Since January 2024, New York City residents have filed 1,857,167 service requests through the 311 system — requests routed to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development covering heat outages, plumbing failures, vermin, and other housing conditions. Each complaint is a timestamped record tied to a specific address.
This analysis aggregates those records by building to identify which properties generated the highest complaint volume. All data is sourced from NYC Open Data (dataset erm2-nwe9) and matched to buildings via BBL (borough-block-lot). The analysis covers January 1, 2024 through early June 2026.
The Top 10 Most Complained Buildings in NYC
| Rank | Address | Borough | Neighborhood | Complaints (Since 2024) | HPD Violations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1040B EAST 217 STREET | Bronx | Williamsbridge | 6,378 | 48 |
| 2 | 957 WOODYCREST AVENUE | Bronx | Highbridge | 5,409 | 580 |
| 3 | 31-35 CRESCENT STREET | Queens | Astoria | 4,576 | 111 |
| 4 | 2802 FREDRICK DOUGLASS BL | Manhattan | Harlem | 3,676 | 1,845 |
| 5 | 2176 TIEBOUT AVENUE | Bronx | Fordham | 2,986 | 773 |
| 6 | 707 EAST 242 STREET | Bronx | Williamsbridge | 2,977 | 401 |
| 7 | 225 CENTRAL PARK NORTH | Manhattan | Harlem | 2,897 | 71 |
| 8 | 16 RICHMAN PLAZA | Bronx | Fordham | 2,836 | 1,734 |
| 9 | 530 EAST 169 STREET | Bronx | Morrisania | 2,575 | 2,519 |
| 10 | 76 ST NICHOLAS PLACE | Manhattan | Morningside Heights | 2,535 | 561 |
Each building above links to its full complaint history on 311tracker.com.
Seven of the ten buildings are in the Bronx. The borough generates 650,250 complaints across 16,378 buildings — 39.7 complaints per building, the highest rate in the city.
Complaint Types: What Are New Yorkers Reporting?
The five most common complaint categories filed with HPD since January 2024:
| Complaint Type | Total Filed (Since 2024) |
|---|---|
| HEAT/HOT WATER | 744,539 |
| UNSANITARY CONDITION | 280,610 |
| PLUMBING | 166,932 |
| PAINT/PLASTER | 147,170 |
| DOOR/WINDOW | 110,986 |
Heat and hot water complaints account for 40% of all records — a concentration that reflects the scale of New York City’s winter heating problem in older residential buildings. Unsanitary conditions (rodents, garbage, mold) are the second most common category at 280,610 complaints.
Borough Breakdown
| Borough | Complaints | Buildings | Complaints Per Building |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronx | 650,250 | 16,378 | 39.7 |
| Manhattan | 413,407 | 16,263 | 25.4 |
| Brooklyn | 526,413 | 30,847 | 17.1 |
| Queens | 238,055 | 18,998 | 12.5 |
| Staten Island | 29,042 | 2,933 | 9.9 |
The Bronx has the highest complaint rate per building at 39.7 — more than double Brooklyn’s 17.1 and four times Staten Island’s 9.9. Brooklyn has the most buildings in the dataset (30,847) but a far lower per-building complaint rate than the Bronx or Manhattan.
Case Studies: The Top 3 Buildings
1. 1040B East 217 Street, Bronx (Williamsbridge) — 6,378 Complaints
1040B East 217 Street in Williamsbridge generated more complaints than any other building in NYC since January 2024. Of its 6,378 complaints, 6,365 are for HEAT/HOT WATER — 99.8% of all complaints for the property. The remaining 13 complaints cover appliances (4) and unsanitary conditions (3).
The near-total concentration in a single complaint type points to a systemic heating failure rather than scattered maintenance issues. The building has 48 HPD violations on record.
2. 957 Woodycrest Avenue, Bronx (Highbridge) — 5,409 Complaints
957 Woodycrest Avenue in Highbridge has a more distributed complaint profile: 2,210 unsanitary condition complaints, 1,893 heat/hot water complaints, and 481 electric complaints. The presence of 481 electrical complaints alongside nearly 2,000 heat complaints suggests multiple overlapping building systems have failed. The property carries 580 HPD violations.
3. 31-35 Crescent Street, Queens (Astoria) — 4,576 Complaints
31-35 Crescent Street in Astoria is the only non-Bronx building in the top three. It generated 4,576 complaints: 3,479 for heat/hot water, 977 for unsanitary conditions, and 24 for water leaks. With 111 HPD violations, it has a lower violation count than buildings ranked lower in complaint volume — but the complaint rate per violation is among the highest in the dataset.
What This Means For NYC Renters
Complaint counts are a proxy for how a landlord responds to tenant-reported problems. A building with 6,000 complaints filed over two years is not simply a large building — it is a building where conditions requiring city intervention recur at a high rate.
Before signing a lease, search the address on 311tracker.com to see its complaint history, HPD violation class breakdown, and complaint trend over time. Pay particular attention to Class C violations, which HPD designates as immediately hazardous and requires correction within 24 hours.
If a building appears in the top-complaint tier for a single category — especially heat/hot water — that pattern is more informative than the total count. 6,365 heat complaints from one building means tenants lost heat repeatedly, filed complaints repeatedly, and the condition was never permanently resolved.
You can check any NYC address at 311tracker.com.
Data Methodology
Data source: NYC 311 Service Requests (NYC Open Data dataset erm2-nwe9), filtered to agency HPD. Date range: January 1, 2024 to June 3, 2026. Total records: 1,857,167. Buildings were matched to complaint records via BBL (borough-block-lot identifier). HPD violation data sourced from dataset wvxf-dwi5. Data is updated daily at 311tracker.com.