Local Law 87 energy audits:
the ten-year cycle.

Local Law 87 of 2009 added Article 308 to the NYC Administrative Code; the first Energy Efficiency Reports came due in 2013 (Local Law 87 of 2009; DOB Construction Codes Update #33). A covered building, per Department of Finance records, is a single building over 50,000 gross square feet, two or more buildings on one tax lot that together exceed 100,000, or two or more condominium buildings under one board of managers that together exceed 100,000 (NYC Admin Code §28-308.1 (LL 87/2009)). DOB publishes a Covered Buildings List from DOF records; the 2026 Covered Buildings List was published in March 2026 (DOB LL87 page; LL87 Covered Buildings List 2025).

Tax class 1 property — one- to three-family homes — is excluded, and DOB's FAQ treats that as the only exemption: landmark and vacant buildings are not exempt (§28-308.1 (LL 87/2009); DOB LL87 FAQ). The "owner" is the owner of record, unless a net lessee holds the whole building for 49 or more years, or the building is a condominium (the board of managers) or a co-op (the board of directors) (§28-308.1 (LL 87/2009); DOB LL87 FAQ).

The law reaches only the base building systems: envelope, HVAC, conveying (elevator) systems, domestic hot water, and electrical and lighting; tenant-owned systems (other than a 49-year net lessee's) and industrial processes are outside it (§28-308.1 (LL 87/2009)). DOF must notify the owner three years before the due year and again the year before (NYC Admin Code §28-308.6 (LL 87/2009)). LL87 is separate from Local Law 97, which has its own guide here.

The Energy Efficiency Report (EER) is filed between January 1 and December 31 of the year it is due, and again in every tenth calendar year after that (NYC Admin Code §28-308.4 (LL 87/2009)). The due year is the one whose last digit matches the last digit of the building's tax block number, per a statutory chart that Local Law 106 of 2018 re-enacted unchanged (§28-308.4.1 (as amended by LL 106/2018)). DOB's example: 280 Broadway sits on block 153, so its EER was due in 2013, then 2023, 2033 and so on (DOB Service Update 9/2014 (EER Deadlines + Filing)). Read with DOB's page, the years are (§28-308.4.1; DOB LL87 page):

For filing year 2026 — blocks ending in 6 — DOB requires the EER by December 31, 2026, and its 2025 extensions do not carry into 2026 (DOB Service Notice 2/27/2026). That 2025 relief was one-time: blocks ending in 5 had until March 31, 2026 (DOB Service Notice 11/25/2025). The audit and the retro-commissioning must each be completed no earlier than four years before the EER is filed, and may be run as one combined process (§§28-308.2.2, 28-308.3.2, 28-308.4.2 (LL 87/2009)).

Local Law 106 of 2018 also lets a co-op corporation with covered buildings on different blocks file one consolidated EER, disaggregated by building, due no later than the last building's year (§28-308.4.1 Exception 2 (LL 106/2018)). DOB's rule adds that the owner must notify DOB by December 31 of the earliest building's year, and puts buildings on different blocks that share base building systems on the highest block number's year, with the same December 31 notice (1 RCNY §103-07(i)(3)–(4)). These dates sit beside LL84, LL33, LL88 and LL97 on the compliance calendar.

Before filing, the owner must have both an energy audit and a retro-commissioning of the base building systems performed (§§28-308.2, 28-308.3 (LL 87/2009); DOB LL87 page). The audit must be at least a Level 2 audit under ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 211-2018, reported on that standard's Annex D outline; the statute's floor is ASHRAE's older Level II, and the 2019 rule adopted Standard 211 (1 RCNY §103-07(d)–(e); NYC Admin Code §28-308.1). It must identify every reasonable energy-saving measure, including capital improvements, with annual savings, implementation cost and simple payback for each; the building's Portfolio Manager benchmarking output; energy use by system with predicted savings; and how tenant-space equipment affects base building use (NYC Admin Code §28-308.2 (LL 87/2009)).

Retro-commissioning follows NEBB Standard S120-2016 and the statutory criteria, and the deficiencies it finds must actually be corrected before the EER is submitted (1 RCNY §103-07(f)). The rule requires pre-test inspection and functional performance testing of all major equipment in common areas, at least 20% in non-common owner areas and at least 10% in accessible tenant areas (1 RCNY §103-07(f)(1)–(5)). The statute groups its own criteria as operating protocols, calibration and sequencing; cleaning and repair; and training and documentation (NYC Admin Code §28-308.3 (LL 87/2009)). Keep both reports for eleven years from the required submission date, available to DOB on request, with the latest equipment manuals and retro-commissioning report on site (1 RCNY §103-07(j); §28-308.3.3).

The energy auditor must be a registered design professional — a New York–licensed PE or RA — who is not on the building's staff, and the auditor or someone under their direct supervision must be an AEE Certified Energy Manager or Certified Energy Auditor, an ASHRAE High-Performance Building Design Professional or Building Energy Assessment Professional, a BPI Multifamily Building Analyst (multifamily only) or an EMA Energy Management Professional (1 RCNY §103-07(c)(1)).

