New York City appointed a Rat Czar in April 2023. Since then, New Yorkers have filed hundreds of thousands of pest infestation complaints through the HPD 311 system. We analyzed every one of them.
What we found: in 54.9% of NYC buildings that filed pest complaints with HPD, the landlord was never cited.
Of 30,645 buildings that reported pest infestations to HPD since January 2024, only 13,832 (45.1%) received any pest-related violation requiring the landlord to fix the problem. The other 16,813 buildings — and the tenants living in them — got a complaint filed but no enforcement action.
Note on methodology: this analysis covers HPD 311 complaints (agency: HPD) with complaint type “UNSANITARY CONDITION” and descriptor “PESTS” — the standard category for tenants reporting pest infestations to their landlord’s regulatory agency. Separate rodent 311 calls handled by DOHMH are tracked on a different system and are not included here. This data reflects the HPD enforcement pipeline specifically.
The Enforcement Gap
When a New York City tenant sees a pest infestation in their building, the official guidance is to call 311 or file online. For housing conditions (as opposed to street-level rodents), the complaint routes to HPD, which is supposed to inspect the building and — if conditions warrant — issue a violation requiring the landlord to exterminate.
In practice, the data tells a different story.
| Metric | Number |
|---|---|
| Buildings with any pest complaint since Jan 2024 | 30,645 |
| Buildings that received a pest-related HPD violation | 13,832 |
| Enforcement rate | 45.1% |
| Buildings with complaints but zero pest enforcement | 16,813 |
Nearly 55% of buildings where tenants reported pest infestations to HPD never had a landlord citation issued. The complaint was filed. The paper trail exists. The enforcement didn’t follow.
The gap is not a rounding error. It is the system.
The Rat Czar Didn’t Move the Numbers
In April 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams appointed Kathleen Corradi as the city’s first-ever “Rat Czar” — officially the Director of Rodent Mitigation — with a mandate to reduce pest populations citywide.
Our data covers January 2024 through June 2026 — entirely within the Rat Czar era. The monthly complaint volume shows no downward trend:
| Period | Monthly Pest Complaints (avg) |
|---|---|
| Jan–Jun 2024 | ~4,400/month |
| Jul–Dec 2024 | ~5,600/month |
| Jan–Jun 2025 | ~4,060/month |
| Jul–Dec 2025 | ~5,735/month |
| Oct 2025 | 6,289 (peak month) |
| Jan–May 2026 | ~5,280/month |
Complaints peak sharply every summer and fall — July through October — and the 2025 summer peak (6,289 in October 2025) is higher than the 2024 peak (6,263 in August 2024). There is no visible downward trend at the HPD complaint level.
This data covers complaints filed through HPD 311 and does not capture DOHMH street-level rodent activity or the full scope of the Rat Czar’s baiting programs. But from the tenant’s perspective — the person living in the building and filing the HPD complaint — the experience is unchanged.
Where the Pests Are
The Bronx accounts for 33% of all HPD pest complaints citywide — 48,719 of the 147,878 total — despite having fewer residents than Brooklyn.
Pest complaints by borough:
| Borough | Pest Complaints | Buildings | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronx | 48,719 | 7,616 | 33% |
| Brooklyn | 44,028 | 10,263 | 30% |
| Manhattan | 30,306 | 6,250 | 20% |
| Queens | 21,596 | 5,638 | 15% |
| Staten Island | 3,229 | 878 | 2% |
Brooklyn has more residents and more buildings than the Bronx, but files 10% fewer pest complaints. The gap reflects a structural difference in building stock and maintenance conditions.
Worst neighborhoods (pest complaints per building):
| Neighborhood | Borough | Per Building | Buildings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highbridge | Bronx | 8.1 | 933 |
| Fordham | Bronx | 7.7 | 837 |
| Belmont | Bronx | 7.3 | 733 |
| Morrisania | Bronx | 7.2 | 580 |
| Harlem | Manhattan | 6.9 | 907 |
| East Harlem | Manhattan | 6.8 | 505 |
| Mott Haven | Bronx | 6.7 | 518 |
| Hunts Point | Bronx | 6.3 | 422 |
Five of the top eight neighborhoods are in the Bronx. Harlem and East Harlem in Manhattan are the only non-Bronx entries — both border the South Bronx.
The Buildings at the Top
One building stands apart from every other in the city.
31-35 Crescent Street, Queens (Astoria) filed 903 pest infestation complaints with HPD since January 2024 — nearly three times as many as the #2 building on the list.
