How to check a building’s bedbug history
The 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.
Updated 2026-10-21
The yearly bedbug report
Under Local Law 69 of 2017, owners of rental buildings file a Bed Bug Annual Report with HPD between December 1 and December 31. It covers November 1 to October 31 and gives four numbers: the apartments in the building, how many had bedbugs, how many were treated, and how many had them again after treatment. The owner must give each tenant the filing receipt with a new lease and each renewal, or post it in the building. HPD publishes the filings as Bedbug Reporting on NYC Open Data.
The disclosure form you’re owed
Before you sign, the owner must give you the building’s bedbug history for the past year on the state’s bedbug disclosure form: whether your apartment had bedbugs, and whether the building did. Ask for it if the broker doesn’t offer it. HPD’s bedbug page has the rules.
How to look it up
- On a StreetEasy listing, with Pigeon. The Building score includes the latest filing: how many apartments had bedbugs, and whether they came back after treatment.
- On NYC Open Data. Open Bedbug Reporting and filter by House Number and Street Name, or by BBL. If a building filed twice for the same period, the second filing is the one that counts.
- On HPD Online. The Complaints and Violations tabs show bedbug complaints and violations, with the apartment.
How to read a filing
The filings are the owner’s own, collected from tenants. For November 2024 to October 2025, about 3,000 of more than 100,000 filings reported at least one apartment with bedbugs. Some filings put the building’s total in every box, so if every apartment is listed as infested, ask. Bedbugs that came back after treatment say more than one apartment treated once.
An HPD violation that reads “file annual bedbug report” means the owner didn’t file, not that there are bedbugs. About 187,000 of them are open.
What to ask before you sign
- Can I see the bedbug disclosure form for this apartment?
- When was the building last treated, and which apartments?
- Where is this year’s filing receipt posted?
What Pigeon shows
Pigeon reads the building’s latest bedbug filing into the pests part of its Building score, says when bedbugs came back after treatment, and suggests what to ask the broker. A missed filing counts as paperwork, not pests.
Pigeon does this on every StreetEasy listing.
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