Getting a Monetary Recovery for Injuries From a Broken Sidewalk in New York City

If you were injured by a broken, raised, or cracked sidewalk in New York City, you can usually recover money from the owner of the property next to the sidewalk, not from the City. Since September 14, 2003, section 7-210 of the New York City Administrative Code has made most abutting property owners liable for injuries caused by their failure to keep the public sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition. The main exception is an owner-occupied one-, two-, or three-family home used only as a residence. In that situation, the City of New York remains the defendant, and a stricter prior-notice rule and a 90-day claim deadline apply. A successful claim can recover medical bills, lost earnings, and pain and suffering, and New York places no cap on damages in a sidewalk case.

This guide explains how the 2003 law changed who pays, what an injured pedestrian has to prove, how a claim against the City differs from a claim against a private owner, what a case can be worth, and the deadlines that can end a claim before it starts. It reflects the law as of September 2026 and was prepared by Mark E. Seitelman, who has represented injured pedestrians in New York City for more than four decades, including in the years before and after the 2003 sidewalk law took effect.

Key Takeaways

• Section 7-210 of the Administrative Code, added by Local Law 49 of 2003, makes the owner of the property abutting a public sidewalk liable for injuries caused by the owner’s failure to maintain it. The law applies to accidents on or after September 14, 2003.
• Owner-occupied one-, two-, or three-family homes used exclusively as residences are exempt. For falls next to those homes, the City is the defendant, and the claim must clear the prior written notice rule and a 90-day notice of claim deadline.
• Section 7-210 is not strict liability. You must prove the defect was dangerous, that the owner created it or had actual or constructive notice of it, and that it caused your fall.
• Non-exempt owners are required by Administrative Code section 7-211 to carry liability insurance. If an owner has none, section 7-212 lets the Comptroller pay up to $50,000 in uncompensated medical expenses on an unsatisfied judgment, at the Comptroller’s discretion.
• The City still paid $53.5 million on sidewalk injury claims in fiscal year 2023, with 2,350 new sidewalk claims filed, according to the Comptroller’s Annual Claims Report.
• Recoverable damages include past and future medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. Under CPLR 1411, your own carelessness reduces the award by your share of fault but does not bar recovery.
• Deadlines differ sharply: three years to sue a private owner under CPLR 214(5), but only 90 days to serve a notice of claim on the City and one year and 90 days to file suit.

Who Pays for a Broken Sidewalk Injury in New York City?

Before 2003, the City of New York was responsible for the condition of public sidewalks. An adjoining property owner had no tort liability for a defect unless the owner created it or made a special use of the sidewalk, such as a driveway or a delivery ramp, that caused the defect. A pedestrian who fell into a six-inch hole in front of a store could not sue the store’s landlord, even if the City had already issued the landlord a violation for that hole.

That changed with Local Law 49 of 2003, enacted on July 16, 2003, and effective on the sixtieth day after it became law, which was September 14, 2003. The law added section 7-210 to the Administrative Code. Subdivision (a) places a duty on the owner of real property abutting any sidewalk, including the corner quadrant of an intersection, to maintain that sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition. Subdivision (b) makes the owner liable for personal injury or property damage proximately caused by a failure to do so, and it expressly includes the failure to remove snow, ice, dirt, and other material. Subdivision (c) states that the City is not liable for those injuries, except where the City itself is the abutting owner or the exemption for small owner-occupied homes applies.

Typical defects that give rise to claims include raised or sunken sidewalk flags, wide cracks and holes, crumbling concrete, protruding sign stubs and bolts, and uneven patches left after utility work. The Comptroller’s own claim definitions list broken or uneven sidewalks, protruding grates and meter stubs, defective boardwalks, and snow and ice as the conditions behind the City’s sidewalk claims.

Two later decisions of the Court of Appeals widened the reach of the statute. In Sangaray v. West River Associates, LLC (2016), the Court held that an owner can be liable even when the exact spot where the pedestrian tripped abutted a neighbor’s property, as long as the owner’s failure to maintain its own portion of the sidewalk was a proximate cause of the fall. In Xiang Fu He v Troon Management, Inc. (2019), the Court held that the duty is nondelegable: an out-of-possession landlord cannot escape section 7-210 by shifting sidewalk maintenance to a commercial tenant in the lease, although the tenant may also be liable to the pedestrian or to the landlord under the lease.

