You can look up any residential building in New York City's public records before you sign a lease. Most tenants don't. Those who do often misread what they find — treating every complaint as a confirmed problem or dismissing a long record as routine. Here is how to look up a building's history correctly, and what the patterns actually tell you.
Complaints and violations are not the same thing
This is the most common source of confusion in building research, and it matters.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Complaint | Someone reported a condition. A complaint is not itself a finding that a violation occurred. |
| Violation | An inspector visited, confirmed a Housing Maintenance Code breach, and issued a formal finding. |
| Open violation | The violation has been issued and not yet corrected or certified as resolved. |
| Closed violation | The violation is no longer shown as open in HPD's records. This may happen after correction is certified, after HPD processes the correction, or for other administrative reasons — a closed status does not always mean the underlying condition was definitively resolved. |
A building can have many complaints and few violations — if conditions were fixed before inspectors arrived, or were not confirmed on inspection. A building can also have few complaints and serious open violations — if tenants did not file or if inspectors found conditions on their own.
Reading both datasets together gives you the real picture.
HPD: habitability and tenant services
The HPD record lives at hpdonline.nyc.gov. Search by address to see: complaints filed through 311 (including category, date, and disposition), violations issued (including class, date, and status), litigation and charges against the owner, and vacate orders.
HPD complaints cover conditions that affect habitability: heat, hot water, mold, pests, water leaks, lead paint, elevator outages. These are the day-to-day management issues — the ones that tell you how the landlord responds to tenant problems.
What to look for: not the total number, but the pattern. A building with 40 heat complaints over five winters where complaints were resolved or closed relatively quickly presents a different pattern from one where complaints repeatedly remained open or led to violations. A one-time mold violation that was certified within 30 days is different from the same mold violation recurring in the same unit three years in a row.
DOB: structure, permits, and construction
The DOB record lives at a810-dobnow.nyc.gov (DOB NOW) and a810-bisweb.nyc.gov (BIS, for older records). Search by address to see: complaints filed about construction, structural conditions, or unsafe work; violations issued by DOB inspectors; and permit history.
DOB complaints cover different territory than HPD: illegal construction, structural concerns, elevator safety, facade conditions, fire protection systems. A building with open DOB structural violations is a different kind of concern than one with HPD heat violations — both matter, but they tell you different things about different risks.
What patterns actually mean
One or two violations that were corrected quickly, especially in an older building, is normal. Most buildings have some record.
Patterns worth attention: the same category of violation recurring repeatedly (heat every winter, roaches every summer), Class C violations that stayed open for months, a spike in complaints concentrated in a specific time period, or a long complaint history with relatively few corresponding violations.
A building that has changed management recently may have a different trajectory than its history suggests — or the same problems with a new name on the registration.
What Weverit shows you
Weverit aggregates HPD violation history, complaint patterns, and building grade in a single building report. The grade reflects the cumulative HPD violation record — how many open violations exist, what classes they are, and how long they have been unresolved. The violation history shows the underlying data: what conditions were cited, when, and whether they were corrected.
The building report is a starting point for your own research, not a substitute for reading the HPD record directly. For the full complaint list and raw violation data, HPD Online is the authoritative source.
Three things to check before you sign
First, look up HPD Online and filter for open violations. How many are there, and what class? A Class C violation open for six months is a different signal than a Class A violation open for the same period.
Second, check the date range of complaints. Recent activity tells you about the current ownership and management. Activity from five years ago under a different owner is less predictive.
Third, check DOB for any open complaints or violations related to the specific unit or building section you are considering. A building with an open structural violation in the section where your apartment would be is worth asking about directly.
Buildings with DOB construction complaints on record
Ranked by DOB complaints about construction work, from reports computed between August 16, 2026 and September 5, 2026.
- 2285 Sedgwick AvenueBronx F
- 1511 Sheridan AvenueBronx F
- 3150 Rochambeau AvenueBronx D
- 1295 5 AvenueManhattan D
- 3873 Orloff AvenueBronx F
- 750 Pelham Parkway SouthBronx F
- 40 West Mosholu Parkway SouthBronx D
- 220 Central Park SouthManhattan A
- 540 Manhattan AvenueManhattan D
- 240 Park Hill AvenueStaten Island F
Sources
- NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development — HPD Online: hpdonline.nyc.gov
- NYC Department of Buildings — DOB NOW: a810-dobnow.nyc.gov
- NYC Department of Buildings — Buildings Information System (BIS): a810-bisweb.nyc.gov
- NYC311 — Housing Complaints: portal.311.nyc.gov
- NYC Department of Buildings — Tenant Guide: nyc.gov/site/buildings/tenant/tenant-guide.page
