The Health Department inspects New York City properties for rats and writes the outcome onto a public file you can read for any address. That file is separate from the complaint log: an inspector attended the lot and recorded Passed, Failed for Rat Activity, Failed for Other Reason, or one of four records of work the city did itself. In the year to September 26, 2026 the department logged 204,551 of those visits across 94,854 tax lots.
Rodent Inspection Records on NYC Open Data
The file is called Rodent Inspection. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene publishes it on NYC Open Data as dataset p937-wjvj and updates it daily. Its data dictionary describes a row as "a single rodent inspection conducted by NYC at a specific location on a specific date".
Results attach to the tax lot, not the apartment. The dataset's note says every NYC property has a BBL, the borough, block and lot number, "and inspections are conducted at the taxlot level". One BBL can hold several buildings.
On September 26, 2026 the file held 3,128,329 rows, with coverage starting in 2009.
Complaint Records Versus Inspection Results
A complaint records what a person reported. An inspection result records what a city inspector saw. The department receives about 40,000 rat complaints a year through 311 and conducts over 150,000 rat inspections, so the two files do not line up.
The department is direct about which one it trusts for comparison. Complaint data "doesn't give us a full picture of rat activity in NYC", while inspection data "provide a more reliable way to compare different neighborhoods". Calls still matter, and mouse and rat complaints filed against a building follow their own rules for how they close.
How to Look Up a Building's Rat Inspection History
The Health Department runs the Rat Information Portal at nyc.gov/rats. You search an address, ZIP code, neighborhood or BBL, and the pop-up gives the latest inspection type, the result and the number of inspections in the last five years.
The portal covers five years while the open file reaches back to 2009, so an older run of failures sits outside the map. Results lag the visit, appearing "within 5 business days of the inspection being conducted and approved by a supervisor".
Search the building's records by address and the report puts rodent inspections alongside HPD violations, 311 complaints and DOB permits for the same lot.
Inspection Types and Result Values
An initial inspection is "conducted in response to a 311 complaint, or a proactive inspection conducted through our neighborhood indexing program", and a compliance inspection follows when "a property fails its initial inspection". Treatments, Clean Up and Stoppage record the city's own work: rodenticide, garbage removal, sealing burrows.
Rat Activity means one of six signs the dictionary lists as "1) fresh tracks, 2) fresh droppings, 3) active burrows, 4) active runways and rub marks, 5) fresh gnawing marks, and 6) live rats". The mix for visits dated September 26, 2025 to September 25, 2026, filtered on the inspection date field:
| Result | Inspections | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Passed | 120,712 | 59.0% |
| Failed for Rat Activity | 29,967 | 14.7% |
| Bait applied | 26,113 | 12.8% |
| Failed for Rat Activity and Other Reason | 11,951 | 5.8% |
| Failed for Other Reason | 11,515 | 5.6% |
| Stoppage done | 3,254 | 1.6% |
| Monitoring visit | 979 | 0.5% |
| Cleanup done | 60 | 0.03% |
Mice sit in Failed for Other Reason, so a lot can fail with no rat sign recorded. The letter type column says what the city mailed next: over the year, 26,799 Commissioner's Orders to Abate, 23,552 summonses, 3,476 city agency referrals, and nothing on the other 150,724 rows.
What a Failed Initial Inspection Predicts
Most initial inspections pass. Of 138,861 in the year, 108,066 passed and 30,795 failed, a rate of 22.2%. When a failure brings a Commissioner's Order to Abate, the owner receives the inspection report and has "a minimum of five days to either fix the conditions or to contact the Health Department for help".
Compliance inspections read differently. Of the 35,284 compliance visits, 12,646 passed and 22,638 failed, so 64.2% still found something. The portal says the follow-up comes "twelve to thirty (12-30) days after an order is mailed", and failing it brings a summons. The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings sets the fine, from $300 to $2,000, and may double it on default.
Repeat failure is the signal. 26,084 tax lots recorded at least one failed result in the year. Of those, 14,380 failed more than once, or 55.1%, and 5,938 failed three times or more. Those counts exclude 1,810 failed inspections recorded without a lot number, which cannot be tied to a building. One failure is a snapshot. Repeated failures show the inspector still found a citable condition on later visits.
Rats inside the building run on a different track. Section 27-2017.4 of the Housing Maintenance Code makes "the presence of cockroaches, mice or rats in any room in a dwelling unit in a multiple dwelling or a common area" an immediately hazardous violation, correctable twenty-one days after service of the notice. The deadline a landlord gets to fix a violation turns on that class.
