NYC heat season tenant calls: a phone guide for landlords and supers
By Antony Boguslavskiy · · 8 min read
The short answer
NYC heat season runs October 1 to May 31, and the temperature rules apply around the clock. Every no-heat call should capture the unit, the rooms affected, when it started, any vulnerable occupants and any safety signs, then get logged with a time. Safety calls go to 911 first; whole-building outages need a technician tonight.
It is 11:40pm on the first cold Sunday of the season. A tenant in 4C says the radiators are stone cold and she has a newborn. Do you know who she should reach, what they should ask her, and where that call gets written down?
That is what this guide covers. NYC heat season tenant calls are partly a legal question and mostly a phone question: who answers, what they capture, who gets woken up, and whether you can show later what happened and when. The rules themselves are short, so we link the official sources and spend the rest of the guide on the calls.
As of October 2026. This is general information for landlords and property managers, not legal advice. Check the current rules with HPD and with your attorney.
What NYC heat season requires (with the official source)
From October 1 through May 31, NYC owners must keep apartments at least 68°F between 6am and 10pm whenever it is below 55°F outside, and at least 62°F between 10pm and 6am regardless of the outdoor temperature. Hot water must be at least 120°F all year.
| Rule | What the official source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Season | October 1 through May 31 | NYC Admin Code 27-2029, as amended by Local Law 86 of 2017 |
| Daytime, 6am to 10pm | At least 68°F inside whenever it is below 55°F outside | Same |
| Overnight, 10pm to 6am | At least 62°F inside, whatever the outdoor temperature | Same |
| Hot water | At least 120°F, year-round | HPD heat season announcement |
| Where tenants complain | 311, by phone, website or app | Same |
HPD’s guidance tells tenants to try the owner, managing agent or super first, then file with 311 if heat is not restored. After a 311 complaint, HPD says it will try to notify the managing agent that a violation may be issued if the condition is not immediately corrected, and may send an inspector, who also checks things like smoke and carbon monoxide detectors while in the apartment (HPD). Where an owner fails to provide heat entirely, HPD says its Emergency Repair Program or Housing Litigation Division will step in.
Two practical points follow from that. First, the overnight minimum applies every night of the season, so a 2am call is not something that can wait for business hours by default. Second, the tenant calling you is the step before 311. How that call is answered matters.
What NYC heat season tenant calls should capture
A good no-heat call captures enough to decide, in one read, whether this is one radiator, one apartment, one line or the whole building, and whether anyone is at risk. Seven details do that. Write them on a card next to whoever answers the phone, or put them in your answering service’s instructions.
- Name, unit and callback number. Read the number back.
- What exactly is cold. No heat at all, some rooms, or heat that is weak? Is there hot water?
- Since when. “Since this morning” and “since Thursday” are different calls.
- Neighbors. Have they heard from other units? Is the hallway cold too?
- What they can see or hear. Radiators banging or silent, thermostat display blank, a tripped breaker in the apartment, water on the floor.
- Who lives there. Infants, older adults, anyone sick or on medical equipment. Ask plainly; don’t pry.
- Safety signs. A gas smell, a carbon monoxide alarm going off, anyone feeling dizzy or sick. These end the triage (see the script below).
If you have the indoor temperature from a thermometer the tenant owns, note it, but don’t make the call depend on it. Many tenants won’t have one.
A no-heat call script for nights and weekends
This is an example script, written so a super, an on-call staffer or an answering service can follow it at 2am. Adjust the names and numbers to your building.
Answer: “Thank you for calling Elm Court Management, this is the after-hours line. Are you calling about heat or hot water?”
Safety first: “Before anything else: do you smell gas, or is a carbon monoxide alarm going off, or is anyone feeling dizzy or sick?”
- If yes: “Please leave the apartment now and call 911 from outside. If it’s a gas smell, call the gas company too. I’m alerting our on-call team right now.” End the triage and alert the on-call person.
- If no: continue.
Details: “Can I get your name, apartment number and the best number to reach you?” (Read the number back.)
