An owner can get the boiler running, patch the leak and replace the detector — and still be unable to close a single HPD violation. If the building’s HPD registration lapsed on September 1, every certification of correction the owner tries to file is ineligible, and the violations stay open on the record.
Most owners think registration is the $13 line on the tax bill. It is not. Paying the fee without filing the form does not register the building — and that gap is what locks owners out of the violation process right as heat season begins.
HPD property registration is an annual filing due September 1 for every NYC building with three or more residential units, and for one- and two-family homes the owner’s family does not occupy. Missing it carries a civil penalty of $500 to $5,000, and until the building is validly registered, the owner cannot certify correction of any HPD violation.
At a Glance
- Deadline: September 1, annually. The filing window opens May 21.
- Cost: $13 per year, billed by the Department of Finance on the property tax Statement of Account due July 1.
- Who files: all residential properties with 3+ units — including hotels, condos and co-ops — plus 1–2 family homes not occupied by the owner or a family member.
- Penalty for not filing: $500–$1,500 (five units or fewer), $1,000–$5,000 (more than five units), under Local Law 71 of 2023.
- Penalty for false information: $750–$5,000, and HPD will invalidate the registration.
- The real cost: no certification of correction, no Dismissal Request, no Violation Reissuance — and, for a property with three or more units, no Housing Court nonpayment action while the registration is invalid.
Who has to register with HPD?
HPD requires an annual Property Registration Statement from owners of residential buildings that are either a multiple dwelling — three or more residential units — or a private dwelling of one to two units where neither the owner nor any family member occupies the property.
The HPD registration categories owners get wrong:
- Hotels. HPD lists hotels among the residential properties that must register.
- Condominiums. The individual unit owner does not register. The condo board registers on behalf of the building.
- Co-ops. Same structure — the shareholder does not register, the co-op board does.
- A two-family you moved out of. The moment neither you nor a family member lives there, it becomes registrable. This is the one that catches owners who turned a primary residence into a rental.
- A two-family you moved back into. The obligation does not lapse on its own. You file a Private Dwelling — Not Required to Register form to get out of the cycle, or HPD keeps expecting a registration.
HPD property registration is not the same as rent registration with New York State Homes and Community Renewal. HCR registration is due annually by July 31, and HPD notes that owners of rent-regulated premises face a fine of $500 per unregistered unit for each month the HCR registration is delinquent. A rent-stabilized building has to complete both.
What does HPD property registration cost?
HPD property registration costs $13 a year. That is the entire fee.
HPD is explicit that a valid registration requires two things, not one: payment of the $13 to the Department of Finance, and submission of a properly completed Property Registration Form to HPD. The fee is billed by DOF on the property tax Statement of Account due July 1, so it can disappear into a tax payment without the form ever being filed. Owners pay, assume they are registered, and are not.
To pay the registration charge on its own rather than inside a tax payment, DOF accepts it online by credit card or in person at a DOF Business Center. A mailed check has to say clearly that it is for the Housing-Property Registration charge and carry the borough, block and lot.
Do not send the $13 to HPD with the registration form. HPD says this delays processing, because HPD then has to forward the payment to DOF before it can be applied.
What happens if you don’t register with HPD?
Failing to register with HPD has two separate consequences, and owners usually only hear about the first one.
The penalties
Effective December 8, 2023, Local Law 71 of 2023 amended Section 27-2107 of the NYC Administrative Code. According to HPD’s property registration page, anyone required to file a registration statement or an amendment who fails to file is subject to a civil penalty of:
| Failure | Civil penalty |
|---|---|
| Not filing — multiple dwelling with five or fewer units | $500 – $1,500 |
| Not filing — multiple dwelling with more than five units | $1,000 – $5,000 |
| Willfully filing a false registration | $750 – $5,000, and the registration is invalidated |
| Failure to register, imposed by Housing Court | $250 – $500 |
Failure to register can also result in a notice of information order. HPD’s examples of a false statement are not exotic: listing the building address as the home or office of an owner or agent who neither lives nor keeps an office there, or listing a superintendent as the managing agent when the super does not serve that role. Both are common shortcuts. Both carry a $750 floor.
The lockout — this is the expensive part
HPD states it directly: buildings without valid property registration may be issued Orders, and will be ineligible to certify violations, request a Code Violation Dismissal, or initiate a court action to recover possession of the premises for nonpayment of rent.
An HPD violation closes when the owner corrects the condition and certifies the correction. If the owner cannot certify, the violation does not close — it sits open on the building record, it shows up in the title search, and the civil penalty exposure keeps running. The condition is fixed in the building and still open on paper.
An unregistered owner of a property with three or more units also loses the nonpayment remedy. HPD’s rule is that the owner is denied the right to recover possession for nonpayment of rent during the period of noncompliance, and may face a stay of proceedings to recover rent for that period. A landlord with a non-paying tenant and a lapsed registration has no leverage until the registration is valid.
Why does a lapsed HPD registration matter during heat season?
HPD property registration was due September 1. Under HPD’s heat and hot water rules, heat season runs October 1 through May 31. An unregistered building walks into heat season unable to close the most expensive violation class HPD writes.
Heat and hot water violations are Class C — immediately hazardous — and HPD’s 2023 penalty schedule gives the owner no time to correct before civil penalties can be sought. For heat and hot water violations issued on or after December 8, 2023, the penalty is $350 to $1,250 per day, and $500 to $1,500 per day for subsequent violations.
Here is the sequence for an unregistered building. A heat violation lands in November. The owner gets the boiler running the same afternoon. The owner cannot certify the correction. The violation stays open and the daily exposure keeps running while the owner sorts out a registration that should have been filed in August.
