New York City has opened a temporary program that lets people and businesses settle old Environmental Control Board (ECB) judgments for less than they owe. It’s called Debt Demolisher (or Local Law 147), and it started October 13, 2026 and runs through January 10, 2027. If your firm or one of your clients has an unpaid judgment on the books, the clock is running.
How a Violation Becomes an ECB Judgment
The Environmental Control Board is a division of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. It decides violations issued by city agencies, including the Departments of Buildings, Sanitation, and Transportation. If a respondent is found liable, or never responds, the ECB imposes a penalty. When a final order like that is entered in civil court, the money owed becomes a judgment.
Who’s Eligible
All outstanding judgments that meet these criteria are eligible:
- were entered in court before July 15, 2026
- are not covered by an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, a New York City Marshal, the corporation counsel, or a contractor of the corporation counsel
- did not come from a violation issued after a citizen complaint, such as an idling or noise complaint
- do not have an enforcement execution issued to the Sheriff’s Office or a Marshal
- have not been converted to a tax lien
- do not involve a violation that’s the subject of a criminal investigation
How the Amnesty Discounts Work
If your ECB judgment is eligible, the accrued interest is waived. Beyond that, the law sets two tiers.
If the judgment came from a default decision, meaning the respondent missed the deadline to plead or skipped the hearing, it can be resolved by paying the base penalty. That’s the penalty from the standard schedule, before any reductions for mitigation or stipulations. Default penalties are also waived.
If the judgment came from a hearing and a finding of liability, it can be resolved by paying 75% of the imposed penalty.
Payments you’ve already made count. If you’ve paid less than the threshold for your tier, you pay the difference and nothing more. If you’ve already paid at the tier threshold or above it, you pay $1 to close the judgment. (The City does not issue refunds if you’ve already paid over your tier threshold.)
Make Sure You Follow the Requirements
There are details in Local Law 147 that can easily be missed and cause you to be disqualified:
- Participants have to bring the violations tied to their judgments into compliance. You can’t resolve the judgment under the amnesty program if the violation is continuing.
- If the original notice of judgment ordered you to correct a condition, your application needs a certificate of correction from the issuing agency.
- The language of the bill says that an agency doesn’t have to issue certificates if it didn’t already have a program in place for doing that when the law took effect. If you’re dealing with an agency in that position, reach out directly to the agency and the ECB for guidance on what to do.
- Payment has to reach the Department of Finance by the last day of the program. Postmark dates are irrelevant; it’s the date the payment is in the hands of the DOF.
If you pay the amnesty amount and your judgment turns out to be ineligible, or you missed a requirement, the money you paid will be treated as a partial payment on the judgment. Your judgment will remain unresolved until you pay the full amount, plus any interest and additional fines.
Participation in the Amnesty Program Means Accepting the Violations
If you pay off a default judgment through the program, that counts as an admission of liability for the violation. By participating in the program you also waive all legal and factual defenses you might otherwise have. If you want to fight a violation, this is not the program for you. The amnesty discount makes the most sense for judgments you don’t plan to contest.
There’s a Strict Three-Month Timeline
The amnesty window is fixed: October 13, 2026 through January 10, 2027. Local Law 147 allows the Commissioner of Finance extend it another 90 days with a written finding posted on the Department of Finance website, but that’s not a guarantee. Consider the January 10 date to be set in stone. Any judgments that aren’t resolved by the close of the program stay fully enforceable.
How to apply, and what to do now
You can confirm eligibility and resolve judgments at nyc.gov/debtdemolisher. For help, call 311, visit a Department of Finance Business Center, contact Department of Finance Collections through eServices, or call the Collections Call Center.
Start with a list of every open judgment tied to your projects or properties. Sort each one by default or hearing, then check it against the exclusions. Request certificates of correction now for any notices that ordered a fix, since those depend on the issuing agency’s timeline. Then decide, judgment by judgment, whether you’d rather pay the discounted amount or keep contesting.
