{"id":33399,"date":"2018-11-26T15:21:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T13:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.propertyshark.com\/Real-Estate-Reports\/?p=33399"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:49:07","slug":"the-difference-between-violations-and-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.propertyshark.com\/Real-Estate-Reports\/2018\/11\/26\/the-difference-between-violations-and-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Violations and Complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

In New York City, anyone can make a complaint about a building via anonymous call to 311 or through the online portal for 311<\/a>. If the Department of Buildings (DOB) investigates the complaint, there are several potential outcomes. One of those outcomes is a formal DOB-ECB violation.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Tenants and the public can make complaints for a number of issues<\/span><\/h3>\n

There are dozens of potential reasons a tenant or the public can file an anonymous complaint about a property. While the DOB does not give specific timeframes for following up on complaints, they do assess priorities based on the severity of the issue. This list of DOB complaint categories<\/a> is a good guide to the various complaints and their priority.<\/p>\n

<\/span>A complaint remains open until it is resolved<\/span><\/h3>\n

Inspectors do not always visit a site right away. The complaint will remain on the DOB\u2019s records until an investigator can arrive onsite to investigate it. There are then two potential outcomes. One, the DOB inspector can close the complaint due to lack of evidence for an infraction. Two, they can close the complaint, but issue a DOB-ECB violation.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The impact of violations and complaints is different<\/span><\/h3>\n

There are a few main differences in the way violations and complaints impact a property. First, there is nothing a property owner or manager can do to close out a complaint. They must wait for the DOB investigation or for it to be closed administratively. Conversely, when a violation is issued, the owner or manager is able to take steps to resolve the violation and have it removed.<\/p>\n

Second, an open complaint does not have any bearing on whether or not a Certificate of Occupancy is issued and should not have an impact on the sale or refinancing of a property. An open violation is different in that with most violations, a Certificate of Occupancy will not be issued until the violation is satisfied. As a result, the property can likely not be sold and the owner cannot refinance.<\/p>\n

For real estate professionals, it\u2019s important to know how to look up building violations in NYC<\/a> and specifically, how to do a HPD violations search<\/a>, to assess a building\u2019s livability, marketability and even its ability to be sold, but also to avoid costly surprises.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Violations on PropertyShark<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re interested in a NYC property, you can easily check on PropertyShark if there are any outstanding complaints or violations associated with it. The building\u2019s history of violations and complaints can also be research, you only need to open the building\u2019s full property report and select the Violations tab. Data pertaining to HPD violations, HPD litigation and HPD charges, as well as HPD complaints, DOB complaints, DOB violations, as well as ECB violations is all aggregated here.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Conversion<\/span>
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Start researching building violations with PropertyShark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protect your investments and avoid costly surprises.\u00a0Choose a subscription and run your due dilligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See plans & services<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In New York City, anyone can make a complaint about a building via anonymous call to 311 or through the online portal for 311. If the Department of Buildings (DOB) investigates the complaint, there are several potential outcomes. One of those outcomes is a formal DOB-ECB violation. Tenants and the public can make complaints for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":33730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[796],"tags":[11172],"class_list":["post-33399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-old-how-to"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Difference Between Violations and Complaints - PropertyShark Real Estate Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propertyshark.com\/Real-Estate-Reports\/2018\/11\/26\/the-difference-between-violations-and-complaints\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Difference Between Violations and Complaints\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In New York City, anyone can make a complaint about a building via anonymous call to 311 or through the online portal for 311. 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