data . willkara
dataset · HPD via NYC Open Data

HPD Maintenance Code Violations

Every Housing Maintenance Code violation issued by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The substrate beneath every "worst landlord" feature, the join key for every tenant-advocacy tool. Joins to PLUTO via BBL.

About this dataset

HPD's Housing Maintenance Code Violations, mirrored on NYC Open Data as Socrata dataset wvxf-dwi5. Each row is one violation issued at one BBL (Borough-Block-Lot). BBL is NYC's standard parcel identifier — a 10-digit number encoding borough, tax block, and tax lot — which means this dataset joins directly to PLUTO, HPD Litigations, ACRIS, and any other dataset keyed on parcel.

Hazard classes

Violations are classified by severity: Class A (non-hazardous — cosmetic peeling, missing window guards), Class B (hazardous — broken locks, defective plaster), and Class C (immediately hazardous — lead paint, no heat, no hot water, pest/rodent infestation, fire egress problems). The Class C share by neighborhood is the canonical environmental-justice signal.

The corporate-veil problem

The named owner on each violation is often an LLC that exists for one building. Tenant- advocacy tools (JustFix.nyc's Who Owns What, the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project) join this dataset against the city's mailing-address registries and ACRIS deed records to identify the same beneficial owner behind dozens of LLCs — exposing serial offenders who use corporate opacity to dodge accountability. Multi-LLC offenders are a primary use case for the open data, not a side effect.

Source

  • Catalog page: NYC Open Data
  • Endpoint (SODA v3): POST https://data.cityofnewyork.us/api/v3/views/wvxf-dwi5/query.json
  • Violations: —

Caveats

  • Violation count is a function of inspection rate as much as conditions. A neighborhood with tenants who know how to file complaints and call 311 will accumulate more violations than a neighborhood with the same physical conditions but lower civic engagement.
  • violationstatus can be Open, Closed, NOV (Notice of Violation issued), or Dismissed. "Closed" doesn't always mean "fixed" — sometimes it means HPD couldn't reinspect within a window.
  • Borough strings here are uppercase WITH SPACE ('STATEN ISLAND', not 'STATEN_ISLAND'). Yet another inconsistency from the 311 convention.

Citation

NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (2026). Housing Maintenance Code Violations. Retrieved recently via NYC Open Data SODA v3.