Top 10 buildings for HPD pest infestation complaints:
| Rank | Address | Borough | Complaints |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31-35 Crescent St | Queens | 903 |
| 2 | 1412 College Ave | Bronx | 318 |
| 3 | 30 3rd Ave | Brooklyn | 244 |
| 4 | 2069 Walton Ave | Bronx | 229 |
| 5 | 2081 Madison Ave | Manhattan | 227 |
| 6 | 2802 Frederick Douglass Blvd | Manhattan | 226 |
| 7 | 16 Richman Plaza | Bronx | 217 |
| 8 | 1368 New York Ave | Brooklyn | 191 |
| 9 | 53 East 131 St | Manhattan | 186 |
| 10 | 38 Sixth Ave | Brooklyn | 185 |
5 of the top 10 are in the Bronx or Harlem. The #1 building — 31-35 Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens — is an outlier even within this list: its 903 complaints represent 3× the #2 building.
Pests and Mold Are the Same Problem
One finding that doesn’t appear in standard reporting: pest complaints and mold complaints almost always co-occur.
Of the 30,645 buildings with HPD pest complaints, 16,672 also have mold complaints — 54.4% of all pest-complaint buildings.
This is not a coincidence. Both conditions reflect the same underlying failure: a building where the landlord is not maintaining basic habitability. Pests enter through structural gaps — cracks in foundations, broken walls, deteriorating infrastructure. Mold grows where water intrusion goes unaddressed. The same landlord who ignores a pest problem ignores a leak.
For tenants, this matters practically: if your building has an HPD pest infestation complaint on record, there is a better-than-even chance it also has mold complaints, whether or not a formal mold violation has been issued.
When New Yorkers Report Pest Infestations
A consistent pattern emerges in when pest complaints are filed:
| Day | Pest Complaints |
|---|---|
| Monday | ~26,600 |
| Tuesday | ~26,200 |
| Wednesday | ~25,200 |
| Thursday | ~23,900 |
| Friday | ~21,900 |
| Saturday | ~11,800 |
| Sunday | ~12,300 |
Complaints peak on Monday through Wednesday and drop sharply on weekends — Saturday and Sunday see roughly half the weekday volume. The most likely explanation: tenants notice pest activity in building common areas during the week and file complaints during working hours. On weekends, filing rates drop even if pest activity does not.
This pattern likely means weekend pest incidents are systematically underreported. The actual presence of pests doesn’t drop on Saturday. The filing rate does.
What This Means If You Live in a Building With Pest Complaints
The data suggests a few practical conclusions for tenants:
Filing an HPD complaint is still worth doing. Even with a 45% building-level enforcement rate, complaints create a timestamped paper trail that is publicly accessible and can be relevant in housing court proceedings. Buildings with long pest complaint histories are identifiable precisely because those complaints were filed.
Repeat complaints from multiple tenants increase pressure. The enforcement gap is an average. Buildings where many tenants file coordinated complaints may receive different attention than buildings where one tenant files occasionally.
Check your building’s history before signing a lease. A building with ten pest complaints in the last two years has a different risk profile than a building with zero. That information is publicly available and free to access.
You can search any NYC address at 311tracker.com to see its full HPD complaint history, pest infestation record, and violation trend over time.
Data Methodology
Source: NYC 311 Service Requests (NYC Open Data, dataset erm2-nwe9), filtered to agency HPD, complaint type “UNSANITARY CONDITION”, descriptor “PESTS.” This covers tenant-reported pest infestation complaints routed to HPD for landlord enforcement. It does not include DOHMH rodent complaints (a separate 311 category handled by the Department of Health).
Date range: January 1, 2024 to June 2026. Total pest complaints: 147,878 across 30,645 buildings.
HPD violations: sourced from dataset wvxf-dwi5. Pest-related violations identified by keyword match on violation description (terms: PEST, INFESTAT, MICE, ROACH). Buildings matched to complaints via building ID from NYC PLUTO dataset.
Enforcement rate (45.1%): calculated at building level — buildings that filed pest complaints and also received at least one pest-related HPD violation. This is a building-level metric, not a complaint-level metric; one violation at a building with 50 complaints counts as one “enforced” building.
Mold co-occurrence: buildings with any pest complaint cross-referenced against buildings with any MOLD descriptor complaint.
Data updated daily at 311tracker.com/data. Contact: hello@311tracker.com for data requests.