Landmarks gives you the best break of any agency on this site, and the least forgiving deadline to take it. Both are in the same rule.
The price list is 63 RCNY Chapter 11, Appendix A. It started on 19 January 2019 and has never been changed.
The grace period is a true zero
If you admit it, and either prove you fixed it or just file an application to legalise the work, there is no fine at all.
The deadline is at least 14 days before your hearing date. Not thirty days. Not the hearing date itself. Fourteen days before it.
That window closes while most people are still deciding whether to take the summons seriously.
Note what it does not require. You do not have to have finished the work. Filing the application is enough.
A reduced fine is a separate, weaker thing. It is exactly half the first offence amount, never zero. The zero only comes from the grace period.
A warning letter is required before a summons, with only three exceptions. If you got a summons with no warning letter first, that is worth checking.
What the charges cost
| Violation | Type | First | Reduced | If you don’t show | Repeat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letting the building fall into disrepair | B | $3,500 | $1,750 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Not filing inspection reports | A | $2,500 | $1,250 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Changing a storefront | A | $1,500 | $750 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Changing the size or bulk of a building | A | $1,500 | $750 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Changing an interior landmark | A | $1,000 | $500 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Changing an outside feature | A | $500 | $250 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Removing green space | A | $500 | $250 | $3,000 | $5,000 |
| Flags, signs, banners, awnings | C | $250 | $125 | $500 | $500 |
| Other violations | C | $100 | $50 | $500 | $500 |
Neglect is the expensive charge. Letting a landmark fall into disrepair costs seven times the outside-feature row. It is the only Type B row on the list. Doing nothing to a landmark costs more than doing the wrong thing to one.
Lying about a fix costs $10,000.
The repeat column is a floor, not a cap
This is what changes the maths.
A Type A or Type B repeat is priced at up to $250 per day, counted from the date of the earlier finding. And LPC has no cut-off. A prior violation never expires.
So the “$5,000” in the repeat column is where it starts. A problem left alone for a year after an earlier finding is arithmetic, not a number you look up.
For demolition there is also a court route that reaches the full market value of the property.
The cost that isn’t a fine
While a landmark has an open violation, LPC says DOB will not issue permits for the property, except to fix unsafe conditions.
That blocks refinancing and it blocks a sale.
For most owners that is the real cost. Not the money, the inability to do anything with the building. We are going by LPC’s own guidance here rather than a law we have read ourselves.
Two agencies, one job, no credit
An LPC summons and a DOB summons for the same work are separate cases. Different laws, different agencies, different hearings, different price lists.
Fixing one does nothing for the other. And LPC’s grace period has no effect at all on a DOB summons.
Contractors get named here in their own right, not just owners. Both can be charged for the same work.
One conflict to know about. The law describes the grace period as running to the “return date.” The rule says 14 days before the hearing. We go by the stricter one, which is the rule.