NYC Benchmark Filing

I got an LL84 benchmarking violation. What now?

Updated October 16, 2026. Sources are the NYC Department of Buildings pages linked below.

Every year the NYC Department of Buildings issues violations to buildings on its Covered Buildings List that did not submit a Local Law 84 energy benchmarking report, or submitted one that failed the City's data checks. If you received one, here is what the City's own rules say and what to do, step by step.

1. Understand what the violation means

There are two kinds. Both carry the same remark in the City's violation data, "failure to file benchmarking report", so the notice itself does not tell you which one you have:

  • Failure to file. No LL84 report reached the City by the May 1 deadline for your building.
  • Data quality. A report was submitted, but the City's review (its BEAM system) flagged a problem, such as missing meters, a missing water meter, an unrealistic energy figure, or the property type "Other". The City's notice of the error goes to the building's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager contact. See rejected LL84 report: how to fix it.

Not sure which you have? Check your building on our site (free). It reads the City's public violation data and the last public filing for your address.

2. Know the penalty rule

The DOB's LL84 violations page states: Failure to benchmark may result in a penalty of $500, issued on a quarterly basis until the benchmarking report is submitted, totaling up to $2000 per year. The DOB's benchmarking page lists the dates: the main deadline is May 1, and Subsequent deadlines are August 1, November 1, and February 1 of the following year.

In plain words: a building that never filed can keep getting a new $500 violation each quarter until the report is in. The next quarterly date is November 1, 2026. For a rejected report, the same DOB page says: The Department may issue a Notice of Violation to any building on the Covered Buildings List that has not provided a fully compliant benchmarking report by the May 1 deadline. We have not found a City rule giving a separate penalty date for rejected reports, so we do not state one.

3. Decide: pay, challenge, or both

Paying. The City says: To pay a benchmarking violation penalty, log into DOB NOW at nyc.gov/dobnow and select DOB NOW Safety and Violations & Notices of Deficiency. Select +Violations Payments and Benchmarking – LL84. It adds that Payments can be made by eCheck, credit card, PayPal, or Venmo. There is a 2% surcharge for credit card, PayPal, and Venmo payments and In-person OR mail-in payments are not accepted.

Challenging. The City says: If you believe that you received a violation in error, you may challenge it. The challenge request form must be submitted to the Department within 30 days of the Notice of Violation postmark. The form is in DOB NOW: Safety, and Documentation substantiating a challenge must accompany the challenge form. The grounds the City lists include proof from the Department of Finance that the building is not a covered building, proof of timely benchmarking (a confirmation email from Portfolio Manager with a date-stamped copy of the data released to the City), proof the building was demolished or is a new building without a first TCO, and the case of a bona fide purchaser who bought the building after the year in question (deed plus a notarized affidavit).

If none of those applies to you, a challenge is unlikely to succeed. Filing or fixing the report does not by itself cancel a violation already issued, and we do not promise that it will.

4. Stop the next one

The only thing that ends the quarterly cycle is a compliant report in the City's hands. That means:

  1. A property in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager with the correct 10-digit BBL and 7-digit BIN, the right property type, and the gross floor area.
  2. A full calendar year of whole-building energy data (and water data if the City requires it for your building), with every active meter counted.
  3. The property shared with the City (NYC) in Portfolio Manager. The City says data is transferred on a nightly basis once shared, and asks you to share at least 15 business days before a deadline.

You can do all of this yourself. Filing is free, and the City runs a free NYC Sustainability Help Center for benchmarking questions. Owners hire us to save the time it takes.

What we do

NYC Benchmark Filing is a private company, not the City. We prepare and file the report for a building that never filed ($495 flat), or find and fix the error in a rejected report and resubmit it ($349 flat). Everything is by email and a short online form; we never ask for your Portfolio Manager password.

Order a filing or a fix Check your building first (free)

Sources