Free NYC Window Guard Notice

This NYC Window Guard Notice documents compliance with New York City Health Code Section 131.15, which requires owners of multiple dwellings to give every tenant written notice about window guards each year. Under 24 RCNY Chapter 12 the owner delivers that notice in the January 1-16 window and at each new tenancy, the tenant returns it by February 15, and the owner installs required guards by March 1. Window guards are mandatory wherever a child 10 or younger lives, and the owner must provide, install, and maintain them. See our tenant screening laws by state hub and how to screen tenants guide to keep your NYC tenancies documented from day one.

Complete the fields below to generate a NYC Window Guard Notice. Deliver it in writing to each occupant in the January 1-16 window and at each new tenancy, and keep a dated copy on file. The form records the building, the window guard status, the tenant’s response, the inspection details, and the annual acknowledgment.

Watch: NYC Window Guard Notice explained

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The NYC Window Guard Notice is the written notice a building owner must give every tenant under New York City Health Code Section 131.15. New York City adopted the rule decades ago after a wave of child falls from apartment windows, and it remains one of the strictest window-safety requirements in the country. The notice is not optional paperwork – it is the owner’s record that the legal duty was carried out.

The rule applies to owners of a multiple dwelling, meaning a building with three or more apartments. Under Section 131.15(a) window guards are required in any apartment where a child 10 years of age or younger lives, and they are also required whenever a tenant asks for them for any reason – under Section 131.15(c) the owner shall not refuse a tenant’s request for guards, so a tenant may request them even with no children in the home. The owner must provide, install, and maintain approved guards under Section 131.15(a)(1) and NYC Administrative Code Section 27-2043.1(a). For rent-controlled and rent-stabilized (rent-regulated) tenants only, the owner may charge up to $10 per guard; non-regulated market-rate tenants are not charged, and guards in public or common areas are always at the owner’s expense.

Two narrow exemptions exist under Section 131.15(a)(2). Window guards are not required on a window that gives access to a fire escape, or on a first-floor window that is a required means of egress – those specific windows are exempt from the guard requirement, but there is no requirement to leave any window bare. Outside those exemptions, every window that a child could reach must carry an approved guard installed to the Health Code’s specifications.

Timing is what trips owners up. The annual notice procedure lives in 24 RCNY Chapter 12 (Title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York), which Health Code Section 131.15 requires. The owner must deliver the notice to every occupant in writing in the January 1 to January 16 window each year, and again at the beginning of every new tenancy. The tenant then returns the form – indicating whether a child 10 or younger resides and whether guards are requested – by February 15, and the owner must inspect and install any required guards by March 1. That fixed schedule does not move to match a lease anniversary, so an owner who only delivers the notice at lease signing still misses the annual obligation. Many owners satisfy both duties at once by combining the window guard notice with the annual New York City Lead-Based Paint Notice required by Local Law 1 of 2004, which shares the early-January timing.

Enforcement has real teeth. Under Section 131.15(d), a window that is required to have a guard but lacks one is a public nuisance subject to abatement under NYC Administrative Code Section 17-145, and under Section 131.15(e) enforcement runs through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The stakes run higher than any violation: if a child falls from a window that should have carried a guard, the owner faces civil liability for the injury. Because the duty runs with the building, an owner who buys a multiple dwelling inherits it immediately, and the HPD Multiple Dwelling Registration recorded on the form ties the obligation to a specific, registered owner of record. Courts and agencies treat the signed annual notice as the central piece of evidence – an owner who can produce a dated notice for each unit, year after year, has a strong record of compliance, while an owner with no paperwork has little defense even if guards were in fact installed on the windows. That is why the notice is best run as a building-wide early-January routine rather than a unit-by-unit afterthought: one delivery to every occupant, logged and filed, satisfies the rule for the year and builds the paper trail that protects the owner if a question ever arises.

The tenant’s part of the form records the response. Where a child 10 or younger lives in the apartment, guards are mandatory and the tenant cannot waive them – under Section 131.15(b) the occupant shall not refuse the installation of, or interfere with or remove, required guards. Where no such child lives there, the tenant may either request guards anyway – in which case the owner must install them – or decline. The completed, signed notice is what an owner shows HPD if a complaint or inspection arises, and it is the owner’s defense to the civil liability that follows a child’s fall from a window that lacked a required guard. Pair this with thorough tenant screening and a clean screening process so your NYC tenancies start on a documented, compliant footing.

• Applies to owners of a multiple dwelling (three or more apartments).
• Written notice to every tenant in the January 1-16 window (24 RCNY Chapter 12) and at each new tenancy; tenant returns by February 15, owner installs by March 1.
• Guards required where a child 10 or younger lives (131.15(a)), or on any tenant request – the owner shall not refuse a request (131.15(c)).
• Owner must provide, install, and maintain approved guards (131.15(a)(1) / Admin Code Section 27-2043.1(a)); for rent-regulated tenants the owner may charge up to $10 per guard, and guards in public or common areas are always at the owner’s expense.
• Guards are NOT required on fire-escape-access windows or a first-floor required-egress window (131.15(a)(2)).
• A required-but-missing guard is a public nuisance subject to abatement (131.15(d) / Admin Code Section 17-145); enforced by HPD (131.15(e)).

• Deliver the notice in writing to each occupant of the apartment.
• Send it annually in the January 1-16 window (24 RCNY Chapter 12) and again at the start of each new tenancy.
• You may combine it with the annual NYC Lead-Based Paint Notice (Local Law 1 of 2004).
• Keep a dated, signed copy as proof of compliance for HPD.

• Delivering only at lease signing and missing the fixed January 1-16 annual notice window.
• Charging a market-rate tenant for guards – the $10-per-guard charge applies to rent-regulated tenants only, and common-area guards are always at the owner’s expense.
• Treating a tenant’s request as optional when no child lives there – a request still triggers installation.
• Assuming a window is exempt when it is not – only fire-escape-access and first-floor required-egress windows are exempt (131.15(a)(2)).
• Failing to keep the signed notice, leaving no proof of compliance.

• Calendar the January 1-16 notice window for the whole building and send every notice together.
• Combine with the annual lead-paint notice to cover both NYC duties at once.
• Use approved guards and document the installation date and window count.
• Keep each tenant’s signed response on file for the life of the tenancy.

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