How to Check Eviction History for NYC Buildings

New York City publishes every residential eviction that a city marshal carries out, with the street address, the apartment number and the date, going back to January 2017. You can search that record for any building before you sign a lease. Type the address into the Building Health X building lookup and it lists the evictions executed at that building over the past five years next to its violations and complaints. The full history back to 2017 sits in a free city dataset that you can filter yourself.

Where NYC Eviction Records Come From

The Department of Investigation, which regulates the city's marshals, publishes the Evictions dataset on NYC Open Data. The city describes it as a list of executed evictions in the five boroughs from 2017 to the present, and it updates the file daily. Each row records the eviction address, apartment number, executed date, the marshal's name, the court index number, the borough and ZIP code, and the building's BBL (its borough, block and lot number).

City marshals are public officers appointed by the mayor for five-year terms. According to DOI, a marshal can carry out an eviction only after a court has ruled on the landlord's petition and issued a warrant of eviction. The marshal then serves a Notice of Eviction and must wait at least 14 days before removing anyone.

What the Dataset Leaves Out

The file counts evictions that a marshal completed. It does not list cases a landlord filed, cases that settled, or tenants who moved out before a marshal arrived. A building can see heavy housing court traffic and still show few executed evictions, so treat the count as the floor of what happened there, not the whole story.

Searching a Building's Eviction History

Start with the building lookup if you want the answer in one step. It pulls the same city data, shows each eviction executed at the building in the last five years with its date and apartment, and puts the number of residential units on the same page so you can judge the count against the building's size. The report URL ends in the building's BBL, which you will need for the manual search below.

To search the full record back to 2017 yourself:

1. Open the Evictions dataset on NYC Open Data and choose the option to view the data.
2. Add a filter on the BBL column and enter the building's 10-digit BBL. This catches every eviction at the lot, whatever spelling the marshal's office used for the street.
3. If you only have an address, filter the Eviction Address column instead. The address field is free text, so try common variants such as "ST. JOHNS PLACE" and "SAINT JOHNS PLACE" before you conclude the building has none.
4. Sort by Executed Date to see when the evictions happened, and note any apartment numbers that repeat.
5. Copy the Court Index Number from any row you want to understand. You will use it to find the case.

Reading the Numbers in Context

A raw count means little until you set it against the size of the building and the citywide pattern. Evictions in New York fell close to zero during the pandemic moratorium and have since climbed back to where they were before it. The table below counts residential evictions in the city's dataset by the year a marshal carried them out, as of September 22, 2026.

The 2025 total passed 2019's, which makes a recent eviction at a building less unusual than it would have looked in 2022.

Evictions by Borough in 2025

The Bronx accounted for the largest share of residential evictions in 2025, with 5,657 of the 17,785. Borough totals help you judge whether a building's count stands out against its surroundings.

Judging a Single Building

When you review one building's record, weigh these points:

• Size. Three evictions in five years at a 300-unit tower and three at a six-unit walk-up tell different stories. Divide by the residential unit count before you compare buildings.
• Timing. A cluster of evictions in one year, or several in the same apartment line, deserves a question to the landlord. Check the building's ownership records for a recent sale around the same dates.
• Other signals. Evictions carry more weight next to a pile of open HPD violations or tenant harassment cases. A building with clean repair records and a handful of nonpayment evictions reads differently from one where the evictions line up with unresolved heat and leak complaints.

No official benchmark says how many evictions make a building risky, so compare the building with others of similar size on the same block or in the same neighborhood.

Finding the Court Case Behind an Eviction

Every executed eviction starts as a housing court case, and the court index number in the dataset lets you pull it up. Enter that number in WebCivil Local, the state court system's free case search for New York City Civil Court, which includes Housing Court. WebCivil Local searches by index number or party name. It does not search by street address, which is why the index number from the eviction record matters.

The case record shows whether the landlord brought a nonpayment case or a holdover proceeding, which the landlord uses to remove a tenant for a reason other than unpaid rent, such as a lease that expired. Nonpayment cases track tenants who fell behind on rent. A run of holdover cases at one building deserves a direct question to the landlord, because holdovers end tenancies for reasons that have nothing to do with the rent. If you want every case filed against a landlord rather than only the ones that ended in eviction, work through housing court cases by address using the landlord's name.

Checking Your Own Eviction Record

Many people searching for eviction records want to know what a future landlord will see about them. New York law answers part of that question. Real Property Law section 227-f bars a residential landlord from refusing to rent to you because you were involved in a past or pending landlord-tenant case. The protection applies whether the landlord sued you or you sued the landlord, and whether you won or lost.

The state's 2019 housing law, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, also stopped the court system from selling housing court data to tenant screening companies. The New York State Bar Association's guide to tenant screening and blacklisting explains the history. The law gives you no right to sue the landlord directly. You file a complaint with the New York State Attorney General, who can seek a civil penalty of $500 to $1,000 for each violation.

To see what a court holds about you, search your own name in WebCivil Local. If you have received papers from a landlord or a marshal, act on the eviction notice right away, because the 14-day marshal notice period moves fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Far Back Do NYC Eviction Records Go?

The city's Evictions dataset starts on January 1, 2017. The city says it has no data for earlier years in that file. For older disputes, search the court record by party name in WebCivil Local.

Does the City Publish Pending or Scheduled Evictions?

The Evictions dataset lists evictions a marshal has already carried out. A case that is still in court shows up in the court's own records, which you can search by index number or party name, but it will not appear in the eviction file until a marshal executes it.

Can a Landlord Reject Me for a Past Housing Court Case?

No. Real Property Law section 227-f bars a landlord from refusing to rent to you because you were part of a past or pending landlord-tenant case. If it happens, you can complain to the New York State Attorney General, who enforces the law.

Does the Eviction Record Show the Tenant's Name?

No. The city's file lists the address, apartment number, executed date, marshal and court index number, but not the name of the household evicted. The court case itself names the parties, and you can open it with the index number.

Who Carries Out Evictions in New York City?

City marshals and deputy sheriffs carry out evictions. Marshals are appointed by the mayor and regulated by the Department of Investigation. They need a warrant of eviction from the court and must wait at least 14 days after serving a Notice of Eviction.

Why Does a Building Show No Evictions?

Either no marshal has executed an eviction at that lot since 2017, or the address you searched is spelled differently in the file. Search by the building's BBL to rule out spelling. Remember that the file does not count cases that settled or tenants who left before a marshal came.