HPD may also impose a $200 inspection fee if a third or subsequent inspection within a heat season results in a third or subsequent heat violation. Uncorrected-on-paper heat violations invite repeat complaints, and repeat complaints invite repeat inspections.
For the full cost picture on heat, see what an HPD heat violation costs a landlord.
How do you register with HPD — or fix a lapsed registration?
HPD property registration is short. It is the mail step that trips people.
- Use PROS. HPD’s Property Registration Online System lets you create or update a registration and review a building’s registration history.
- Print, sign, date, and mail it. PROS does not complete the filing. The form must be signed and dated by both the managing agent and the property owner listed on it, and mailed to HPD at Church Street Station, PO Box 3888, New York, NY 10008-3888.
- Pay the $13 to DOF separately. Not to HPD, not in the same envelope.
- Verify. If no receipt or correction form arrives within 2–4 weeks, check HPDONLINE or your PROS account rather than assuming the registration went through. HPD’s Registration Assistance Unit is at 212-863-7000.
An owner who has already been issued an Order to register has a clean fix: register, and HPD administratively removes the violation. Nothing else needs to be filed to clear the Order.
The HPD registration errors worth checking before you mail:
- Payment sent to HPD with the form instead of to DOF
- Missing residential and business addresses and phone numbers for every individual listed
- Signatures that do not match the individuals named in the owner and agent sections
- Missing dates next to signatures
- A managing agent who does not live in NYC or keep a business office there
What are HPD’s rules for the managing agent on a registration?
The managing agent designation is where an HPD registration quietly goes invalid mid-year.
An HPD managing agent must be a natural person over the age of 21 who either resides in the city or customarily and regularly attends a business office maintained within the city. A post office box is not a valid business address — and HPD extends that to mail boxes at privately operated mail-handling facilities and any similar service.
Two short deadlines apply to changes in an HPD registration:
- 5 days to amend the registration if the owner’s address changes, the list of corporate officers changes, or any listed officer’s address changes.
- 8 days to file a statement designating a new managing agent if the agent dies, is declared incompetent by a court, or moves out of New York City.
The managing agent matters beyond the paperwork. According to HPD’s violation-clearing guidance, Notices of Violation are mailed to the last validly registered owner’s managing agent — or, with no managing agent, to the owner directly. A stale registration means the NOV goes to someone who no longer handles the building, the correction date passes unseen, and the first the owner hears of it is a penalty. Our guide to HPD violation removal in NYC covers what happens from there.
What does a valid HPD registration do for an owner?
Owners treat HPD property registration as a tax. It is closer to an address of record.
HPD uses the registration contact information for official notifications and emergencies at the property, and other city agencies rely on it to reach owners. HPD also sends eNotices of Complaint to owners when a complaint comes in — so a validly registered owner with a current email can learn what condition needs correcting before an inspector shows up and writes a violation.
Early notice is what lets an owner fix a condition on their own schedule instead of HPD’s. For the steps once a violation is already on the record, see how to clear HPD violations and our overview of HPD violations.
Don’t let a $13 filing hold your violation record hostage
HPD property registration is trivial. What it gates is not. An owner who lets it lapse is locked out of every mechanism for closing an HPD violation, loses the nonpayment remedy in Housing Court, and faces heat season with a daily penalty clock they cannot stop.
If you are not certain your building is validly registered — or a certification of correction keeps bouncing and nobody can say why — confirm it now. All Boro Expediter handles property registration alongside violation clearance for owners across all five boroughs, and the two problems are almost always the same problem.
Contact All Boro Expediter to confirm your registration status and clear what is open on the record, or see our full range of NYC violation and compliance services.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is HPD property registration due in NYC?
September 1, every year. HPD’s filing window runs annually from May 21 to September 1. Owners must also register whenever the registration information changes during the year, and when they first purchase a residential property that meets the registration criteria.
How much does HPD property registration cost?
$13 per year. The Department of Finance bills it on the property tax Statement of Account, annually due July 1. A valid registration requires both the $13 payment to DOF and a properly completed Property Registration Form submitted to HPD — doing one without the other does not register the building.
What is the penalty for not registering with HPD?
Under Local Law 71 of 2023, the civil penalty is $500 to $1,500 for a multiple dwelling with five or fewer units, and $1,000 to $5,000 for one with more than five. Willfully filing false information carries $750 to $5,000, and HPD will invalidate the registration. Separately, Housing Court can impose $250 to $500 for failure to register.
Can I certify an HPD violation correction if my building isn’t registered?
No. HPD states that buildings without valid property registration cannot certify correction of HPD violations, request a Code Violation Dismissal, or file for a Violation Reissuance. The violation stays open on the building record until the registration is valid and the certification is filed — even if the physical condition has been corrected.
Do I need to register a condo or co-op unit I own?
No. An individual condo unit owner or co-op shareholder does not register the unit. The condo board or co-op board registers on behalf of the building.
I received an Order to register. How do I get it removed?
Register. Once the registration is valid, HPD administratively removes the violation — no additional action or separate request is needed.
Is HPD registration the same as rent registration?
No. HPD property registration is a New York City requirement due September 1. Rent registration is a New York State requirement through Homes and Community Renewal, due annually by July 31 for rent-regulated buildings. Rent-regulated buildings must complete both, and HPD notes a fine of $500 per unregistered unit for each month the HCR registration is delinquent.
Can I use a PO box as the managing agent’s address?
No. HPD does not accept a United States Postal Service mail box, a box at a privately operated mail-handling facility, or any similar service as a valid business address for property registration. The managing agent must also be a natural person over 21 who lives in NYC or regularly attends a business office in NYC.