Rat Mitigation Zones and the 2026 Container Rules
Rat Mitigation Zones change how often the city inspects a lot. The Health Department defines them as "areas with high levels of rat activity, where City agencies focus resources to address rats and the conditions that support them". There are four: Bronx Grand Concourse, Manhattan Harlem, Manhattan East Village and Chinatown, and Brooklyn Bed Stuy and Bushwick. Harlem became a zone in January 2023.
Inside a zone "you can expect more frequent inspections", and the department runs indexing, "where we inspect every single property in a targeted area". A long inspection list on a building there can reflect the zone rather than the building.
Garbage rules affect what Failed for Other Reason can mean. Since September 8, 2026, properties with one to nine residential units must use official NYC Bins for trash set out. For larger buildings, DSNY's Empire Bin programme operates in Manhattan Community District 9 and is rolling out in Brooklyn Community District 2. A garbage failure should be read against the rules in force for that building on the inspection date.
Limits of the Inspection Record
An inspection happens because something prompted it. Every initial inspection came from a 311 complaint or from proactive indexing, so this is not a random sample of buildings. The dataset says as much: "if a property/taxlot does not appear in the file, that does not indicate an absence of rats - rather just that it has not been inspected." The note adds that areas with more properties showing rat signs may have more inspections rather than more rats.
The borough figures show the effect. Brooklyn took 58,817 initial inspections in the year and failed 18.1%. Queens took 6,769 and failed 39.2%. Read that as a difference in which lots got visited rather than a ranking of boroughs.
Three other limits matter.
- A result is a snapshot. The dictionary warns that results "represent conditions at a single point in time and may not reflect ongoing, past or future rodent activity".
- A failure is a switch rather than a score. "Properties fail inspections when any signs of rats are found. Not all properties have an equally severe problem." A lot can also fail over "the continued presence of rats on their block".
- A changed BBL hides the past, since a property drops off the map when "its BBL may have changed due to a property merger, subdivision, or update". The September 26, 2026 extract also held 46 rows dated before 2009 and 13 dated after the extract date, so check the date on any result you use.
Reading a Building's Bad Run
Start with dates. The Health Department tells you to "check the date of a failed inspection, as the property owner may have fixed the problem".
Then read the sequence. A failure followed by a passed compliance inspection is an owner who acted. A failure, a failed compliance inspection, a summons and then a bait application is an owner who left the work to the city, which then bills the owner.
Ask the super or the managing agent what changed, and put the question in writing. Met Council on Housing makes the point about repairs generally: putting a request in writing and keeping records gives you something to show later. Conditions inside the apartment run through HPD, and reporting an infestation inside your apartment starts the Class C clock.
Repeated failures call for a closer look at the work done between visits. The Housing Maintenance Code sets out what the work is: HEPA removal of nests and debris, sealing holes and gaps, door sweeps that "reduce gaps to no more than one-quarter inch", and repairing the drains and faucets that give rodents water. "The use of pesticides shall not substitute" for any of it, which is the test to apply when a landlord cites the monthly pest control visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Failed for Other Reason mean on a rat inspection?
The inspector found no active rat signs and logged something else on the health code list. The city names four things: exposed or uncontained garbage, harborage, mice, and animal nuisance conditions such as pigeon droppings. A building can fail for mice with no rat finding at all.
Does a failed rat inspection mean there are rats inside the apartments?
A failed inspection does not prove it. Inspectors "visually inspect the exterior of the property" and can only cover areas accessible to them, which leaves apartments, basements and backyards out unless someone grants access. Rats inside a unit or a common area are HPD's territory, recorded as an immediately hazardous violation.
How long does my landlord have to get rid of rats in NYC?
Two clocks run. An owner who fails a Health Department inspection has a minimum of five days to fix the conditions or contact the department, and the compliance inspection follows twelve to thirty days after the order goes out. Under the Housing Maintenance Code, rats in a room or common area carry twenty-one days from service to correct.
How soon does a rat inspection show up on the record?
Results appear within five business days of the inspection being conducted and approved by a supervisor, and the open data file updates daily. A full cycle takes longer. The Health Department says it can take up to 90 days to complete all follow-up activities on a property that failed.
What does it mean if a building has no rat inspection history?
Nobody inspected the lot. The dataset says a property missing from the file has not been inspected rather than being free of rats. Coverage is uneven: Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx took 131,144 initial inspections in the year to September 26, 2026, while Queens and Staten Island together took 7,717.
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