FirstService Residential

The largest managing agent in New York City — unlicensed in New York State

1,122 buildings. 5,610 Class C violations. No state license. No disciplinary body.

1,122 buildings managed

5,610 Class C violations
(immediately hazardous)

343 buildings with
Class C violations

5.0 violations
per building

PORTFOLIO GEOGRAPHY

1,122 buildings across all five boroughs.

FirstService Residential is the largest managing agent in New York City by building count. Their portfolio was identified through analysis of publicly available NYC housing registration records. The firm self-identifies in its registration filings, making portfolio mapping straightforward.

560 Queens

408 Manhattan

124 Brooklyn

29 Bronx

1 Staten Island

THE PATTERN

Habitability cliff.

FirstService's distinguishing pattern is what we call a habitability cliff: the firm's worst buildings accumulate massive numbers of Class C violations — conditions that HPD classifies as immediately hazardous to life and health — while maintaining relatively low LL11 facade penalty exposure compared to firms like AKAM.

Where AKAM's failure mode is financial (letting deadlines expire and absorbing penalties), FirstService's failure mode is operational: the buildings with the worst conditions are the ones where day-to-day habitability has degraded. Heat failures, water infiltration, pest infestations, lead paint hazards, mold — these are the violations that make a building unsafe to live in, not unsafe to walk past.

The top 25 FirstService buildings alone account for over 2,500 Class C violations. These are not paperwork failures. These are homes where residents are living with conditions the city classifies as immediately dangerous.

COMPARED

Two firms. Two ways of failing.

FirstService and AKAM — the two largest firms we've scored — show fundamentally different failure patterns. Neither is better. Both are unregulated.

FirstService top 25

~2,500 Class C violations

5 boroughs geographic spread

1,122 total buildings

Habitability failures. Day-to-day conditions that are immediately hazardous to residents.

AKAM top 25

~1,900 Class C violations

$5.5M LL11 penalty fees

543 total buildings

Fee abandonment. Lets facade deadlines expire and absorbs the financial penalty.

THE 25 WORST FIRSTSERVICE BUILDINGS

Ranked by Class C violations.

Class C violations are HPD's highest severity — conditions that are immediately hazardous to life and health. These 25 buildings represent the worst-performing properties in FirstService's 1,122-building portfolio.

#	Address	Borough	Class C Violations
1	6801 Bay Parkway	Brooklyn	212
2	850 East 31st Street	Brooklyn	201
3	255 Eastern Parkway	Brooklyn	191
4	304 10th Street	Brooklyn	150
5	344 West 72nd Street	Manhattan	143
6	151 East Mosholu Pkwy N	Bronx	130
7	1925 Quentin Road	Brooklyn	115
8	2686 Morris Avenue	Bronx	109
9	201 Brighton 1st Road	Brooklyn	100
10	402 Bay Ridge Parkway	Brooklyn	98
11	298 10th Street	Brooklyn	95
12	715 West 175th Street	Manhattan	88
13	215 West 116th Street	Manhattan	87
14	275 Park Avenue	Brooklyn	84
15	143-50 Hoover Avenue	Queens	76
16	42-22 Ketcham Street	Queens	74
17	300 West 79th Street	Manhattan	71
18	310 Lenox Road	Brooklyn	67
19	790 Riverside Drive	Manhattan	66
20	2805 Heath Avenue	Bronx	66
21	1840 Grand Concourse	Bronx	66
22	98 Morningside Avenue	Manhattan	65
23	99-52 66th Road	Queens	55
24	123-25 82nd Avenue	Queens	53
25	3535 DeKalb Avenue	Bronx	53

Source: HPD Violations (NYC Open Data). Class C = immediately hazardous to life and health.

DATA SOURCE

Public records. 1,122 buildings.

The FirstService Residential portfolio was identified through analysis of publicly available NYC housing registration records. Every building on this page is verifiable through city data. The methodology is proprietary but the underlying data is not.

RIGHT OF REPLY

We believe in hearing both sides.

FirstService Residential has not yet been contacted for comment on this page. Per our Editorial Standards, we will request comment before publication and include any response verbatim, up to 500 words, alongside the relevant content.

1,122 buildings. 5,610 hazardous violations.
Zero regulatory consequences.

The largest managing agent in New York City operates without a state license, without a public complaint registry, and without a disciplinary body. Every data point on this page comes from free public records.

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