In practice, the defendants in a broken-sidewalk case may include the abutting owner, a commercial tenant that took on sidewalk maintenance or created the defect, and a contractor or utility whose work caused it. Identifying every responsible party early matters because each may carry separate insurance.

The Owner-Occupied Home Exception: When the City Still Pays

The liability provision of section 7-210, subdivision (b), does not apply to a one-, two-, or three-family residential property that is (1) owner-occupied, in whole or in part, and (2) used exclusively for residential purposes. Both conditions must be met. The Appellate Division has explained that the exemption exists because the City Council recognized the inappropriateness of exposing small-property owners in residence, who have limited resources, to exclusive liability for sidewalk maintenance and repair (Coogan v City of New York, 73 AD3d 613 [1st Dept 2010]; Meyer v City of New York, 114 AD3d 734 [2d Dept 2014]).

The exemption is lost in three common situations:

• The owner does not live there. A one-family house that the owner rents out is not owner-occupied, and the owner is liable like any commercial landlord. A two-family house where the owner lives in one unit and rents the other remains owner-occupied in part and keeps the exemption if the whole building is residential.
• The building has a commercial unit. A three-family house with a doctor’s office on the ground floor, or a store with two apartments above it, is not used exclusively for residential purposes, and the owner is liable even if the owner lives upstairs.
• The building has more than three units. A four-family house or an apartment building is never exempt, regardless of who lives there.

Home offices are the gray area. Courts have held that occasional or incidental business use does not destroy the exemption. In Coogan, an owner who kept no home office and claimed no business tax deduction stayed exempt, and the court held that even occasional research on a laptop at home would have been merely incidental to the residential use. In Koronkevich v. Dembitzer, 147 AD3d 916 (2d Dept 2017), a summer-camp director who did off-season paperwork in his basement stayed exempt because he did not claim the space as a tax deduction, used the home address only to receive the camp’s mail, and did not use the office with any regularity. The result can change when a homeowner regularly sees clients or customers at the house, employs staff there, or treats part of the home as a deducted business expense. There is no bright-line rule, and each case turns on how the property was actually used on the date of the accident.

When the exemption applies, the City of New York is the defendant, and the claim is governed by the prior written notice rule in Administrative Code section 7-201(c), and the notice of claim rules in the General Municipal Law, both explained below. Our companion article on who is responsible for the sidewalk covers the related questions of tree wells, curbs, and sidewalks next to federal, state, and NYCHA property.

Why the 2003 Law Changed the Value of a Sidewalk Claim

The shift from the City to private owners was designed to reduce the City’s settlement and judgment costs during the budget crisis that followed the 2001 recession. It was enacted in the same period as the 18.5 percent property tax increase the City Council approved in November 2002, and the exemption for small homeowners was part of the political bargain. For injured pedestrians, the practical effects have been mixed.

On the positive side, a claim against a privately insured commercial owner is usually a claim against a liability insurer with a duty to defend and settle. In our experience, those cases move faster than cases against the City, are not subject to the prior written notice defense, and are not limited by a 90-day notice of claim. On the negative side, the law leaves a pedestrian who falls next to an uninsured vacant lot or a neglected tenement with a judgment that may be difficult to collect, because the City is no longer a defendant.

The City Council anticipated that problem in two companion sections. Section 7-211 requires every owner covered by section 7-210, other than public corporations and state or federal agencies, to carry personal injury and property damage liability insurance for sidewalk injuries, and it states that the City is not liable when an owner fails to comply. Section 7-212 gives the Comptroller discretion to pay part of an unsatisfied judgment against an uninsured owner. The judgment must have gone unpaid for at least one year, the owner must have no insurance or other assets, the petition must be filed between one and three years after the judgment is entered, and the payment is capped at $50,000 per judgment and limited to uncompensated medical expenses, with a citywide limit of $4 million per fiscal year. The petitioner must assign the judgment to the City. This is a safety net, not a substitute for suing a properly insured owner.

The City still pays a great deal on sidewalk cases that fall within its remaining liability. The Comptroller’s Annual Claims Report for Fiscal Year 2023 (published April 2024) shows 2,350 sidewalk personal injury claims filed against the City, the third most frequent claim type, and $53.5 million paid on sidewalk claims, the fifth costliest category. Across all personal injury claims that year, the City paid $733.3 million on 5,446 settlements and judgments, an average of $134,656 and a median of $15,000. Those figures cover only claims against the City. Settlements paid by private owners’ insurers are not publicly reported, and they now represent the majority of sidewalk recoveries in the five boroughs.

