N.Y. Multiple Dwelling Law § 50-a: Entrances: doors, locks and intercommunication systems

§ 50-a. Entrances: doors, locks and intercommunication systems. 1.

Every entrance from the street, passageway, court, yard, cellar, or

similar entrance to a class A multiple dwelling erected or converted

after January first, nineteen hundred sixty-eight, except an entrance

leading to the main entrance hall or lobby which main entrance hall or

lobby is equipped with one or more automatic self-locking doors, shall

be equipped with automatic self-closing and self-locking doors and such

doors shall be locked at all times except when an attendant shall

actually be on duty. Every entrance from the roof to such a dwelling

shall be equipped with a self-closing door which shall not be

self-locking and which shall be fastened on the inside with movable

bolts, hooks or a lock which does not require a key to open from inside

the dwelling.

2. Every class A multiple dwelling erected or converted after January

first, nineteen hundred sixty-eight containing eight or more apartments

shall also be equipped with an intercommunication system. Such

intercommunication system shall be located at an automatic self-locking

door giving public access to the main entrance hall or lobby of said

multiple dwelling and shall consist of a device or devices for voice

communication between the occupant of each apartment and a person

outside said door to the main entrance hall or lobby and to permit such

apartment occupant to release the locking mechanism of said door from

the apartment.

3. On or after January first, nineteen hundred sixty-nine, every class

A multiple dwelling erected or converted prior to January first,

nineteen hundred sixty-eight, shall be equipped with automatic

self-closing and self-locking doors, which doors shall be kept locked

except when an attendant shall actually be on duty, and with the

intercommunication system described in paragraph two of this section,

provided that tenants occupying a majority of all the apartments within

the structure comprising the multiple dwelling affected request or

consent in writing to the installation of such doors and

intercommunication system on forms which shall be prescribed by the

department, except that in the event a majority of tenants in occupancy

request or consent on or after January first, nineteen hundred

sixty-eight, to the installation of such doors or intercommunication

system such installation shall be started within ninety days, but need

not be completed until six months after the owner's receipt of requests

or consents by a majority of the tenants, except that in any such

multiple dwelling owned or operated by a municipal housing authority

organized pursuant to article thirteen of the public housing law, such

installation need not be completed until one year after the owner's

receipt of requests or consents by a majority of the tenants. If the

dwelling is subject to regulation and control of its residential rents

pursuant to the local emergency housing rent control act, the local city

housing rent agency shall upon the filing of executed forms containing

the required requests or consents, prescribe the terms under which the

costs of providing such doors and intercommunication systems may be

recovered by the owner from the tenants. In any multiple dwelling built

pursuant to the provisions of the redevelopment companies law in which

residential rents are limited by contract, the costs of providing such

doors and intercommunication systems may be recovered by the owner from

the tenants. The terms under which such costs may be recovered shall be

the same as those prescribed by the local city housing rent agency in

the city in which the multiple dwelling is located for dwellings subject

to regulation and control of rent pursuant to the local emergency

housing rent control act. Such costs shall not be deemed to be "rent" as

that term is limited and defined in the contract.

4. All such self-closing and self-locking doors, and

intercommunication systems shall be of a type approved by the department

and by such other department as may be prescribed by law and shall be

installed and maintained in a manner prescribed by the department and by

such other department.

5. Every owner who shall fail to install and maintain the equipment

required by this section, in the manner prescribed by the department,

and by such other department as may be prescribed by law, and any person

who shall wilfully destroy, damage, or jam or otherwise interfere with

the proper operation of, or remove, without justification, such

equipment or any part thereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor as

provided in subdivision one of section three hundred four of the

multiple dwelling law and shall be punishable as provided therein.