What New Yorkers Call 311 About: 3.36 Million Water and Plumbing Complaints

What the complaint record shows

New York City publishes every 311 service request as an open dataset. Filtered to the fifteen complaint categories that concern water, plumbing, sewers or hot water, the record holds 3,355,530 requests from January 2020 to the end of September 2026. It is the largest openly published record of what residents actually report going wrong with plumbing in any US city. For the condition of the boilers behind those heat complaints, see our analysis of 889,703 NYC boiler inspection reports.

The dominant category is not what the trade would predict. Heat or hot water accounts for 49.4 percent of everything in this record, more than plumbing, water system, water leak and sewer complaints combined.

Complaints by category

Category	Complaints 2020 to 2026	Share
Heat or hot water	1,656,424	49.4%
Plumbing	431,149	12.8%
Water system	422,774	12.6%
Water leak	261,593	7.8%
General construction or plumbing	249,395	7.4%
Sewer	190,798	5.7%
Roots, sewer or sidewalk	64,176	1.9%
Water conservation	27,416	0.8%
Water maintenance	17,307	0.5%
Sewer maintenance	12,964	0.4%
Water quality	10,053	0.3%
Standing water	9,038	0.3%
Drinking water	2,035	0.1%
Building drinking water tank	272	0.0%
Water drainage	136	0.0%

Source: NYC 311 Service Requests via NYC Open Data, retrieved 2 October 2026. Categories consolidated across case variants as described below.

Yearly volume

Year	Heat or hot water	Plumbing	Water system	Water leak	Sewer	All categories
2020	165,016	39,535	50,563	21,823	24,740	351,691
2021	199,618	54,767	55,397	36,555	36,973	434,155
2022	264,390	60,344	63,165	35,679	28,343	505,144
2023	231,323	66,143	53,627	46,211	29,959	484,150
2024	264,750	69,050	65,778	45,169	26,233	525,590
2025	315,946	72,657	77,466	38,397	26,077	583,162
2026 (partial)	215,381	68,653	56,778	37,759	18,473	471,638

Source: NYC 311 Service Requests. 2026 covers January to September and is excluded from all comparisons.

The evidence

1. Total water, plumbing and hot water complaints, January 2020 to September 2026: 3,355,530. Source: NYC 311 Service Requests, retrieved 2 October 2026.
2. Heat or hot water complaints: 1,656,424, or 49.4 percent of the record. Source: NYC 311.
3. Plumbing complaints: 431,149, or 12.8 percent. Source: NYC 311.
4. Water system complaints: 422,774, or 12.6 percent. Source: NYC 311.
5. Water leak complaints: 261,593, or 7.8 percent. Source: NYC 311.
6. Sewer complaints: 190,798, or 5.7 percent. Source: NYC 311.
7. Drinking water complaints: 2,035, or 0.1 percent, the smallest meaningful category. Source: NYC 311.
8. Total complaints in 2021: 434,155. In 2025: 583,162, a rise of 34.3 percent. Source: calculated from NYC 311.
9. 2025 was the highest complete year in the record at 583,162. Source: NYC 311.
10. Heat or hot water complaints rose from 199,618 in 2021 to 315,946 in 2025, a rise of 58.3 percent. Source: calculated from NYC 311.
11. Sewer complaints fell from 36,973 in 2021 to 26,077 in 2025, a fall of 29.5 percent, the only major category to decline. Source: calculated from NYC 311.
12. Complaints by borough since 2020: Brooklyn 268,110, Queens 222,479, Bronx 212,817, Manhattan 136,129, Staten Island 64,482 across the five narrower categories first queried. Source: NYC 311.
13. The dataset begins 1 January 2020. No earlier 311 records are held in this resource. Source: NYC Open Data.

What the numbers imply

Heat and hot water dominate, and the two cannot be separated

Formula. Category share of total, and the ratio of the largest category to the sum of the next four.

Calculation. 1,656,424 divided by 3,355,530 equals 49.4 percent. The next four categories total 1,364,911, so heat or hot water exceeds their combined total by 291,513.

Finding. Nearly half of all water-related 311 contact in New York is a single combined category covering either no heat or no hot water. It outnumbers plumbing, water system, water leak and general construction complaints added together. Our no hot water troubleshooting guide covers the causes inside the heater itself.

Limitations. The 311 system records heat and hot water as one category and does not distinguish which service failed. Any statement about hot water specifically cannot be isolated from this data, and this page does not attempt to split it.

Complaint volume rose while sewer complaints fell

Formula. Percentage change by category between the 2021 and 2025 complete years.

Calculation. All categories rose 34.3 percent. Heat or hot water rose 58.3 percent. Sewer fell 29.5 percent.

Finding. The overall rise is driven almost entirely by heat and hot water. Sewer is the only major category that declined over the same period, and water leak complaints peaked in 2023 rather than 2025.

Limitations. A complaint count measures reporting behaviour as much as underlying conditions. Changes to the 311 app, outreach campaigns or enforcement priorities can move volume without any change in building conditions.

Residents almost never call about water quality

Formula. Combined share of water quality, drinking water and building drinking water tank categories.

Calculation. 10,053 plus 2,035 plus 272 equals 12,360, or 0.37 percent of the record.

Finding. Water quality concerns account for well under one percent of water-related 311 contact. Residents overwhelmingly report service failures, not contamination.

