What Should You Do If You See a Rat in NYC?

If you see a rat inside your NYC apartment, file a 311 complaint immediately under "Unsanitary Condition" — this routes to HPD and triggers an inspection. Outdoor rat sightings on the street or in a yard should be reported to DOHMH via 311 as a "Rodent" complaint instead.

• Filing a 311 complaint creates a public record visible on 311tracker.com — useful for future tenants researching the building
• Your landlord is legally required to exterminate upon receiving an HPD pest violation; failure to comply results in daily fines
• Check whether your building has a pattern of failed DOHMH rodent inspections at 311tracker.com — a single sighting in a building with 10 prior failures is a different situation than an isolated incident
• Repeated failures with no corrective action is grounds for an HP proceeding in NYC Housing Court

NYC's DOHMH also runs Rat Mitigation Zones in the highest-activity areas, with intensive inspection and baiting schedules. 311tracker tracks all 2.95 million DOHMH inspection records citywide — search any address to see the complete history. Read our NYC rat complaint investigation for the full data breakdown.