For NYC Renters

    Know what you're signing.

    A showing tells you how an apartment looks for twenty minutes. The city's record tells you what the last five years in that building were actually like.

    NYC buildings covered

    Violation records

    Tenant complaints

    $0

    To read any building

    What a showing can't tell you

    The things renters find out in month three

    It all sits in city records under the building's address.

    The neighbor nobody mentions

    The showing was at 10am on a Tuesday. The building was quiet. What the showing can't tell you is how many times someone in it has called the city about noise at 2am — and whether the calls cluster on one line, one floor, or the block outside.

    Noise complaints, by type and by year

    Music, parties, construction, street noise — separated out, with when they were filed.

    The construction that starts at 7am

    A permit for the lot next door is filed months before anything visible happens. By the time the scaffolding goes up you've signed a year lease. The filing was public the whole time — it just isn't on the listing.

    Active permits on and near the block

    What's filed, what kind of work it is, and how close it is to the building.

    The heat that never came on

    Heat works fine in September. The record that matters is the previous two winters — how many heat and hot water complaints came out of the building, whether they turned into violations, and how long the landlord took to close them. The listing said "well-maintained."

    Heat and hot water history

    Winter-by-winter complaints, the violations they became, and how fast they were cured.

    What's on the record for the address you're considering?

    This information exists. It's just not on the listing.

    Read it before the lease, not after.

    Search an address

    What's on every building page

    Free to read, for any address in the five boroughs.

    Open violations

    Mold, pests, heat, structural — what's still open, and what the landlord already fixed.

    Complaint history

    Noise, heat, pests, construction — what tenants have been reporting, going back years.

    Who actually owns it

    The LLC on the lease traced back to a real name, plus every other building they hold.

    Rent stabilization status

    Whether the unit is registered as stabilized, and whether the count has been shrinking.

    Construction permits

    Work filed inside the building and on the block that will affect how it feels to live there.

    What's on the block

    The corridor around the address — noise patterns, staging, and the things you only learn after moving in.

    Read the building before you sign.

    Free building page. No account needed.