The LL97 annual filing
grace period closes
June 30. Here is
the penalty math.
Two days from now, buildings that have not filed face $0.50 per square foot per month in late fees starting July 1. Buildings over their 2025 cap owe $268 per metric ton of CO2-equivalent right now. Companion to LL97: The $20 Billion Carbon Penalty.
Local Law 97 attached two separate financial penalties to covered buildings: one for failing to file the annual emissions report on time, and one for filing but reporting emissions above the legal limit. The two penalties are calculated differently and owed to separate enforcement tracks. June 30, 2026 is the last day to avoid the late-filing penalty. The emissions violation penalty for buildings over their 2025 limit is already accruing. This post separates the two clocks, shows the math on each, and explains what changed on May 1, 2026 for buildings still over their cap.
Two penalties, two clocks.
Local Law 97 (NYC Administrative Code §28-320) creates two independent financial obligations for covered buildings. Treating them as the same problem is the most common board mistake.
The first is a late-filing penalty. Every covered building must file an Annual Emissions Report by May 1 of the year following the calendar year being reported. New York City allows a 60-day administrative grace period. For the report covering 2025 emissions, that grace period runs through June 30, 2026. Buildings that have not filed by the close of business on June 30 incur a penalty of $0.50 per square foot per month for each month the report remains unfiled. A 25,000-square-foot building (the statutory coverage threshold) owes $12,500 per month. A 200,000-square-foot residential building owes $100,000 per month.
The second is an emissions violation penalty. If a building files on time but reports greenhouse-gas emissions above its annual cap, it owes $268 per metric ton of CO2-equivalent over the limit, assessed per year. Filing the annual report on time does not reduce or waive the emissions violation penalty. The only paths to reducing it are bringing the building into actual compliance through retrofits, offsetting emissions with qualifying Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), or qualifying for a Good Faith Effort waiver. All three require advance action. None can be initiated after the fact.
What the June 30 deadline covers.
The Annual Emissions Report for 2025 energy use was due May 1, 2026. Buildings that did not file by May 1 entered a 60-day grace period that runs through June 30, 2026. During the grace period, no late penalty accrues. After June 30, the late-filing clock starts.
Buildings that still need more time after June 30 may file a formal extension request through the BEAM Portal (the Buildings Energy and Emissions Analysis Module, the Department of Buildings' online compliance platform) on or before June 30 for a $60 fee. An approved extension moves the filing deadline to August 29, 2026. The extension suspends the late-filing penalty while pending, but it does not reduce any emissions violation penalty owed for exceeding the 2025 limit, and it does not reset any compliance plan deadlines that have already passed.
Buildings that have not yet filed and do not file an extension by June 30 will begin accruing the late-filing penalty on July 1, 2026, at $0.50 per square foot per month.
The emissions violation calculation.
Each covered building has an annual emissions limit set by 1 RCNY §103-14 (the Calculation of Emission Limits for Buildings rule) and calibrated by building occupancy type. For multifamily residential buildings, the limit for the 2024-2029 compliance period is 6.75 kilograms of CO2-equivalent per square foot per year. The 2030-2034 limit drops to 4.07 kgCO2e per square foot, a 40 percent reduction from the current period.
A building's total permitted annual emissions equal the per-square-foot rate multiplied by gross floor area. Any emissions above that total constitute a violation. Violation emissions are converted from kilograms to metric tons (divide by 1,000) and multiplied by $268.
| Building size | Actual rate (kgCO2e/sf) | Cap (6.75 × sf ÷ 1,000) | Excess (metric tons) | Annual penalty at $268/ton |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 sf | 7.25 | 675 tCO2e | 50 | $13,400 |
| 150,000 sf | 7.50 | 1,012.5 tCO2e | 112.5 | $30,150 |
| 200,000 sf | 8.00 | 1,350 tCO2e | 250 | $67,000 |
These figures recur every year the building remains over its cap. They do not amortize or disappear after one payment. Based on 2024 energy performance data, the Urban Green Council estimates approximately 9 percent of covered properties exceed their 2024 GHG cap. Buildings with oil or central steam heat, particularly pre-war residential buildings, represent the highest-concentration category. Steam heat produces more CO2-equivalent per BTU than natural gas, and a central steam plant cannot be partially electrified without replacing the entire system.
The Good Faith Effort deadline has already passed.
