How to Check a NYC Building's Bed Bug History

To check whether a NYC building has had bed bugs, look at two public records: the owner's annual bedbug filing with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and any HPD violations for bedbugs. The filing tells you how many units the owner says had bed bugs in the last reporting year. Violations tell you what a city inspector actually found.

Neither record is perfect. The filing is self-reported and has no apartment numbers. Violations only exist when someone complains and an inspector gets in. Used together, and read carefully, they answer the question well enough to decide what to ask the landlord.

Record 1: the owner's annual bedbug filing

Under Local Law 69 of 2017, owners of multiple dwellings (buildings with three or more apartments) must try to get the bed bug history of each unit from the tenant or unit owner, then file a Bed Bug Annual Report with HPD. HPD says the filing is free and asks for five pieces of information. Four of them describe the building:

1. The number of dwelling units.
2. The number of units with a bedbug infestation during the previous year.
3. The number of units where eradication measures were used during the previous year.
4. Of those treated units, the number that had bed bugs again after treatment.

Owners file between December 1 and December 31, covering November 1 through October 31 of the prior year. A building with no bed bugs still has to file. Corporate owners, including LLCs and co-ops, must file electronically. HPD publishes the filings on NYC Open Data.

The receipt you should see

After filing, the owner must either give each tenant a copy of the filing receipt (when a lease starts and at each renewal) or post it in a prominent place in the building. HPD says posting must happen within 60 days of filing. Owners must also hand out or post the Health Department's guide to preventing and getting rid of bed bugs safely. Separately, New York State requires owners to disclose the past year's bed bug history to new tenants on the state Bedbug Disclosure Form.

How to read the bedbug filing data

The public dataset is called Bedbug Reporting on NYC Open Data. Each row is one filing for one building and one reporting period. Here is what the main fields mean.

If two filings exist for the same building and period, the dataset notes that the second one is the active, final submission.

What the numbers look like citywide

For the reporting period that ended October 31, 2025, we counted 115,014 filings in the dataset. Of those, 2,990 reported at least one infested unit, about 2.6%. 391 filings had a number above zero in the re-infested column. Most buildings report zero.

That means a filing with even one infested unit puts a building in a small minority. It does not mean the building is dirty or badly run. Bed bugs travel in luggage and furniture, and a well-run building can still get them. What matters more is the pattern: several units, more than one year in a row, or units that came back after treatment.

Totals across the whole dataset are not reliable. Some filings contain obvious entry errors. Two filings for the 2025 period reported more than 100,000 dwelling units each, and one of them put 414,754 in every bedbug column. Look at one building at a time and sanity-check the unit count against what you know about the building.

Record 2: HPD bedbug violations

When a tenant reports bed bugs and the owner doesn't deal with them, the tenant can complain to 311. If an HPD inspector finds bed bugs, the owner gets an HPD Notice of Violation. HPD says the owner also gets a Health Department Commissioner's Order. It requires inspecting the cited apartment and, if bed bugs are there, the units next to, above and below it plus the common areas, using a pest management professional certified by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and keeping a record of everything done.

In the violation data, bedbug violations cite Housing Maintenance Code § 27-2017.4 and read like "ABATE THE INFESTATION CONSISTING OF BEDBUGS IN THE ENTIRE APARTMENT LOCATED AT APT ...". All 412 of these infestation violations with a 2025 inspection date were Class B (hazardous). Some pest violations list several pests at once, such as mice, roaches and bedbugs, so read the full description.

You can see a building's HPD violations by searching the address on Roofy's building lookup or on HPD Online. Unlike the annual filing, violations usually include an apartment number and a date, which tells you where and when.

Step by step: check a building in 10 minutes

1. 1

   Find the building

   Search the address on Roofy and note the BBL. Large complexes can have several buildings on one lot, so make sure you have the right one.
2. 2

   Open the last few bedbug filings

   Filter the Bedbug Reporting dataset on NYC Open Data by BBL or BIN. Read at least the last three reporting periods, not just the latest.
3. 3

   Compare infested units with total units

   A small number of infested units in a large building is common. Several infested units in a small building, or re-infested units, deserves questions.
4. 4

   Check HPD violations for bedbugs

   Scan the violation list for “bedbugs” and § 27-2017.4. Note the apartment numbers, dates and whether each violation is open or closed.
5. 5

   Ask the owner directly

   Ask for the current filing receipt and the state disclosure form, which units were treated, and who the pest control company is.

Limits you should know

• It is self-reported. HPD publishes what the owner files. Owners rely on tenants telling them, and some tenants never do.
• No apartment numbers. The filing gives counts for the whole building, so you can't tell if your unit was one of them.
• It lags. A filing made in December covers a period that ended in October. Anything after that won't show until next year.
• Missing filings. A building with no filing for a period is not a clean bill of health. It may just mean the owner didn't file.
• Violations need a complaint. No violations can mean no bed bugs, or no one called 311.

If you already live there

Tell your landlord in writing first. If they don't act, file a complaint with 311. Our bed bug tenant rights guide explains what the owner has to do and what you can do if they don't. For citywide patterns, see our report on bedbug filings by borough. Landlords should read bedbug disclosure and annual filing for owners.