The retro-commissioning agent must be a registered design professional, a certified Refrigerating System Operating Engineer or a licensed High Pressure Boiler Operating Engineer, again not on staff, with one of ten listed commissioning credentials on the team — among them CCP, CBCP, EBCP, CPMP, BCxP, CxA and NEBB's TRCP (1 RCNY §103-07(c)(2)).

A rule amendment effective August 4, 2019 limited new EER-filer registrations to registered design professionals; legacy non-RDP "approved agent" registrations could be used only until they expired or December 31, 2021, whichever came first, and cannot be renewed, so since 2022 only RDPs may submit an EER (1 RCNY §103-07(c)(3); DOB rule notice eff. 8/4/2019; DOB Service Notice 10/15/2021). The audit is reported through the U.S. DOE Asset Score Audit Template, the retro-commissioning through DOB's Excel Retro-Commissioning Reporting Tool, the EER must include the Deep Energy Retrofit Plan Analysis tool, and submittals go to LL87@buildings.nyc.gov (DOB LL87 page; 1 RCNY §103-07(e), (g), (h)).

No audit is required, as certified by an RDP, if the building earned an EPA ENERGY STAR label in at least two of the three years before filing, or received LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings certification within the prior four years; a third route exists for building types with no ENERGY STAR rating, keyed to the LEED 2009 EB method (§28-308.2 Exception 1 (LL 87/2009)). A simple building — no central chilled-water system and no central cooling serving more than 10% of gross area — also skips the audit for its first EER only, if an RDP certifies six of seven listed items, from individual heating controls to a cool roof (§§28-308.1, 28-308.2 Exception 2 (LL 87/2009)).

The retro-commissioning exemption is far narrower: only LEED 2009 EB certification (or another DOB-approved existing-buildings system) within the prior two years that earned both EB Commissioning points; DOB's FAQ states LEED v4.1 O+M certification does not exempt a building from retro-commissioning (§28-308.3 Exception (LL 87/2009); DOB LL87 FAQ). No exception removes the filing duty: the EER must still be submitted with each report or documentation substantiating the exception (NYC Admin Code §28-308.5 (LL 87/2009)).

A new building whose first Temporary Certificate of Occupancy is under ten years old when it comes due need not file an EER or a deferral request (DOB Service Update 8/2017; 1 RCNY §103-07(o)(1)(iii)). A building under ten years old at the start of its first assigned year, or substantially rehabilitated in the prior ten years so all base building systems meet the NYC Energy Conservation Code (RDP-certified), may defer to the tenth calendar year after the assigned year by filing form EER1 by December 31 (§28-308.4.1 (as amended by LL 106/2018); DOB LL87 page (EER1 deadline)). Whether DOB accepts an EER filed before the assigned year is not spelled out in current guidance; the statute's "early compliance" provision (§28-308.7) applied only to reports filed in 2013, and today it survives only as a ground for challenging a violation (1 RCNY §103-07(o)(1)(ii)).

An owner who cannot finish the audit and retro-commissioning by the due date despite documented good-faith efforts may be granted no more than two extensions of no more than one year each, and an extension never moves later ten-year due dates (§28-308.4 Exception 1 (LL 87/2009); 1 RCNY §103-07(l)(1)). Under the rule the application, DOB form EER2, is due by December 31 of the due year (1 RCNY §103-07(l)(1); DOB form EER2). DOB's guidance for Alt-2 and Alt-3 alterations gives an earlier date — request by October 1, one year at a time, up to two — and sends Alt-1 buildings to a Request for Deferral with proof of NYC Energy Code compliance (DOB Service Update 8/2017; DOB LL87 FAQ). Neither source reconciles the two dates; filing by October 1 satisfies both.

A financial-hardship extension is annual and rests on listed grounds — for example, arrears that put the property on the DOF tax lien sale list within two years, or a tax-exempt nonprofit with two years of negative net revenue. It is due by October 1 of the due year and by December 31 of each later year requested (NYC Admin Code §28-308.1 (definition of 'Financial hardship (of a building)'); §28-308.4 Exception 2; 1 RCNY §103-07(l)(2)).

The fee schedule in 1 RCNY §101-03, which the LL87 rule points to, lists $375 for an initial EER filing, $155 for an extension request and $145 for an amendment (1 RCNY §101-03; 1 RCNY §103-07(k)); DOB's published schedule governs the current figures.

Failure to submit an acceptable EER is a Major (Class 2) violation with a civil penalty of $3,000 in the first year and $5,000 for each additional year until the report is submitted (1 RCNY §103-07(n); DOB LL87 Violations page); DOB's November 2025 service notice repeats the amounts (DOB Service Notice 11/25/2025).

A late filer therefore pays first and files second. A violation may be challenged in writing within 30 days of its postmark date, only on listed grounds: not a covered building per DOF, early compliance, a new building with a first TCO under ten years old, an approved deferral, or a granted extension (DOB LL87 Violations page; 1 RCNY §103-07(o)). How penalties are paid is not stated here; DOB's LL87 violations page is the authority. An EER selected for comprehensive review is treated as not submitted if all objections are not resolved within three revisions or two years from the first Notice of Objections, whichever comes first (1 RCNY §103-07(m)). LL87's penalty is flat; for the same building's Local Law 97 exposure, the free calculator gives an estimate from the address.