Buildings summonses carry the biggest fines at OATH. The price list behind them is not a short one. It is a table of 453 rows inside a rule, 1 RCNY § 102-01(k), current as of 21 December 2025.
There is no single “fine for a 28-301.1.” The same code section gets charged at different severity levels, at different prices. You have to know which level yours is.
Three things people mix up
The class is how serious it is, not how much it costs. Class 1 is immediately hazardous. Class 2 is major but not an emergency. Class 3 is minor. The class decides your price tier, whether you can fix it instead of paying, and how fast you have to act.
The tier is what sets the number. Every row has four prices. Standard is what you pay if you show up and lose. Default is what you pay if you don’t show up, usually five times the standard on a Class 2. Aggravated I applies if the same problem was charged against you in the last three years, usually 2.5 times. Then there is Aggravated II.
Aggravated II does not need a prior violation. It applies if someone was hurt or killed, or nearly was. Or if a lot of people are affected. Or if you refuse to give DOB information they asked for. Or if you have a history of ignoring them. A genuine first offence can land there. They have to tell you before the first hearing date if they are going for it.
What the common charges cost
Standard price first, then what it costs if you don’t show up.
| Charge | Class | Standard | Don’t show up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work without a permit, § 28-105.1 | 1 | $2,500 | $12,500 |
| Work without a permit, § 28-105.1 | 2 | $1,250 | $6,250 |
| Failure to maintain the building, § 28-301.1 | 1 | $2,500 | $12,500 |
| Failure to maintain, § 28-301.1 | 2 | $1,250 | $6,250 |
| Failure to maintain the facade, § 28-302.1 | 1 | $5,000 | $25,000 |
| Failure to maintain the facade, § 28-302.1 | 2 | $2,500 | $10,000 |
| Failure to maintain an elevator, § 28-304.1 | 1 | $1,250 | $6,250 |
| Not filing a certificate of correction, § 28-204.4 | 2 | $1,250 | $6,250 |
| Using the building against its C of O, § 28-118.3.2 | 1 | $2,500 | $12,500 |
| Pedestrian protection not up to code, BC 3307.1 | 2 | $2,400 | $10,000 |
| Job site fence, BC 3307.7 | 2 | $1,000 | $5,000 |
| Ignoring a Commissioner’s order, § 28-201.1 | 1 | $2,500 | $12,500 |
| Ignoring a vacate order, § 28-207.4 | 1 | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| No sidewalk shed or pedestrian protection where required | 1 | $10,000 |
Class 3 charges are mostly a flat $500, whether you show up or not.
Some conditions are priced on their own. No emergency power to the exit signs is a Class 1 at $5,000. Demolition without a permit is a Class 1 at $5,000. Construction safety work under § 28-201.1 runs $10,000.
Two charges keep adding money while the problem sits there. Certain Class 1 conditions add $1,000 a day for up to 45 days. Certain Class 2 conditions add $250 for one month. That is on top of the price above.
Work without a permit is two bills, not one
This is the most expensive misunderstanding in this whole area.
The OATH summons is one bill. Administrative Code § 28-213 is a second one, and it does not appear anywhere on the OATH price list:
| Building | Second bill |
|---|---|
| One or two family home | 6 times the permit fee, up to $10,000, or $600, whichever is more |
| Everything else | 21 times the permit fee, up to $15,000, or $6,000, whichever is more |
Do it again within a year and that doubles, up to the cap.
Here is the part that traps people. DOB will not accept your certificate of correction until that second bill is paid. You also cannot get a permit issued or renewed, and you cannot get a stop work order lifted. Fixing the summons alone does not close the file.
You may be able to get it waived. The rule lists cases: you bought the building in good faith afterward, the violation was dismissed, it was emergency work and you applied within two business days, the permit was for temporary equipment, it is government property. There is also a small business waiver if you have under 100 employees and the summons is from 20 November 2022 or later. It is one per business, has seven conditions, and does not cover sidewalk sheds.
Fixing it instead of paying
Go by the cure date printed on your summons. Not by a rule you read somewhere. If that box is blank or says N/A, they are not offering you a fix on that charge.
DOB has to approve your certificate by that date. Filing it on the last afternoon is not the same thing as meeting the deadline.
The published deadlines do not agree with each other, which is exactly why the printed date is what counts. DOB’s rule says 60 days from the day you were served. That went up from 40 days on 20 November 2022. OATH’s own cure handout, updated February 2026, still says 40 days from when it was issued. Two clocks, two different starting points, and neither one is printed on your ticket. The cure date is.
Class 1 is different. That certificate has to reach DOB “forthwith,” meaning right away.
Which charges can be fixed? All Class 3 charges. Some Class 2 charges, and the price list says which ones. Class 1, never.
One exception is wider than most write-ups admit. If your charge is marked Aggravated I or Aggravated II, you cannot fix it, even where the Cure column says “Yes.” Same goes for a stipulation or a reduced fine.
What fixing it actually means
All four of these are true at the same time. Fixing it:
- counts as admitting the violation
- means you don’t need a hearing
- counts as a prior violation if you get another one
- brings the fine to zero
So it is not an erasure. Aggravated I looks back three years for a prior. That means a violation you fixed can push your next one into the Aggravated I tier, at 2.5 times the price.
Filing the certificate is also its own separate duty. Every summons orders you to fix the problem and to certify that you did. Not certifying is its own charge under § 28-204.4, and that charge cannot be fixed away.
If you already missed the hearing
Your fine gets cut in half, or down to the standard amount, whichever is higher. But only after two things both happen. You file an acceptable certificate of correction with DOB, and OATH gets word from DOB that they accepted it. Filing alone does nothing.
Two other ways to pay less:
A stipulation before the hearing cuts the fine in half and gives you 75 days from your first hearing date to fix and certify. You have to admit the violation. Miss the 75 days and the full price comes back.
Mitigation cuts it in half if you prove at the hearing that you fixed it before the hearing date.
One warning if you read the table yourself. Column 7 says “Mitigated Penalty” but it only ever says Yes or No, in all 453 rows. It is a yes-or-no flag, not a dollar amount. The mitigated figure is half the standard, and you work it out yourself. For a Class 2 § 28-301.1 that is $625, a number that appears nowhere in the table.
Who gets the summons
The rule says “any person who shall violate or fail to comply.” Not just the owner.
The price list names permit holders, licensed trades, design professionals and tenants on specific charges. Site safety orientation and pre-shift meeting failures under BC 3301.11 to 3301.12 are Class 1 at $5,000 each, and they go to the permit holder.
The owner and the contractor can both be charged on different parts of the same job. The rules assume the owner and the person named on the summons may be two different people.
What changed recently
21 December 2025. Local Law 128 of 2024 folded the Electrical Code into the Construction Codes, updated electrical fines and renumbered several rules.
15 February 2025. Local Law 70 of 2024 added parking structure fines. That is why some charges now have a higher parking structure version. Not filing a certificate of correction becomes $2,500. A false statement under § 28-211.1 becomes $20,000. It also added a Class 1 $10,000 fine for occupying a sealed or padlocked building. And it now wants one certification covering every problem on a summons, instead of separate ones.
20 January 2024. Local Law 97 energy reporting arrived. Not filing that report is a Class 2 at $10,000. Local Law 88 lighting and sub-meter rules came in too, with their own $1,500 yearly fine for a missing report.