NYC Building Energy Grades: Post Yours by October 31

The grade comes from Local Law 33, as amended by Local Law 95 of 2019. Each year the Department of Buildings converts a covered building's energy benchmarking data into a letter grade and a Building Energy Efficiency Rating label, which the owner must display. The DOB energy grading page spells out the schedule: labels are issued every year on October 1.

The raw material is the benchmarking report your building files each spring under Local Law 84. That submission, made through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager by the May 1 benchmarking deadline, generates an ENERGY STAR score — and the score sets the letter.

In other words, the grade your building receives this October was locked in months ago. What remains in the board's control is whether the label goes up on time.

Local Law 33 follows the benchmarking law's coverage. Per the DOB's Local Law 84 page, a building is covered if it exceeds 25,000 gross sq ft, if two or more buildings on the same tax lot together exceed 100,000 gross sq ft, or — directly relevant to associations — if two or more condominium buildings governed by the same board of managers together exceed 100,000 gross sq ft.

That last clause catches boards off guard. Two mid-size buildings that would each escape the threshold alone can be covered together because they share a board.

If you are unsure, check the Covered Buildings List for your borough-block-lot number on the DOB benchmarking page. Coverage is determined by the list, not by whether a label arrived last year.

The letter is a direct translation of your ENERGY STAR score, which the EPA calculates as a 1–100 percentile comparing your building against similar properties nationwide. A score of 50 is median performance.

Grade	What it means
A	ENERGY STAR score of 85 or higher
B	Score of 70–84
C	Score of 55–69
D	Score below 55
F	Required benchmarking information was not submitted
N	Building exempt from benchmarking or not covered by ENERGY STAR

Two grades on that table are self-inflicted. An F does not mean the building performs badly — it means nobody filed the benchmarking report. And a D building that files honestly still sits in better standing than an F building that ignored the process.

On October 1, 2026, DOB makes each covered building's new label available through its DOB NOW Public Portal property profile. From there, the DOB energy grading page gives owners a clear set of mechanics: print the label and display it within 30 days, in a conspicuous location near each public entrance, and keep it up until October 1 of the following year.

Three details boards tend to miss:

• Every public entrance needs one. A building with a main lobby and a separate residential entrance on the side street posts at both.
• Last year's label does not carry over. The display requirement runs label-cycle to label-cycle, so the 2026 label replaces the 2025 one even if the grade is identical.
• Downloading is the owner's job. DOB does not mail the label; someone — the managing agent, the super, a board officer — has to pull it from the portal and physically post it.

The label rule at a glance:

Item	Requirement
Label issued	October 1, 2026 (DOB NOW Public Portal)
Posting deadline	Within 30 days — October 31, 2026
Location	Conspicuous spot near each public entrance
Display period	Until October 1, 2027
Failure to post	$1,250 fine

DOB's benchmarking and energy rating page states the penalty plainly: failure to display the rating label brings a fine of $1,250. That sits on top of the separate benchmarking penalties — a $500 violation for missing the May 1 filing, growing up to $2,000 per year — covered in our Local Law 84 deadline guide.

This is also the single easiest violation in the building code for an inspector to spot. There is no records request and no site visit deep into the cellar — an inspector on the sidewalk either sees the label by the door or does not.

The energy grade is the only compliance document New York City makes you hang by the front door. In our experience the violation rarely comes from a bad letter — it comes from a missing one. A board can post a D and owe nothing that day; the $1,250 fine is written for the lobby that never got its label.

Boards sometimes hesitate to post a mediocre grade, as if the label itself were the punishment. It is not. Local Law 33 attaches no fine to the letter — only to the failure to display it.

The letter still matters, for two reasons. First, prewar multifamily buildings with steam heat and original windows routinely land in C and D territory, and residents will ask about it — a one-paragraph note from the board explaining the score beats a lobby rumor. Second, the same energy profile that produces a low grade drives real money under Local Law 97, which now requires annual emissions compliance reports and penalizes buildings over their carbon caps.

Treat a D as an early warning, not an insult. Efficiency work that lifts the score — boiler controls, lighting, insulation — is the same work that shrinks LL97 exposure, and it belongs in the board's reserve fund planning rather than in an emergency assessment later.

The posting rule is administratively trivial and still generates violations every year, because nobody owns it. Assign it now:

• Confirm the benchmarking filing. Verify your Local Law 84 submission went in — an F for non-filing is avoidable right up until DOB assigns it.
• Name the person. Put one name — managing agent or board officer — on downloading the label October 1.
• Map your entrances. Count every public entrance and print a label for each.
• Post and photograph. Date-stamped photos of each posted label are cheap insurance if a violation is ever issued in error.
• Brief residents on the grade. One short memo, especially if the letter is a C or D, with the board's plan.
• Calendar the whole cycle. May 1 filing, October 1 download, October 31 posting — the 2026 sustainability deadline calendar has the full year.

A managing agent should run this without being asked. If yours has never mentioned the October cycle, that is worth a pointed question at the next board meeting.