§ 50-a. Entrances: doors, locks and intercommunication systems. 1.
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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.