How to look up HPD violations, and how to read them

Every 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.

Updated 2026-10-21

What an HPD violation is

HPD, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, inspects apartments after a complaint, usually a 311 call, and during its own programs. When an inspector finds a condition that breaks the city’s Housing Maintenance Code or the state’s Multiple Dwelling Law, HPD writes a violation against the building, usually naming the apartment. It stays open on the record until the owner certifies the repair and HPD accepts it, or an inspector sees it fixed.

How to look them up by address

1. On a StreetEasy listing, with Pigeon. Open the listing and click Building. You get every open violation, what it is for and which apartment it is in, read and weighed for you.
2. On HPD Online. Search the address and pick the building. One tax lot can hold several HPD buildings, so check the building matches. The Violations tab lists open and closed violations with their descriptions.
3. On NYC Open Data. The Housing Maintenance Code Violations dataset has the full record, filterable by the building’s borough, block and lot.

What class A, B and C mean

HPD sorts violations into three classes. The class sets how long the owner has to fix it:

The class is a legal deadline and says little about what living there is like. A missing window guard and a dead boiler can both be class C; a worn fridge gasket can be class B. At 255 West 75th Street, ten class C violations were five self-closing doors, two posted notices, a lobby lock and mice in one apartment.

Look at the complaints too

A violation is what an inspector wrote up, often years ago. A complaint is what a tenant reported, usually through 311, and the recent ones say what the building is like now. HPD Online lists them on the building’s Complaints tab, with the apartment and the problem: no heat, a leak, mice. Nine no-heat complaints last winter tell you more than an open violation from 2015.

Which violations matter

• Heat and hot water. The most common winter complaint, and the one that is hardest to live with.
• Leaks and mold. A leak in one apartment is often a pipe or a roof that reaches others.
• Mice, rats, roaches and bedbugs. Pests rarely stay in one apartment.
• Lead paint. It matters most if a child under 6 will live there; owners have extra duties then.
• Gas, wiring and structure. Less common, and worth asking about directly.

Then look at where and when. A violation in the apartment you are about to rent matters more than one across the building. Twelve violations in one apartment usually point to that apartment rather than the whole building. Recent ones matter more than old ones. And a 100-apartment building with 20 open violations is in better shape than a 6-apartment building with the same 20.

Why old violations stay open

Owners often fix a condition without certifying the repair with HPD, so the violation stays open on the record for years. A violation from a decade ago may be long fixed, or never fixed; the record can’t say which, so ask.

What to ask before you sign

• Has the violation in this apartment been fixed, and was the repair certified with HPD?
• The building has open heat violations. When was the boiler last serviced or replaced?
• There are pest violations in other apartments. When was the building last treated?

What Pigeon does with them

Pigeon sorts two years of complaints and every open violation into seven areas: heat and hot water, pests, leaks and mold, repairs that stick, fire and safety, plumbing, power and the elevator, and upkeep. In each it counts the apartments affected, with this past year’s complaints counting most, and compares the share with every NYC building of the same size. Heat and pests weigh most, and one bad area pulls the score down more than an average would. How the Building score works.