FDNY gives you the best deal at OATH, and the shortest time to take it. Get your certificate of correction in on time and a first violation costs nothing.
Miss the hearing instead and every category defaults to the same number: $1,000.
Prices live at 3 RCNY § 109-03 and Appendix A. That table has “effective 10/1/2017” printed at the top. That is just the table’s title, not a sign it is out of date. The same line appears inside the 2023 update that created the current version.
What a first violation costs
Each row is a violation category. The code in brackets is what appears on your summons.
The middle column is what you pay if you show up and prove you fixed it by the hearing date.
| Category | Fine | If you fixed it | If you don’t show up |
|---|---|---|---|
| VC12, fire protection systems (BF12) | $950 | $475 | $1,000 |
| VC9, roof access and exits (BF09) | $950 | $475 | $1,000 |
| VC17, certificates of fitness (BF17) | $750 | $375 | $1,000 |
| VC12, unnecessary alarms (BF-35) | $750 | $375 | $1,000 |
| VC5, recordkeeping (BF05) | $700 | $350 | $1,000 |
| VC20, inspection and testing (BF20) | $600 | $300 | $1,000 |
| VC6, signs and postings (BF06) | $600 | $300 | $1,000 |
| VC19, affidavits and design documents (BF19) | $575 | $300 | $1,000 |
Three charges sit outside this structure. A false certification is $2,500 for a first offence. Ignoring a Commissioner’s order is $1,250. Smoking on a construction site is a flat $1,000.
Missing the hearing, and the 18-month clock
The rule says a no-show gets “the maximum penalty provided by law for a first violation.” That is why the last column is a flat $1,000 across all thirty categories, no matter what the normal fine was.
A second or later violation jumps to $5,000 if you don’t show. Second means the same person, on the same rule or category, within 18 months.
The 35-day fix
Your certificate of correction has to reach the Administrative Enforcement Unit at the Bureau of Legal Affairs by close of business on the 35th calendar day from the date of the offence on your summons.
If you are a first offender and you make it, you do not have to go to the hearing and you pay nothing.
Three things to be clear on:
- The clock starts on the date of the offence. Not the day you were served, and not your hearing date. It is the shortest fix window of any agency here.
- Filing it means admitting the violation. You can ask for more time.
- Three charges cannot be fixed at all: not certifying, false certification, and ignoring a Commissioner’s order.
If you miss it, there is still a fallback. Show up at OATH and prove you fixed it by the hearing date, and the fine is cut in half.
Alarms work in a sequence
Nobody gets fined $750 for one false alarm. Saying it that way leads people to the wrong strategy.
Rule 3 RCNY § 907-01 makes it illegal to send two or more unnecessary alarms in any three month period. On the second alarm, the owner gets a summons with a chance to certify a fix without a hearing and without a fine.
You only become liable on an alarm after that summons, within six months of it. And every new notice restarts the six months.
The recordkeeping that gets written alongside it: keep the alarm log at the alarm panel, in a bound book, not a spiral one, for three years. Clean smoke detectors every six months and test them yearly. Keep a separate detector log, also three years.
You will see “ECB hearing” in the rule. ECB is now the OATH Hearings Division. They never updated the wording.
Who gets the summons
The owner, normally, for fire protection systems, inspection and testing, and roof access.
A certificate of fitness holder is personally liable on VC17 charges. You have to produce the certificate on demand, and the monthly sprinkler check sits on the holder.
On recordkeeping, signs and certificate charges in a rented space, no rule says whether the owner or the operator pays. That gets argued at the hearing rather than looked up.
What changed recently
The last confirmed change was the Small Business Forward amendment, adopted 21 April 2023 and effective 30 October 2023. It cut the VC19 first violation from $600 to $575, the only dollar change in that rule. Section 109-02 was rewritten in April 2022 for the 2022 Fire Code renumbering.
As of August 2026 there is no adopted 2024 to 2026 change to §§ 109-01, 109-02 or 109-03. Two things are proposed and waiting: a change to the fire code violation categories, and certification of corrected defects in fire alarm installations.