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What to check before you sign an NYC lease

Most 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.

Updated 2026-10-21

The building

  1. Complaints and violations. Search the address on HPD Online. The Complaints tab shows what tenants reported this past year, like no heat, a leak or mice, and the Violations tab what inspectors wrote up. Recent complaints say more than old violations. How to read them.
  2. Heat. From October 1 to May 31 the owner must keep apartments at 68°F during the day when it’s below 55°F outside, and at 62°F at night whatever the weather, with hot water at 120°F all year. Heat complaints from last winter are the best guide to the next one.
  3. Bedbugs. The owner must give a new tenant the building’s bedbug history for the past year on the state’s bedbug disclosure form, and files a bedbug report with HPD every December. How to check it.

The landlord

  1. Who owns it. The HPD registration names the owner, usually an LLC, and a head officer; Who Owns What shows the owner’s other buildings. How to look up a landlord.
  2. Housing court. Cases HPD and tenants brought over repairs and harassment are in the HPD litigation records. Look at the past five years.

The apartment

  1. Rent stabilization. Check the building on the state’s building search and ask for the lease rider. How to check.
  2. Noise. Every 311 noise complaint is public by address. Look at the block’s, and visit on a Friday or Saturday night. How to look them up.
  3. Sunlight. Which way the windows face, the floor and the buildings across decide it, and December is the month to check. How to tell.
  4. Children. If a child 10 or younger will live there, the owner must install window guards. If a child under 6 will, and the building was built before 1960, the owner must check for lead paint hazards every year. Tell the owner in writing.

The money

  1. Fees. In a rental building, an application fee can’t be more than $20 for the background and credit check, and the security deposit can’t be more than one month’s rent. Since the FARE Act took effect on June 11, 2025, the broker’s fee is paid by whoever hired the broker, usually the landlord.
  2. The rent. Compare it with what the same number of bedrooms asks in the same ZIP code. If the apartment is rent stabilized, ask for the legal registered rent.

What to ask before you sign

What Pigeon checks

On a StreetEasy listing, Pigeon checks the building’s complaints, violations and bedbug filings, the landlord and their record in housing court, rent stabilization, noise on the block, sunlight on the listing’s floor, transit and, for rentals, the rent against the ZIP code, and scores each out of ten.

Pigeon does this on every StreetEasy listing.

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No 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.

More guides

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.