What You Must Prove to Recover Against a Property Owner

Section 7-210 creates a duty and shifts liability, but it does not make the owner automatically responsible for every fall. The injured pedestrian must still prove negligence. The elements are the same ones that apply in any slip and fall or premises liability case in New York.

Constructive notice is where most broken-sidewalk cases are won or lost. The standard, set by the Court of Appeals in Gordon v. American Museum of Natural History (1986), is that a defect must be visible and apparent and must exist for a sufficient length of time before the accident to permit the owner to discover and remedy it. A raised flag that has been lifting for years because of tree roots is a strong notice case. A fresh break caused by a delivery truck the day before is a weak one against the owner, although it may be a strong one against the trucking company.

The trivial defect doctrine is the other major hurdle. In Hutchinson v Sheridan Hill House Corp. (2015), the Court of Appeals rejected any minimum height requirement and held that whether a defect is trivial depends on all the circumstances: its dimensions, whether it is jagged or rounded, the lighting, whether it was hidden by shadow or crowds, and the pattern of pedestrian traffic. In that case a metal stub that protruded about a quarter of an inch from a well-lit, open stretch of sidewalk in the Bronx was trivial as a matter of law. A defect of similar size at the top of a subway stairway or in a dark, crowded location may not be. Measure the defect and photograph it from a standing pedestrian’s point of view as soon as possible, before the owner repairs it.

Suing the City: Prior Written Notice, Big Apple Maps, and the 90-Day Notice of Claim

When the City is the proper defendant, because the sidewalk abuts an exempt owner-occupied home or City-owned property, or because a City crew created the defect, three additional rules apply that do not apply to a private owner.

Prior written notice under Administrative Code section 7-201(c)

The City’s prior written notice law, often called the Pothole Law and in effect since June 1980, provides that no civil action may be maintained against the City for an injury caused by a defective sidewalk unless written notice of the specific defect was actually given to the Commissioner of Transportation, or a previous injury at the location was reported in writing to a City agency, or the City acknowledged the defect in writing, and the City then failed to repair it within fifteen days after receiving the notice. Section 7-210(d) expressly preserves this rule for claims against the City. New York courts recognize two exceptions: where the City affirmatively created the defect through its own negligent work, and where the City made a special use of the sidewalk for its own benefit.

The Big Apple maps, then and now

Because the City rarely repaired sidewalks even when notified, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association formed the Big Apple Pothole and Sidewalk Protection Committee soon after the prior written notice law took effect in 1980. It hired surveyors to map every sidewalk in the five boroughs each year and delivered the maps, marked with coded symbols for each defect, to the Department of Transportation. The DOT at first refused to accept them and was ordered to do so by a court in 1981 (Matter of Big Apple Pothole & Sidewalk Protection Comm. v. Ameruso, 110 Misc. 2d 688). For two decades those maps supplied the prior written notice that let seriously injured pedestrians recover against the City, even though the City did little with the information.

The maps are largely history. The Committee stopped producing them after section 7-210 shifted liability to private owners in 2003, and the Court of Appeals held in D’Onofrio v. City of New York (2008) that a map gives notice only if it identifies the defect that actually caused the fall. In one of the two cases the map symbol showed a different type of defect, and in the other the mark conveyed no information at all. Today, prior written notice in the remaining City cases usually comes from 311 complaints, DOT inspection records and Notices of Sidewalk Violation, prior notices of claim at the same location, or written acknowledgments by City agencies. Obtaining those records through a Freedom of Information Law request is one of the first steps we take in any case against the City.

The notice of claim and the one-year-and-90-day limit

General Municipal Law section 50-e requires a written notice of claim to be served on the City within 90 days after the accident. The Comptroller’s Office accepts notices through its electronic eClaim system, in person at 1 Centre Street, or by registered or certified mail. The notice must state the time, place, and manner of the accident and the nature of the injuries. A court may grant permission to serve a late notice under section 50-e(5), weighing whether the City acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts within 90 days or shortly afterward and whether the delay prejudiced its defense, but the extension can never run past the statute of limitations itself. The City may then require you to testify at a hearing under section 50-h before suit is filed.

Under General Municipal Law section 50-i, the lawsuit must be commenced within one year and 90 days after the accident, and at least 30 days after the notice of claim was served. A sidewalk fall on New York City Housing Authority property follows the same 90-day and one-year-and-90-day rules under Public Housing Law section 157. Missing any of these deadlines usually ends the case no matter how serious the injury.

What Compensation Can You Recover for a Sidewalk Injury?

