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Compliance · New York City only

NYC Local Law 88

The deadline passed in 2025. Penalties accrue every year until the reports are filed.

Local Law 88 required every New York City building over 25,000 square feet to bring its lighting up to the energy code and to put electrical sub-meters on its larger tenant spaces, then to file two attestations with the Department of Buildings by May 1, 2025. A building that has not filed is charged $1,500 a year for each missing report, plus $500 a year for each covered tenant space without a sub-meter, and paying the penalty does not close the obligation. This page is about the cure: what the law asks for, who can sign for it, and how to file late.

Checked October 28, 2026. Local Law 88 is a New York City law; it does not reach Westchester, Long Island or New Jersey.

Who it reaches

Covered by size. Tenant spaces by floor area.

Local Law 88 uses the same 25,000 square foot threshold as benchmarking and Local Law 97, so a building can be covered here and still be under the 50,000 square foot line for Local Law 87. Within a covered building, the sub-metering requirement attaches to individual tenant spaces, and the floor-area test for those is 5,000 square feet, not the 10,000 that some vendor pages still print.

Reach

Is the building covered?

  • One buildingOver 25,000 gross square feet
  • Several buildingsTwo or more on one tax lot totalling over 100,000 square feet, or under one condominium board totalling over 100,000
  • Not coveredOne-, two- and three-family homes, tax class one property, and garden-style apartment complexes (the garden-style claim needs a package signed by a registered design professional)
  • Still coveredLandmarked buildings and museums. Buildings on the State or National Register are exempt from the lighting work but must still file
  • How to checkThe DOB Sustainability Law Covered Buildings List for 2026, published March 2026; only buildings that have not yet shown compliance are listed for Local Law 88
Tenants

Which tenant spaces need a sub-meter?

  • Covered spaceA space over 5,000 gross square feet, on one or more floors, leased to one tenant
  • Shared floorA floor over 5,000 gross square feet divided among two or more tenants
  • ExemptDwelling units in R-2 and R-3 buildings, and any space that already has a utility meter dedicated to it alone
  • No covered spacesThe building still files, with an attestation that it has none
  • StatementsEvery sub-metered tenant receives a monthly statement of its electricity use
May 1, 2025

Both reports were due. Buildings that filed a compliance plan by December 31, 2025 had until May 1, 2026.

New York City
May 1, 2026

Deadline for every covered building that had not yet shown compliance (DOB service notice, February 27, 2026). The 2025 extensions did not carry into 2026.

New York City
Now

A building that has still not filed owes the annual penalties for each year since 2025 and can file at any time to stop them.

New York City

What it requires

Two pieces of work, two attestations.

Articles 310 and 311 of the Administrative Code set the work; rule 1 RCNY §103-18 sets the reports. Both reports are filed per building, by Building Identification Number, through the DOB's BEAM portal, with the filing fee paid in DOB NOW: Safety. The 2025 fee was $115 for both reports together, waived for buildings filing a Local Law 97 report the same year; DOB has not published a separate 2026 fee.

Article 310

Lighting upgrades

  • The standardThe whole building's lighting must meet the lighting power allowance and control requirements of the New York City Energy Conservation Code in force when the work was done. The current code is the 2020 NYCECC, section C405
  • Already compliantLighting installed on or after July 1, 2010 that met the code in force at the time
  • ScopeThe entire building, including tenant spaces under 5,000 square feet
  • ExemptDwelling units in R-2 and R-3 buildings; A-3 spaces in houses of worship
  • The reportAn attestation that the whole lighting system was inspected and upgraded as required
What a controls review examines →
Article 311

Electrical sub-metering

  • The workOne or more electrical sub-meters measuring each covered tenant space
  • The reportA list of every covered tenant space, an attestation that sub-meters are installed in all of them, and a sample monthly tenant statement uploaded to BEAM
  • PermitsElectrical work may need a permit; re-lamping existing fixtures usually does not. DOB's electrical permit page decides
  • After filingA covered space found without a sub-meter is a separate violation, assessed each year until the meter is installed
Benchmarking uses the same tenant data →

Who does what

Three signers the rule allows, and no outside auditor.

Unlike Local Law 87, Local Law 88 does not require an engineer to file. The owner submits each report, and one of three licensed professionals attests that the work is complete and meets the code.

1

Registered design professional

A professional engineer or registered architect licensed in New York State. The same signer that Local Law 87 and Local Law 97 require, so a building already working with one can have the same firm attest here.
2

Licensed master electrician

Licensed by the Department of Buildings. The usual signer when an electrical contractor performed the lighting retrofit or installed the sub-meters.
3

Licensed special electrician

Licensed by the Department of Buildings to perform electrical work for a single employer, such as a large institution's in-house staff. May attest for that employer's buildings.

