Sanitation writes more OATH summonses than anyone else. Nearly all of them look small.
The damage comes later. A $50 dirty sidewalk ticket becomes $300 if nobody shows up, and nothing on the paper you were handed makes that obvious.
Prices are at 16 RCNY § 19-103, last changed 8 November 2025.
What the common charges cost
| Charge | Rule | First | If you don’t show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dirty sidewalk | AC § 16-118(2)(a) | $50 | $300 |
| Dirty area, or 18 inches into the street | AC § 16-118(2)(a) | $50 | $300 |
| Wrong kind of bin | AC § 16-120(a) | $50 | $300 |
| Bedding put out without a bag | AC § 16-120(a) | $50 | $300 |
| Bins out early | AC § 16-120(c) | $50 | $300 |
| Snow or ice not cleared | AC § 16-123(a)–(b) | $100 | $350 |
| Littering | AC § 16-118(1)(a) | $75 | $112 |
| Dust or debris blowing | AC § 16-118(3) | $50 | $450 |
| Recycling, 1 to 8 units | 16 RCNY § 1-08 | $25 | |
| Food scraps, 1 to 8 units | AC § 16-308.1 | $25 | |
| Food scraps, 9+ units | AC § 16-308.1 | $100 |
Do it again inside twelve months, under the same rule, and the price climbs. Dirty sidewalk goes $50, $100, $100. Bin charges go $50, $100, $200. Snow and ice go $100, $150, $250.
Recycling and food scrap fines sit in the Administrative Code, not the price list. There is no set no-show amount for them. The price list has no recycling rows at all.
The defence almost nobody raises
Administrative Code § 16-118.1 limits when Sanitation can write a dirty sidewalk summons at a home. Only between 8 and 9 in the morning, and between 6 and 7 in the evening.
A residential ticket written outside those two windows can be challenged on its face. And the time it was written is printed on it.
Two more:
- § 16-324(a)(5). The number of apartments on a recycling summons is an assumption you can argue against. Correcting it changes the price band. It does not get the ticket dropped.
- § 16-324(d). Recycling summonses go to whatever address HPD, Finance or Health has on file. An old address is how owners end up losing without ever seeing the paperwork.
Set-out times: two different mistakes, one charge
Section 16-120(c) gets written for two situations people constantly mix up.
Putting trash out too early. Bags go out no earlier than 8pm the night before pickup. A bin with a tight lid, or bundled paper, no earlier than 6pm. In Saturday pickup areas it is 3pm if lidded. Bins cap at 55 gallons.
Leaving empty bins out too long. Bring them in by 9pm. Or by 9am the next morning if your pickup ran after 4pm.
Both cost the same, $50 first and $300 if you don’t show. But you fix them in opposite ways, and only one is about the night before.
Who gets the ticket
Wider than just the owner. Section 16-118(2)(a) reaches “every owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or person in charge.” That is how a ground floor shop gets cited for the sidewalk in front of a building it does not own.
Section 16-120 names the “owner, lessee, agent, occupant or other person who manages or controls.”
Throwing litter from a vehicle goes to the driver or the vehicle owner personally, at $200 for a first offence.
Can you fix it instead of paying?
Mostly no, and the honest answer matters here.
The Corrective Action Request program in § 16-143 lets Sanitation send a warning instead of a summons on a first violation. But it only covers carter sign posting, business yard waste, and parts of § 10-169(b). It does not cover dirty sidewalk, bins, snow or recycling.
What does exist:
- OATH “may waive the penalty for the first violation upon a showing of good cause” on recycling and food scrap charges. This is the strongest thing available to a homeowner with a first recycling ticket.
- $0 for a first commercial labelling or signage violation, since 15 May 2024.
- Zero for not giving tenants the yearly recycling notice, if you prove you fixed it on or before the first hearing date.
- § 16-142 gives one, two and three family homes a disaster defence to the dirty sidewalk and snow charges.
The bin rules, sorted out
Two different things get called the same thing.
The containerisation rule is 16 RCNY § 1-02.5(b). Since 12 November 2024, every building that gets city pickup, other than residential buildings of 10 units or more, has to use a rigid bin with a tight lid. Since 1 June 2026, those bins have to come from an approved seller. It is written up as a § 16-120 violation: $50 first, $300 if you don’t show. Waivers exist, with 60 days for a decision and 30 to appeal.
“LL111 required” on a summons is something else entirely. That is AC § 16-120(a)(2), from 1 April 2023. It forces rat-resistant bins on a property after two or more Health Code rat violations, or two or more under the housing code, within twelve months. It lasts two years, Sanitation can waive it, and dismissed summonses do not count toward the trigger.
Food scrap fines started 1 April 2025. Before that date, owners only got a written warning.
Buildings of 10 units or more are still a pilot, not a rule. It covers Manhattan Community District 9 and Brooklyn Community District 2 only. Applications in July 2026, start 15 October 2026, ends 15 October 2027.
One gap to watch
Local Law 67 of 2024, from 19 December 2024, created a commercial tier: $50, $300, $500 for commercial, manufacturing and industrial properties.
The price list was updated in November 2025, after that law, and still has no commercial row. It prices everyone at $50, $100, $100.
First offences agree at $50. But for a second or third commercial sidewalk violation, the law controls and the price list understates what you owe.