“Is it no heat at all, or some rooms? Do you have hot water? When did it start? Have neighbors mentioned it?”
Who is home: “Is there anyone in the apartment who is very young, elderly or unwell?”
Promise only what you can keep: “Thank you. I’ve logged this at 11:42pm. Our on-call technician is being contacted now and will call you back.” Or, for a single-room issue at night: “I’ve logged it, and maintenance will call you after 8am. If it gets worse or the whole apartment goes cold, call this number again.”
The script never promises an arrival time. Only promise a time if your on-call technician has given you one.
Which calls need a technician tonight
Use the details to sort each call into one of three groups. When in doubt, move it up a group, not down. This table is a starting point for your own on-call policy; set the thresholds with your super and your attorney.
| What the calls show | Group | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Gas smell, CO alarm, someone feeling sick | Safety | Caller to 911 (and the gas company for a gas smell), then alert on-call immediately |
| Several units or the whole building cold, boiler silent or in alarm | Tonight | Wake the on-call technician now |
| One apartment fully cold, with an infant, elderly or unwell occupant | Tonight | On-call technician, or a manager who decides tonight |
| One apartment fully cold, no vulnerable occupants | Tonight or early morning, per your policy | Call back within your set window, and remember the overnight 62°F minimum still applies |
| One radiator or one room cold, rest of apartment warm | Morning | Logged, maintenance calls first thing |
| Hot water only, heat fine | Per your policy | Logged; escalate if several units report it |
A cluster of calls is itself information. Three calls from different floors within an hour almost always means a building-wide problem, even if each caller only mentions their own apartment. Whoever answers should know to look for that pattern.
Keeping a record that shows you responded
A simple log shows what you knew, when you knew it and what you did. It helps you spot repeat problems, brief the technician, and answer questions later from tenants, HPD or your lawyer. Record every heat call, including the ones that turned out to be a closed radiator valve.
A log template
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Date and time of call | Oct 19, 11:42pm |
| Unit and caller | 4C, M. Alvarez (example) |
| What was reported | No heat in any room since about 7pm, hot water OK, neighbor in 4D also cold |
| Vulnerable occupants | Newborn |
| Group | Tonight |
| Who was notified, and when | On-call tech, 11:45pm |
| Callback to tenant | 11:52pm, tech arriving by 1am |
| Resolved | Boiler reset 12:50am, heat confirmed by tenant 1:30am |
Keep it somewhere it can’t be quietly edited, with times recorded as they happen. A shared spreadsheet works. So does a phone system that keeps a timestamped record of each call. Which records matter in a dispute is a question for your attorney, not this guide.
Covering the phones all season without burning out the super
Heat season lasts eight months. A single super with a cell phone on the nightstand works for a week, not for a season. Plan the coverage the same way you plan the boiler maintenance.
- Write the on-call rotation down, with a backup for each night. Post it where whoever answers calls can see it.
- Separate answering from fixing. The person who answers at 2am doesn’t have to be the technician. They need the script, the sorting table and the on-call number.
- Use one number tenants already know. Keep your existing line and forward it after hours rather than handing out a new number each season.
- Review the log weekly. Repeat units and repeat buildings point at equipment to replace before January.
If you want help with the answering part, an after-hours answering service or an AI receptionist can take the first call every time. With Vocenya, you write what counts as urgent and the number urgent calls go to under Call rules; the receptionist tells callers with an emergency to call 911, takes everyone’s details, transfers urgent calls to your on-call person when one is reachable, and sends a summary of every call by email and app notification. It answers only from what you have given it, so it won’t promise a technician’s arrival time you haven’t set. It does not replace your on-call technician or your judgment about the building.
Our pages for property management companies and apartment communities show how maintenance calls usually break down, and how NYC small businesses use AI receptionists covers keeping a 212 or 718 number. For buildings across the five boroughs, see our New York City page.
Before the next cold snap, call your own after-hours line at 11pm and listen as a tenant would. If you want to compare it with an AI receptionist, plans and the 14-day free trial are on the pricing page.