RAT INSPECTIONS: IN YOUR BUILDING & NEIGHBORHOOD

Important note about rat inspections: in late 2014, the city comptoller's office completed an audit of The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's response to rat infestation, and the results were unfavorable. According to the audit, while infestation has increased at least 10% since 2012, a significant number of 311 rat complaints will result in no inspections, with unresolved infestation complaints often being marked "closed." (So keep that in mind while searching your own building's rat inspection data; data may be unreliable.)

Find rat inspection data for your building & neighborhood via The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's "Rat Inspection Portal." Simply input your address and a map of "initial inspections" will come up. "Initial inspections" are the inspections done as a result of a 311 call, or as part of the DOHMH's "rat indexing" program in the Bronx and Manhattan. Dark orange = active rat signs,  orange = problem area, yellow = passed. To the right, you'll find history specific to your building. Scroll down to see dates for both initial inspections & compliance inspections. (A "compliance inspection" is a follow up inspection.)

To see a map with compliance inspections highlighted instead of initial inspections, click "Show Rat inspections on the Map," then in the box that comes up, click "compliance inspections." Click any highlighted building for information. What you may find, as I did, are compliance inspections from years ago that indicate "active rat signs," with no follow-up inspections listed (date of retrieval, 3/2015):

Also, just an FYI. The worst year in rats was officially 1979.