How ieComfort fits

The attestation is the last step. Before it, somebody has to confirm which fixtures and controls meet the code, which tenant spaces cross the 5,000 square foot line, where sub-meters are already dedicated, and whether the monthly statements tenants receive match the meters. That survey is controls and metering work, and it is the part ieComfort performs. The signature on the Professional Attestation Form comes from one of the three licensed roles above. [Confirm: does ieComfort have a licensed master electrician on staff or a named electrical partner who signs? J-2.7, S-109]

The cure

Four steps, in this order.

A building that missed the deadline is not locked out. DOB's rule assesses the penalty annually "until such report is filed", which means filing stops the next year's charge. The work is the same as it would have been before the deadline; the only difference is that the attestation describes work completed late.

1

Survey the lighting and the tenant spaces

Walk every space with the current lighting schedule. For each fixture type, record the installed wattage and controls against the 2020 code allowance; for each tenant space, record the floor area, the lease, and whether a dedicated meter or a sub-meter already serves it. The survey shows which areas, if any, fall short of the code.

2

Close the gaps

Replace or re-lamp the fixtures that exceed the allowance and add the controls the code requires (occupancy sensors, daylight controls, scheduling). Install sub-meters on each covered tenant space that lacks one and set up the monthly statements. Where the building has a building automation system, the sub-meter data can be brought into it so that tenant statements and the Local Law 84 benchmarking report draw on the same numbers.

3

Have a licensed professional attest

A registered design professional, licensed master electrician or licensed special electrician inspects the completed work and signs the Article 310 and Article 311 Professional Attestation Forms.

4

File both reports in BEAM

Submit per Building Identification Number through the BEAM portal, upload the covered-tenant-space list and a sample monthly statement, and pay the fee in DOB NOW: Safety. Keep the attestation forms and the lighting schedule; DOB may inspect, though the law does not require it to.

Why it matters beyond the penalty

Local Law 97's good-faith-effort pathways require Local Law 88 compliance. A building that expects to rely on good faith to soften an emissions penalty in 2026 or later cannot get there until the lighting and sub-metering reports are on file. The lighting work also counts toward the emissions limit, because a watt not drawn by a fixture is a kilowatt-hour not carried in the Local Law 97 calculation.

How the 2030 emissions limits change →

Who pays

The law makes you do it. Con Edison pays for part of it.

Lighting retrofits and lighting controls are prescriptive measures in Con Edison's commercial program; the sub-meters themselves are compliance equipment, not an incentive measure. Nothing on this page is an off-invoice discount: Con Edison pays by check after the project is approved, installed and inspected.

Lighting

Con Edison, 2026 program year

  • Who qualifiesNon-residential accounts over 100 kW average peak demand on a rolling 12-month basis; accounts between 100 and 300 kW may use the Small Business and Non-Profit program instead
  • What it paysPrescriptive incentives per fixture and per control for LED retrofits and lighting controls, set by the New York Technical Resource Manual; custom projects paid on measured kilowatt-hours saved
  • WhenApproval comes before purchase; the incentive is mailed to the customer, or to the contractor with the customer's written approval
  • ExpiryThe 2026 manual expires December 31, 2026. As of October 28, 2026 no 2027 manual has been published; figures change with it
Incentives and financing in both states →
Photo placeholder: lighting retrofit or sub-meter panel

New York State note: NYSERDA cost-shares energy studies through FlexTech, but the Local Law 88 survey is a code compliance check rather than an energy study, so budget it as compliance work.

If the reports are late

$1,500 a year per report. $500 a year per unmetered space.

Rule 1 RCNY §103-18 sets three penalties, each assessed annually until the condition is cured: $1,500 for a missing lighting report, $1,500 for a missing sub-meter report, and $500 for each covered tenant space without a sub-meter after the report is filed. An owner may ask DOB in writing to review a reporting penalty within 30 days, and DOB answers within 60. DOB has stated that a building which failed to file by an extended 2025 deadline is treated as a non-filer. These are the amounts in the rule; DOB has published no data on how many Local Law 88 penalties it has issued.

One building, two reports

Find out whether your building is listed, and what the cure would involve.

Send the building's address and, if you have them, the current lighting schedule and the rent roll. We check the 2026 Covered Buildings List, identify the covered tenant spaces, and set out what has to be surveyed, installed and attested before the reports can be filed.

Until the screening tool is live, this is a short intake form.

Sources and dates

NYC Administrative Code Articles 310 and 311 (Local Law 88 of 2009, as amended by Local Laws 132 and 134 of 2016); 1 RCNY §103-18 (adopted December 14, 2023); NYC Department of Buildings, "Local Law 88: Lighting System Upgrades and Sub-metering" page and FAQ (2025); DOB, "Complying with LL88" (November 2024); DOB Service Notice, "Reminder: Deadlines for Sustainability Laws in 2026" (February 27, 2026); DOB Sustainability Law Covered Buildings List 2026 (March 2026); Con Edison Commercial and Industrial Energy Efficiency and Building Electrification Program Manual, Program Year 2026, Version 1.1. Last reviewed October 28, 2026. Re-check when DOB publishes a 2026 filing fee or a 2027 service notice, and when Con Edison publishes its 2027 manual.