by day and 55 at night, from the first of October to the end of May
Every multiple dwelling is to be provided with heat, or with the equipment or facilities for it. Between the first of October and the last day of May, the heat has to be enough to hold every part of the building used or occupied for living at the minimum temperatures, which the section sets in degrees Fahrenheit:
| Hours | Outside temperature below | Inside, at least |
|---|---|---|
| HoursSix in the morning to ten at night | Outside temperature below55 degrees | Inside, at least68 degrees |
| HoursTen at night to six in the morning | Outside temperature below40 degrees | Inside, at least55 degrees |
The section also refers to the minimum temperatures set by local law, ordinance, rule or regulation, which are not set out here. A building used for single room occupancy has its heating system held to another section of the same law.
Every residential lease carries the landlord's warranty that the home is fit for human habitation and that the occupants are not subjected to conditions dangerous, hazardous or detrimental to their life, health or safety, and a lease clause giving that up is void. A good faith complaint to the landlord or a government authority about a health or safety violation is one of the acts a landlord may not retaliate against.
A stay of a rent case. Where the municipal department that enforces the housing codes has issued a notice or order about a violation, or on other proof of the condition, and the court finds it constructively evicts the tenant from part of the home or is, or is likely to become, dangerous to life, health or safety, the court hearing a case to evict for unpaid rent may stay it, but only while the tenant deposits the rent with the clerk. During the stay the court may release deposited money to pay bills for fuel and repairs, on a showing that the landlord is not meeting those obligations. The page about the rent case in court sets out the rest.
The heat rule does not reach a dwelling in a resort community rented or lived in only for the season between April fifteenth and October fourteenth, apart from a caretaker's or the owner's family living there the rest of the year. Two more exemptions in the section, for a building in an area certified for acquisition or redevelopment and for one with a demolition permit, were written to last six months at a time and never past November first, nineteen hundred sixty one. Which buildings count as a multiple dwelling is defined elsewhere in the law, and is not on this page.
Sources for this section (4)
- Multiple Dwelling Law § 79 — Heating
- Real Prop. Law § 235-b — Warranty of habitability
- Real Prop. Law § 223-b — Retaliation by landlord against tenant
- RPAPL § 755 — Stay of proceeding or action for rent upon failure to make repairs
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed New York attorney.