Limitations. Low complaint volume is not evidence of good water quality. Residents may not attribute health concerns to water, may contact other agencies, or may not know a problem exists. Compliance data is the appropriate source for water quality, not complaint data.

Download the data

The yearly category table is published as a CSV under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Attribution: The Plumbing Brief.

All 15 categories by year, 2020 to 2026 (CSV)

How this report was built

Methodology

Source. The NYC 311 Service Requests dataset on NYC Open Data, queried directly through the Socrata API on 2 October 2026. Our methodology pairs naturally with how long these complaints take to close, which breaks down resolution times by category and agency.

Category selection. Every complaint type containing water, sewer or plumbing in its name was enumerated first, then the fifteen relevant categories were selected. This matters: an initial query using five obvious category names captured 537,552 requests, under a sixth of the true total, because it missed the largest categories and the case variants. The enumeration step is what produced the correct figure.

Case consolidation. The dataset contains duplicate category labels in different casing. PLUMBING holds 409,006 requests and Plumbing holds 22,143. WATER LEAK holds 258,516 and Water Leak holds 3,077. HEAT/HOT WATER holds 1,654,610 and Heat/Hot Water holds 1,814. The title-case variants appear only between August and October 2023. All variants are consolidated here.

Exclusions. 2026 is partial and excluded from all comparisons. Categories outside the fifteen listed are not included.

Derived figures. Shares, year-on-year changes and category comparisons are calculated by this publication from the counts shown.

Retrieval date. 2 October 2026.

Data limitations

• This is New York City only. It is not a national complaint picture and no equivalent national dataset exists.
• The dataset begins 1 January 2020. Longer trends cannot be drawn from this resource.
• Complaint counts measure reporting behaviour, not conditions. Volume responds to app changes, outreach and awareness.
• Heat and hot water are one combined category and cannot be separated.
• General construction or plumbing is a combined category covering both, so it cannot be attributed wholly to plumbing.
• Duplicate category labels in different casing exist in the source data and were consolidated. Anyone querying this dataset without consolidating will undercount.
• A complaint is a report, not a verified fault. The dataset does not establish that a problem existed.
• Borough figures in finding 12 cover only the five categories from the initial query, not all fifteen, and are reported on that narrower basis.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1. NYC 311 Service Requests, a municipal administrative dataset published through NYC Open Data.

Tier 2. None used. Tier 3. None used.

Excluded. Any 311 figure produced without enumerating complaint categories or consolidating case variants.

Figures worth quoting

• New Yorkers filed 3,355,530 water, plumbing and hot water complaints to 311 in under seven years.
• Nearly half of them, 1,656,424, were heat or hot water, more than the next four categories combined.
• Complaint volume rose 34.3 percent between 2021 and 2025.
• Sewer complaints fell 29.5 percent over the same period, the only major category to decline.
• Water quality complaints account for 0.37 percent of the record. Residents report service failures, not contamination.

Briefing note

New York City residents filed 3,355,530 complaints about water, plumbing, sewers or hot water to 311 between January 2020 and September 2026, according to the city’s open 311 dataset. Heat or hot water, recorded as a single combined category, accounts for 1,656,424 of those, or 49.4 percent, which is more than plumbing, water system, water leak and general construction complaints added together. Total volume rose 34.3 percent between 2021 and 2025, reaching 583,162 in 2025, the highest complete year on record. The rise is driven almost entirely by heat and hot water, which grew 58.3 percent over the same period. Sewer complaints moved the other way, falling 29.5 percent. Water quality, drinking water and water tank complaints together account for 0.37 percent of the record, indicating residents report service failures rather than contamination concerns.

How reporters could frame this

1. Half of New York’s water complaints are about heat and hot water
2. Water complaints to 311 are up a third since 2021
3. Sewer complaints are the only ones falling
4. New Yorkers almost never call 311 about water quality
5. The 311 dataset undercounts plumbing unless you know its quirks

Related questions

How many water complaints does New York City get? 3,355,530 across fifteen water, plumbing, sewer and hot water categories between January 2020 and September 2026.

What is the most common water complaint? Heat or hot water, at 1,656,424 requests or 49.4 percent of the record. It is recorded as one combined category.

How many plumbing complaints are there? 431,149 in the Plumbing category, plus a further 249,395 in a combined General construction or plumbing category.

Are water complaints rising? Yes. Total volume rose 34.3 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 434,155 to 583,162.

Which complaints are falling? Sewer, down 29.5 percent between 2021 and 2025, the only major category to decline.

Do New Yorkers complain about water quality? Rarely. Water quality, drinking water and water tank categories together account for 0.37 percent of the record.

Which borough complains most? Brooklyn, with 268,110 requests across the five narrower categories measured by borough, ahead of Queens at 222,479 and the Bronx at 212,817.

How far back does the data go? 1 January 2020. Earlier 311 records are not held in this dataset.

Does a complaint mean something was actually wrong? No. A 311 request is a report. The dataset does not record whether a fault was confirmed.

Why do other 311 counts differ? Because the dataset holds duplicate category labels in different casing and the largest relevant categories are easy to miss. An initial five-category query here returned 537,552, under a sixth of the true total.

How to cite this report

The Plumbing Brief, “What New Yorkers Call 311 About: 3.36 Million Water and Plumbing Complaints”, https://theplumbingbrief.com/nyc-311-water-complaints/, accessed [date].

Last reviewed: 2026-10-02.