East Williamsburg Heat Complaints More Than Doubled This Year

EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Staying warm in your home? Chances are you're a bit colder than you were last year. Heat complaints to 311 in East Williamsburg have more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 during heat season, according to a new study based on public city complaint records.

According to the study by RentHop, a company that analyzes data to help people find an apartment to rent, residents of East Williamsburg made 236 heat complaints to the city from Oct. 1 to Dec. 18, the time period RentHop considers "heat season." That's a 118.5 percent increase from last year, when 108 complaints were filed.

Here is how RentHop defines East Williamsburg:

The building with the highest number of heat complaints in the neighborhood is 621 Metropolitan Ave., a 22-unit apartment building owned by David Weiss Inc., according to public city financial data. That building alone accrued 48 heat complaints since Oct. 1, 35 of them unique, according to the data.

East Williamsburg is not the only neighborhood with a heat complaint spike this year. All throughout the five boroughs, 311 has received 20 percent more heat complaints this year than last year, according to RentHop.

One of the culprits could be the season's first "polar vortex," which brought in 4,339 unique complaints.

Brooklyn overall received 18,956 complaints from Oct. 1 to Dec. 18, a 25 percent spike from the 15,142 complaints it received in 2015 during the same time period.

Brooklyn was the borough with the highest number of complaints and the highest increase in complaints from year to year, RentHop reported.

The Bronx, however, led with the most neighborhoods in the top 5 coldest ones of the year:

Here are the buildings throughout the five boroughs that received the highest number of heat complaints:

RentHop has put together an interactive map where you can see each neighborhood, its parameters and how many heat complaints it received in 2016 vs. 2015.

The time period between Oct. 1 and May 31 is what the city deems "heat season," and the temperature requirements by law during that time are:

It has to be at least 68 degrees F inside between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. if the outside temperature is below 55 degrees.

It has to be at least 55 degrees inside between 10 p.m and 6 a.m. if the temperature outside is below 40 degrees.

If you are experiencing perpetual heat problems, call your landlord, super or building owner. If that doesn't amount to action, the city says to call 311, and it will send an official from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to come analyze the building. The HPD could fine your landlord for a violation. If the landlord doesn't act then, the HPD will send a contractor to fix the problem for you, which would also be expensive for your landlord and something s/he might want to avoid. RentHop also recommends that you be persistent so that it's difficult for your landlord to ignore you.

You can file a heat complaint and find more information here.

Photo via public domain