Tenants: check a building before signing a lease

Every apartment listing looks fine in July. The public record is how you find out what January is like. Before signing a lease, spend five minutes on the building's violation history — it is free, it requires no account, and it is the same data landlords hope you will not read.

Start with open Class C violations

Class C is HPD's immediately hazardous category: no heat, no hot water, lead paint hazards, rodents, missing window guards. One or two open Class C violations in a big building can be a dispute in progress. A pile of them, or a few that have stayed open for months, is the strongest warning the record offers — it means hazardous conditions exist and the owner is not resolving them.

Check the heat pattern, not the heat count

Heat and hot water violations are seasonal, so look across winters rather than at totals. A building that generated heat complaints and violations in each of the last two heat seasons has a boiler problem or a landlord problem, and either one becomes your problem in December. A single heat violation from years ago, closed since, is noise.

Remember that owners close HPD violations by certifying correction themselves — a self-report, not always re-inspected. Repetition across seasons is how you see through overly optimistic certifications.

Scan the rest of the record

• Bedbug filings: residential buildings file annual bedbug reports. Filings reporting infested units, especially re-infestations, deserve a direct question to the landlord.
• Tenant litigation: HP actions are Housing Court cases where tenants asked a judge to order repairs. Open litigation means the dispute escalated past 311.
• Vacate orders: an active vacate order on any part of the building is a serious signal — the city decided occupancy itself was unsafe.
• Unpaid fines: a large balance of OATH penalties usually means the owner defaults on hearings rather than engaging. That indifference tends to extend to repairs.
• The landlord's other buildings: the portfolio view shows whether problems are specific to this building or standard practice for this owner.

What is routine and not worth worrying about

Old closed violations are normal in any building with history. Permits and job filings usually mean maintenance and renovation — activity, not neglect. A handful of Class A paperwork violations, like a missing sign, says little about living conditions. Even a closed Class B here and there is unremarkable in an older building. You are looking for open hazards, repetition, and unpaid consequences — not a spotless record, which barely exists in older housing stock.

Before you sign

If the record shows open violations, ask the landlord or broker about them specifically, by violation number, and get answers in writing. Asking costs nothing and the reaction is informative. Records lag reality in both directions — a condition fixed last week may still show open, and a brand-new problem may not show at all — so treat the record as a strong prior, not a verdict. And once you move in, watch the building here to get alerted when something new is filed. This guide is general information about public records, not legal or leasing advice.