Guides for checking an NYC apartment
What the public record says about a building, where to find it, and what to ask the broker.
What to check before you sign an NYC leaseMost of what you’d want to know about an NYC apartment is in public records or owed to you by law. What to check, and where to look.How to look up HPD violations, and how to read themEvery open violation and every complaint on an NYC apartment building is public and searchable by address, with what each one is for and how recent it is.Who owns my building? How to look up an NYC landlordMost NYC rental buildings are owned through an LLC. The people behind it, and how they run their buildings, are usually in four public records.Is my apartment rent stabilized? How to check in NYCClose to a million NYC apartments are rent stabilized, and listings rarely say so. The building, the lease and the state’s records each tell you part of it.How to look up noise complaints for an NYC addressEvery 311 noise complaint in New York City is public, with its address, type and time: 789,000 of them from October 2025 to October 2026.How to check a building’s bedbug historyThe owner of every NYC rental building reports its bedbugs to HPD once a year, and a new tenant is owed the past year’s history in writing.How much sun will an NYC apartment get?In December the sun in New York never climbs above 26 degrees, so the building across the street can shade a window all day. The direction, the floor and the neighbors decide it.How Pigeon scores a buildingThe Building score says what a building’s public record shows about living there, compared with every NYC building of its size.NYC apartment buildings by the numbersWhat HPD’s records say about all 172,485 NYC buildings with 3 or more apartments: how many had heat, pest and leak complaints this past year, and how that changes with size.Chrome extensions for StreetEasy, comparedSeven Chrome extensions add NYC building records to StreetEasy listings. What each one shows, what it costs, and how to check the same records without one.
Pigeon does this on every StreetEasy listing.
Add to Chrome, freeNo listing open? Check any NYC address for its building, landlord, noise and transit scores, or find a building’s page with its violations, owner and rent-stabilized apartments.