NYC agency · Adjudication
OATH / Environmental Control Board (OATH)
The city’s tribunal — where summonses from DOB, DSNY, DOT, DEP, DOHMH, FDNY and more are heard and penalized.
What OATH is
The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings — through its Environmental Control Board (ECB) tribunal — is where most City summonses are adjudicated. When DOB, DSNY, DOT, DEP, DOHMH, FDNY, DCWP, Parks, and other agencies write a summons with a monetary penalty, the hearing happens at OATH.
Why it matters to owners
- A single building can have summonses from many agencies, all resolved through OATH.
- Missing a hearing means a default judgment — often the maximum penalty — plus escalating fees.
- Unpaid OATH judgments can become debt and interfere with sales and permits.
How to look it up
OATH publishes hearing status and penalties. NYC Building Compliance already pulls DOB/ECB summonses in the violation lookup; the broader OATH dataset also covers DSNY, DOT, DEP, and DOHMH summonses.
Reviewed against current NYC agency guidance by the NYC Building Compliance editorial team. Found something out of date? Tell us. Informational only — not legal or engineering advice.
See your building’s open OATH violations right now.
Look up violations →Primary sources
NYC Building Compliance is an independent resource, not the City of New York. Rules and dollar amounts change — always confirm against the official pages above or a licensed professional before acting.