Last week, our team noticed several new violations related to emission limits. After reviewing the data, it appears the city released Local Law 97 Notices of Deficiency and backdated several of them, some as far as December 2025.
Notice of Deficiency Issuance
The city confirmed the same in a press release dated 4/22/26, stating:
A total of approximately 1,400 properties in the city that were required to submit a report to the city have failed to do so and are now facing DOB enforcement actions. Notices of Deficiency (NODs) issued by the Department have started to be mailed to these non-compliant buildings, with information about the penalties these owners now face, giving them an additional 60 days to file these late reports to potentially avoid these penalties. Attorneys in DOB’s Sustainability team are currently preparing case filings at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) for those properties that remain out of compliance with the law. Buildings will be assessed penalties following these OATH proceedings.
These NODs follow the same pattern as other recent requirement issuances (Local Law 152, AEUHAZ enforcement), where a warning is sent with a corrective timeframe before civil penalties are applied. While we’re waiting on the Sustainability Enforcement team to confirm, the city’s press release says owners will have 60 days to rectify and file Local Law 97 reports before fines are issued. Owners should have received a mailed notice confirming details, but we’ll update this page when we hear from the Department.
These violations can be found under the Emissions type on the DOB Violations page in SiteCompli or InCheck, with a structure of FTF (Failure to File) or FTX (unclear). FTX may possibly stand for exceeding limits, but we’re waiting on the Department to clarify.
Penalties For Local Law 97
As a reminder, here’s what penalties look like for Local Law 97:
For buildings subject to Article 320:
- A covered building owner must submit the annual building emissions report
Penalty for noncompliance = (Floor Area x $0.50) per month - A covered building must meet the annual emissions limit for that building
Penalty for noncompliance = ((Actual Emissions – Emissions Limit) x $268) per year
For buildings subject to Article 321 (Prescriptive List):
- A covered building owner must submit the compliance report on time
Penalty for noncompliance = $10,000 - A covered building must demonstrate compliance with one of the two compliance pathways
Penalty for noncompliance = $10,000
We haven’t seen any violations/NODs marked 321 – so far. We’ll update this post if and when we do.
What’s Next?
We’re awaiting more details from the team at the Department of Buildings on how to respond to NODs. That said, if your property received a NOD warning and is able to submit Local Law 97 reports, we recommend doing so ASAP to prevent significant potential penalties. Don’t forget – if your property is on the annual covered buildings list, Local Law 97 filings for the 2025 calendar year are due May 1, 2026 (with a grace period through June and available extensions, as detailed here).
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