NYC Administrative Code §28-320 provides a penalty mitigation mechanism for buildings that exceed their emissions limit but can demonstrate a qualifying Good Faith Effort (GFE). A GFE submission requires a detailed decarbonization plan: specific energy-efficiency measures, capital upgrade schedules, cost estimates, projected emissions reductions, and a documented path to 2030 compliance. Buildings with an accepted GFE plan on file can receive a waiver or reduction of emissions violation penalties for the applicable compliance period.
The deadline to file a GFE decarbonization plan covering the 2024-2029 compliance period was May 1, 2026. That date has passed. Buildings that did not file a qualifying plan by May 1, 2026, and are over their 2025 emissions limit, owe the base rate of $268 per metric ton for 2025 violations. Starting with the 2026 reporting year, those buildings face a rate of $404 per metric ton, 50 percent above the base, applied annually until they either reach compliance or file a qualifying plan that the DOB accepts.
The practical consequence: a building currently emitting 250 metric tons above its limit owes $67,000 for 2025. Without corrective action or a filed plan, it owes $101,000 for 2026, $101,000 for 2027, and the same amount each subsequent year through 2029. The 2030 cap of 4.07 kgCO2e/sf is 40 percent tighter. Buildings that carry today's emissions profile into the 2030 compliance period will face a much larger overage calculated at a rate that may increase further under the statute's 2035 and 2050 ratchets.
Which buildings face the most exposure.
The Urban Green Council estimates that approximately 57 percent of all covered NYC buildings will exceed their 2030 emissions limit. Most of those buildings appear to be within the 2024-2029 cap today, but the margin is thin. A building emitting at 6.5 kgCO2e/sf is just under the 6.75 current limit and will be 60 percent above the 4.07 limit when 2030 arrives. The current compliance period is the retrofit window. Buildings that treat it as a planning period rather than an execution period will be starting retrofits under time pressure in a contractor and equipment market that will be heavily overloaded.
The NYC Accelerator maintains a free building-level LL97 dashboard at accelerator.nyc/ll97. Entering a BBL (Borough-Block-Lot number) returns the building's estimated compliance status based on LL84 benchmarking data on file with the DOB. Buildings that have not filed LL84 benchmarking data will not generate a projection. The LL84 deadline for buildings over 25,000 square feet is May 1 annually, the same date as the LL97 report.
What to do before June 30.
If the 2025 Annual Emissions Report has not been filed, two options remain before June 30:
- File through the BEAM Portal by June 30. The managing agent or energy consultant handles the submission. The filing requires the building's 2025 energy use data matching the LL84 benchmarking record on file with the DOB. If neither the agent nor any consultant has raised this deadline, ask today.
- File a $60 extension request by June 30. A filed extension suspends the late-filing penalty and extends the reporting deadline to August 29, 2026. It does not extend the GFE plan deadline, which has passed, and it does not reduce any emissions violation owed for exceeding the 2025 limit.
If the building is over its emissions limit, the step after filing is retaining an energy consultant to model a compliance pathway and, if no GFE plan is on file, assessing whether the DOB will accept a late plan submission for purposes of the 2027 and later penalty rate. The statute is not explicit on late GFE submissions. Boards in this position should obtain legal counsel before assuming the elevated $404/ton rate is unavoidable.
Bottom line.
LL97 runs two separate penalty clocks. The late-filing clock closes on June 30 for buildings that submit their 2025 Annual Emissions Report by that date or file a valid extension. The emissions violation clock runs continuously, at $268 per metric ton for 2025, rising to $404 per metric ton for 2026 and beyond for any building that did not file a qualifying GFE decarbonization plan by May 1, 2026. The 2030 compliance cap is 40 percent tighter than today's. Buildings using the 2024-2029 period only to study the problem rather than to execute retrofits will face a larger compliance gap at a higher penalty rate. June 30 is not the end of the LL97 story for most buildings. It is the date that determines which penalty track they enter next.
Primary sources: NYC Local Law 97 of 2019 (NYC Administrative Code §28-320); 1 RCNY §103-14, Calculation of Emission Limits for Buildings; Annual GHG Emissions Limits for Buildings (NYC Rules); Urban Green Council LL97 compliance analysis; NYC DOB LL97 Extension Request User Guide.
Companion resources: LL97: The $20 billion carbon penalty and the vendor-extraction stack • C-PACE financing gap for co-ops and condos • FDNY steam-era staffing rules and LL97 retrofit costs • NYC Electrical Code 2025 and LL97 retrofit permits • The NYC local law extraction stack