A monetary recovery in a New York sidewalk case is made up of economic damages, which reimburse measurable financial losses, and non-economic damages, which compensate for the injury itself. Unlike some states, New York places no statutory cap on either category in a premises liability case. The $100,000 cap on non-economic damages added to Insurance Law section 5104(d) in 2026 applies only to certain at-fault drivers in motor vehicle cases and has no bearing on a pedestrian who trips on a sidewalk.

Several factors drive the size of a recovery. The type of injury matters most: fractures requiring surgery, head injuries, and injuries that leave permanent limitations resolve for far more than sprains and contusions. Clear liability, strong notice evidence, and a credible plaintiff increase value. The defendant’s insurance limits set a practical ceiling in many cases: a large commercial property usually carries a policy in the millions, while a small mixed-use building may carry far less. Our article on how pain and suffering is valued in a slip and fall case explains the methods insurers and juries use.

Two New York rules affect what you keep from a recovery. Under General Obligations Law section 5-335, a settlement is conclusively presumed not to include reimbursement for medical costs or lost wages that a health insurer already paid, so a private insured health plan has no lien on and no right of reimbursement from your settlement. Medicare, Medicaid, and workers’ compensation are excluded from that protection and must be repaid from the recovery. At trial, CPLR 4545 lets the court reduce an award by collateral source payments that replaced the same losses, except where the source has a statutory lien or right of reimbursement, and after crediting the premiums you paid for the coverage.

Comparative Negligence and the Defenses That Reduce a Recovery

New York applies pure comparative negligence to sidewalk cases. Under CPLR 1411(a), your own culpable conduct does not bar recovery; it reduces the award in proportion to your share of fault. If a jury finds $300,000 in damages and assigns you 30 percent of the fault for looking at your phone, you recover $210,000. The 2026 amendment that added subdivision (b) to CPLR 1411, which bars recovery for a plaintiff more at fault than the defendants, applies only to actions subject to Article 51 of the Insurance Law, meaning motor vehicle cases. It does not apply to a pedestrian who trips on a defective sidewalk.

The defenses we see most often in broken-sidewalk cases are:

• Trivial defect: the height difference or crack was too small to be actionable under Hutchinson. Answered with measurements, photographs, and evidence of location and lighting.
• No notice: the owner did not create the defect and did not know about it. Answered with 311 and DOT records, dated photographs, and proof of how long the condition existed.
• Open and obvious: the defect was plainly visible, and you should have avoided it. In New York, this argument goes to comparative fault, not to whether the owner had a duty to repair, so it reduces rather than eliminates a recovery.
• Not the owner’s sidewalk: the fall happened in a tree well or on the curb, which the Court of Appeals held in Vucetovic v Epsom Downs, Inc. (2008) are not part of the sidewalk for section 7-210 purposes, or the property is an exempt owner-occupied home. Answered by suing the correct defendant, which may be the City, on the correct timetable.
• Storm in progress and reasonable time: for snow and ice cases, the owner had no duty until a reasonable time after the precipitation stopped. Our separate article on snow and ice accidents on sidewalks covers the four-hour rule and the winter exceptions in detail.

Deadlines for a Broken Sidewalk Claim in New York

Special tolling rules apply to children and to people who are legally incapacitated, and the wrongful death deadline differs from the personal injury deadline. Because the City deadlines are so short, and because it is not always obvious on the day of the fall whether the abutting building is exempt, the safest course is to consult a lawyer within the first few weeks. Our overview of the statute of limitations on personal injury claims in New York explains the general rules.

How to Protect the Value of Your Claim After a Sidewalk Fall

The evidence that decides a sidewalk case is usually gathered in the first days. Owners repair defects quickly after a fall, and memories fade. These steps preserve your claim:

• Photograph the defect immediately, from a distance to show the location and building address, and close up with a coin, ruler, or shoe for scale. Note the date, time, lighting, and weather.
• Measure the height difference or the size of the hole if you can do so safely. Trivial defect motions are decided on numbers.
• Get the names and phone numbers of witnesses, including anyone who says they have tripped there before or that the defect has been there for a long time.
• Seek medical care the same day and describe exactly how you fell. Gaps in treatment and inconsistent histories are the most common reasons insurers discount a claim.
• Report the defect to 311. The complaint creates a dated City record and may prompt a DOT inspection. It does not substitute for a notice of claim if the City is the defendant.
• Keep the shoes you were wearing and do not repair or discard them.
• Identify the abutting owner through City property records and find out whether the building is a one- to three-family home, a mixed-use building, or City property, because that determines the defendant and the deadline.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the owner’s insurer and do not post about the fall on social media before speaking with a lawyer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Broken Sidewalk Injury Claims

I own and live in a two-family house. Am I responsible if someone falls on the sidewalk in front of it?

