999 Willoughby Ave Tenants Association

Numbers worth having in your phone

Getting a repair made — the ladder

Each rung builds the record for the next one. Don't skip the paper.

1. Tell the super or landlord — in writing. Text and email count and are far better than a hallway conversation. Log it here so the date is fixed.
2. Give a reasonable window — immediately for no heat, no hot water or a gas leak, days for other problems, but don't let it drift.
3. Call 311. Say what's broken, how long, and that you already told the landlord. Write down the SR number and put it in this portal's entry. HPD may call you back — answer, or the complaint can be closed.
4. Let HPD inspect. An inspector verifying the condition creates a violation against the building. That's the thing with legal weight.
5. Send a formal repair letter. This portal drafts one for you (Log → open the entry → “Landlord letter”). Certified mail is strongest; keep the receipt.
6. Go together. A letter from the association listing every affected apartment lands differently than five separate complaints (Overview → “Draft building-wide letter”).
7. Housing Court — an HP Action. Tenants can sue the landlord to force repairs; you don't need a lawyer to start one and the fee is small. Housing Court Answers walks you through it: 212-962-4795.

Heat & hot water — the actual numbers

• Heat season runs October 1 – May 31.
• Day (6am–10pm): at least 68°F inside when it's below 55°F outside.
• Night (10pm–6am): at least 62°F inside, whatever the weather.
• Hot water: 120°F, year-round, 24/7 — including summer.
• Buy a cheap thermometer. A photo of a thermometer beside a clock and a window is exactly the evidence that wins these cases — attach it to your report here.
• Call 311 every time it happens, not once for the winter. Each call is a separate record, and the pattern is what moves HPD.

Violation classes — and the landlord's deadline

• Class C — immediately hazardous. The deadline depends on the condition: no heat or hot water — no grace period, it must be restored immediately; mice, rats or roaches, peeling lead paint, window-guard violations, or mold of 30 sq ft or more in a room — 21 days; self-closing doors — 14 days; everything else in class C (no water or electricity, gas leaks, broken entrance-door locks) — 24 hours. (If you smell gas, don't wait for any deadline: leave the building and call 911 — see the top of this page.) HPD's emergency repair program can do class C work and bill the owner.
• Class B — hazardous: persistent leaks, mold of 10–29 sq ft in a room, pests other than mice, rats or roaches, broken plaster, defective windows or outlets. 30 days.
• Class A — non-hazardous: small cracks, chipped non-lead paint, mold under 10 sq ft, minor wear. 90 days.
• Every clock runs from the date HPD serves the violation, not from when you first noticed the problem — so report it to 311 right away: no report, no inspection, no violation, no clock.
• Past the deadline is the association's strongest fact. The Overview keeps a simpler building-wide count — from the day each condition was logged here, 24 hours / 30 / 90 days by class — as an early warning; check the violation's service date on HPD Online before citing a legal deadline.

Look up your building and your landlord

• HPD Online — the building's open violations, complaints from the last two years, and who is registered as the owner. Free, no account. Check it before a meeting or a letter. Closed violations and older complaints are on NYC Open Data — this portal's Overview pulls the building's violations, open and closed, from there.
• Who Owns What (JustFix) — links the LLC on your lease to the rest of the landlord's portfolio. Useful when the owner claims your building is an isolated problem.
• JustFix — a free Letter of Complaint: a repair-request letter sent to your landlord by certified mail. (Its old HP Action tool was retired in 2021 — for an HP Action, Housing Court Answers walks you through it.)

Rights that don't depend on your lease

• Warranty of habitability (RPL §235-b): every lease includes the right to a livable, safe, sanitary home. It cannot be waived, and no lease clause overrides it.
• Right to organize (RPL §230): tenants may form an association, and the landlord must allow meetings in a common area at reasonable hours, free.
• No retaliation (RPL §223-b): a landlord may not raise your rent, refuse to renew, or move to evict because you complained to 311/HPD or organized. If it happens within a year of your complaint, the law presumes retaliation.
• Eviction requires a court order — always. Lock changes, removed belongings, or shut-off utilities to force you out are illegal.
• Harassment — including sustained failure to make repairs — is actionable in Housing Court.

Rent, stabilization and overcharges

• Get your rent history — free. It shows every registered rent for your apartment and whether it's stabilized. Call 833-499-0343, email RentInfo@hcr.ny.gov with your address, or text “RENT HISTORY” to 855-610-2450 (JustFix’s free text bot, which files the request for you).
• If you're rent-stabilized, increases are capped each year by the Rent Guidelines Board, renewal is your right, and a gap or jump in the history can mean an overcharge you can claim back.
• Stabilized tenants can also file with HCR for a rent reduction for reduced services when conditions go unrepaired — the rent stays frozen until it's fixed.
• hcr.ny.gov · Rent Guidelines Board

If you're behind on rent or got court papers

• Never ignore court papers. Missing a date is how tenants lose cases they would have won. Go, even if you have no lawyer yet.
• You may have a free lawyer — Right to Counsel. Low-income NYC tenants facing eviction are entitled to one, regardless of immigration status. At your first appearance, say plainly: “I would like an attorney.”
• Repairs are a defense. If the landlord hasn't kept the apartment habitable, that can reduce or offset what's owed — your logged, dated record here is exactly that evidence.
• Help with arrears: call 311 and ask about Homebase (eviction prevention) or a one-shot deal for back rent.
• Housing Court Answers — 212-962-4795

Free legal help

Voting — registration, deadlines, where

Tenant power is votes: the council member, the borough president and the state legislators who write housing law all answer to the people registered at addresses like this one.

• This November: the general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026 — governor, Congress, the state legislature. Polls 6am–9pm.
• Register by October 24 (mailed forms: postmark by October 19). New York has no same-day registration — miss the deadline, miss the ballot.
• Early voting runs October 24 – November 1, nine days including two weekends. No lines, same ballot.
• Mail ballots: apply online by October 24 (in person until November 2); return postmarked by November 3.
• Ranked choice voting applies to NYC primaries and special elections for city offices — not to this November's general.
• Finished a sentence, or on parole? In New York you can vote as soon as you're out of prison — register like anyone else.

Documenting it so it counts

• Dates beat adjectives. “Cold since Nov 3, reported Nov 3 by text, 58°F at 7am” is evidence. “It's freezing all the time” is not.
• Photograph everything, with something in frame that shows time or scale — a thermometer, a clock, a ruler beside the crack.
• Log every call: date, who you spoke to, what they promised, and the 311 SR number. This portal has fields for all of it.
• Keep a copy off your phone. Settings → Export — the shared log and an Excel export mean one lost phone doesn't erase the building's record.
• Individual complaints get individual fixes; pooled, dated records from many apartments change buildings — in negotiations, at HPD, and in court.