November 24, 2025

Part Of HPD’s “Stay Informed, Stay Connected NYC” Campaign, The Initiative Delivers Vital Housing and Safety Information including The Importance of Self Closing Doors

New York, NY – Apartment and hallway doors in residential buildings are required by law to close and latch automatically. This critical safety feature helps contain fire and smoke, so no one has to remember to close the door during an emergency. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is reminding property owners and tenants about the life-saving importance of properly functioning self-closing doors. This citywide effort, part of HPD’s ongoing Stay Informed, Stay Connected NYC campaign, aims to ensure that tenants and owners know the best ways to protect their families, their neighbors or tenants and their buildings.

“When you are evacuating your apartment during an emergency, the last thing you should have to worry about is whether your door will close behind you. Your priority should be getting everyone to safety. Through the Stay Informed, Stay Connected NYC campaign, along with proactive enforcement in response to 311 complaints, HPD is emphasizing the critical importance of self-closing doors. For HPD, the safety of New Yorkers always comes first. Self-closing doors are a life-saving measure that help contain fires and smoke, prevent them from spreading throughout a building, and support a safer city for all,” said Acting HPD Commissioner Ahmed Tigani.

Fires happen for many reasons: unattended cooking, portable heaters, faulty electrical wiring, and open flames from candles, are among the primary causes.  During a fire when apartment, stairwell, and hallway doors are left open, fire and smoke can spread quickly through a building. Our mission at HPD is to ensure tenants remain safe in their homes, and as part of every inspection, HPD’s procedure requires inspectors to check for properly functioning self-closing doors. Our inspectors look at any public areas they pass through, including hallways, stairways, and building entrances, as well as apartment doors.

If an HPD Housing Inspector finds a defect that prevents a door from self-closing, the Department issues a Class C immediately hazardous violation. When issuing violations for self-closing doors, inspectors post a Notice to Tenants flyer within a building common area.  The notice is intended to alert other tenants in the building to check and report any apartment or common area doors that are not self-closing to the property manager/building owner so that the doors can be repaired or replaced.  Property owners must correct a self-closing door violation within 14 days of receiving the Notice of Violation and certify the repair to HPD. HPD is required to attempt to verify whether the violation was corrected after the owner correction period expires, so tenants may see HPD coming back to look at the door again.   If an owner fails to make the repair, HPD will attempt to perform emergency work to restore the self-closing function. The cost of that work is charged to the property.  Owners may also face civil penalties in Housing Court if they do not correct and certify the correction of the condition timely back to HPD following the instructions on the Notice of Violation. 

Tenants and landlords should also check these four important points to make sure their doors are operating properly:

1. The door should swing fully shut and close completely after being opened fully
2. The latch must engage (click) when the door swings shut.
3. There shouldn’t be obstruction that prevents the self-closing door from operating properly. For example, neither tenants nor owners should engage any device or item holding, or capable of holding, the door open.  Floor mats used by tenants should not slow down the swinging of the door shut.
4. The door should hang properly and fully in the entranceway; there should not be a gap at the bottom of the door, and all hinges should be intact.

What Tenants Should Do

Tenants should never tamper with self-closing doors. This includes propping doors open with objects, taping the latch, using wood wedges or kick-down door stops, or disabling the closer in any way. These actions are dangerous and can allow smoke and fire to spread quickly during an emergency.

As a tenant, you should:

• Check your door to make sure it closes and latches on its own.
• Contact your property owner if your apartment door does not self-close or if you notice other fire safety issues in the building.
• Call 311 to file a fire-safety complaint if the issue is not addressed or if you need assistance.

What Property Owners Should Do

Property owners must routinely check all self-closing doors and make prompt repairs to any defective door closers, hinges, latches, or door frames. Keeping these doors in good working order is essential for fire safety and required under City law.

As a property owner, you should:

• Inspect regularly: Ensure all self-closing doors in apartments, corridors, and stairwells are functioning properly.
• Repair promptly: Replace or repair broken door closers, hinges, latches, or damaged frames immediately to avoid violations and safety risks.
• Educate tenants: Remind residents not to disable door closers or block doors from opening.

In Fiscal Year 2025, HPD issued 72,714 violations related to self-closing doors, and approximately 60% of these violations corrected to date were corrected by the owner. HPD spent over $6.7 million in FY25 facilitating the repair of self-closing door violations not corrected by owners. HPD, based on data from HPD, the Department of Buildings and the Fire Department, also identifies 300 buildings a year to proactively inspect for self-closing doors. More information on this program can be found at Self-Closing Doors - HPD under the Tab Self-Closing Doors Proactive Inspections. 

To help ensure compliance, HPD has increased outreach to building owners and managers, offering guidance on maintenance requirements and timelines for repairs. Tenants are encouraged to report any doors that do not close automatically to 311 or online at nyc.gov/hpd, using the complaint category “self-closing door.”

For more information on tenant rights, landlord responsibilities, and key housing issues, check out HPD’s ABCs of Housing at www.nyc.gov/hpd, call 311, or visit HPD’s website.