No, as long as the whole building is used only as residences and you live in at least part of it. Owners of owner-occupied one-, two-, and three-family homes that are exclusively residential are exempt from section 7-210 liability, and the City remains the defendant. You still have a duty under Administrative Code section 19-152 to repair the sidewalk; the DOT can issue you a Notice of Sidewalk Violation and bill you for the repair if you do not fix it within 75 days, and you can be liable if you affirmatively created the defect or made a special use of the sidewalk. Carrying homeowner’s insurance remains prudent.

Does working from home make my house a commercial building under the sidewalk law?

Occasional or incidental work at home, such as answering email or using a laptop in the evening, does not take a home out of the exemption. Courts have kept the exemption for an owner with no home office, where any occasional laptop research at home was merely incidental, and for a camp director who did off-season paperwork in his basement without claiming a deduction or using the office regularly. Regularly seeing clients or customers at the house, employing staff there, or deducting part of the home as a business expense are the facts that create risk. Each case turns on the actual use of the property on the date of the accident.

I moved out and now rent my one-family house to tenants. Am I liable for sidewalk injuries?

Yes. The exemption requires that the owner occupy the home in whole or in part. A one-family house rented entirely to tenants is not owner-occupied, so the owner is liable under section 7-210 like any other landlord and must carry liability insurance under section 7-211.

Can I sue the City of New York if I fell on a broken sidewalk?

Only in limited situations: the sidewalk abuts an exempt owner-occupied one- to three-family home, the sidewalk abuts City-owned property, or a City agency created the defect or made a special use of the sidewalk. Even then, you must show the City had prior written notice of the specific defect and failed to repair it within fifteen days, unless an exception applies, and you must serve a notice of claim within 90 days and file suit within one year and 90 days.

How much is a broken sidewalk injury case worth in New York City?

There is no standard figure. Value depends on the injury, the medical treatment, the permanence of the limitations, the strength of the notice evidence, your share of fault, and the defendant’s insurance. For context, the City’s average personal injury settlement or judgment across all claim types was $134,656 in fiscal year 2023, and the median was $15,000, which shows how wide the range is. Cases involving surgery or permanent injury resolve for far more than the median; minor soft-tissue cases resolve for less.

What if I was partly at fault because I was not looking where I walked?

You can still recover. New York’s pure comparative negligence rule in CPLR 1411(a) reduces your award by your percentage of fault rather than barring it. The 2026 rule that bars recovery for a plaintiff who is more than half at fault applies only to motor vehicle cases, not to sidewalk falls.

What if the property owner has no insurance?

Section 7-211 requires non-exempt owners to carry liability insurance, but some do not. The City is not liable for an owner’s failure to insure. You can still sue the owner and collect against the property or other assets, and if a judgment goes unpaid for a year and the owner truly has no insurance or assets, Section 7-212 allows the Comptroller, in its discretion, to pay up to $50,000 of uncompensated medical expenses. Investigating the owner’s insurance and assets early is part of deciding how to pursue the case.

How long do I have to bring a sidewalk injury claim?

Three years against a private owner under CPLR 214(5). Against the City or NYCHA, a notice of claim must be served within 90 days and the lawsuit filed within one year and 90 days. Because it is not always clear at first which defendant applies, treat the 90-day deadline as the working deadline until a lawyer confirms otherwise.

Talk With a New York City Sidewalk Accident Lawyer About Your Recovery

The 2003 sidewalk law made most broken-sidewalk claims in New York City claims against private owners and their insurers, which is generally good for injured pedestrians, but it also created traps: the wrong defendant, a missed 90-day notice, an unmeasured defect, or an uninsured owner can each defeat an otherwise strong case. Mark E. Seitelman Law Offices has handled sidewalk accident cases across all five boroughs for more than four decades, from the era of the Big Apple maps through the current law. We identify the responsible owner, secure the DOT and 311 records, document the defect before it is repaired, and pursue the full measure of damages the law allows.

If you were hurt on a broken or defective sidewalk in New York City, contact our office for a free consultation. We have offices in the Financial District, the Lower East Side, and the Upper East Side, and there is no fee unless we recover money for you.