NYC Eviction Records: How to Look Up a Building

You can see whether evictions have happened at a NYC building by searching the city's Evictions dataset, which lists every eviction carried out by a City Marshal since January 2017, with the address, apartment and date. It counts evictions that actually happened, not court cases that were filed, so it is a narrower and more serious record than "eviction filings".

The data is compiled from the City Marshals and published by the NYC Department of Investigation (DOI), which also lists the marshals on its site. Here is how to read it and what it can and can't tell you about a building.

What counts as an eviction in this data

In New York, a landlord who wins a Housing Court case gets a warrant of eviction. A City Marshal then has to serve at least 14 days' written notice and can only carry out the warrant on a business day between sunrise and sunset. When the marshal executes the warrant, a record goes into this dataset. The dataset description says City Marshals are independent public officials appointed by the Mayor, and DOI publishes a list of them with contact details.

DOI's data dictionary is explicit that the Executed Date column is the true indicator of whether an eviction was carried out. If you see an address in this file, a marshal carried out a warrant there and the occupant was removed, either with their belongings or with the belongings left in the landlord's care.

The fields, explained

"Legal possession" is by far the most common type. That does not mean the tenant stayed. It means the tenant was removed but their property was left in the unit under the landlord's care, instead of being taken out by the marshal.

Step by step: look up a building

1. 1

   Get the building’s BBL

   Search the address on Roofy's building lookup and copy the 10-digit BBL. See BBL and BIN explained.
2. 2

   Filter the Evictions dataset

   On NYC Open Data, filter by BBL. Because some rows lack a BBL, also search the Eviction Address column for the house number and street name.
3. 3

   Keep residential rows

   Set Residential/Commercial to Residential unless you care about the storefronts.
4. 4

   Count by year

   Note the Executed Date of each row and count per year. Look at the apartment numbers: one unit evicted twice reads differently from ten units once each.
5. 5

   Scale it to the building

   Divide by the number of units (see below) and compare with similar buildings nearby.

How to judge the count

A raw count rewards small buildings and punishes big ones. Turn it into a rate: evictions per 100 units per year. For example, 6 residential evictions over 3 years in a 200-unit building is 1 per 100 units per year. The same 6 in a 20-unit building is 10 per 100 units per year, ten times the rate.

Then compare against the city's own trend, because eviction levels swung hugely in recent years:

Evictions nearly stopped in 2020 and 2021 and climbed back from 2022. So a building with zero evictions in 2021 tells you nothing. Compare recent years with recent years. For maps and rankings, see NYC evictions by year and where NYC evictions happen.

What the data does not capture

• Cases that never reached a marshal. A Housing Court case can end in a settlement, payment, dismissal or the tenant moving out. None of those outcomes appear here.
• Informal and illegal evictions. Tenants pushed out by buyouts, pressure or lockouts leave no marshal record. See illegal lockouts.
• Anything before 2017. DOI says earlier data is not available.
• Why the eviction happened. The file doesn't say whether it was for unpaid rent or another reason. The court index number is the link to the case if you need more.
• Perfect addresses. Addresses are entered by marshals' offices. Search more than one spelling.

If you are facing eviction

A marshal's notice means a warrant already exists, but you may still have options. Read what to do about a marshal's notice and the NYC eviction process timeline. Many tenants qualify for a free lawyer under Right to Counsel. If you are worried that a past case will follow you when you apply for apartments, see Housing Court records and tenant screening.