§50-a Entrances: Doors, Locks and Intercommunication Systems

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.