Spring is when New Yorkers see rats — and start filing 311 complaints about them. But the city’s data tells a more nuanced story than the panic suggests. According to the NYC Health Department’s Rat Mitigation Zone Report covering January through June 2025, total rodent complaints across the four official Rat Mitigation Zones (RMZs) dropped from 4,194 in the first half of 2024 to 3,956 in the first half of 2025. The biggest improvements came in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy/Bushwick zone and Manhattan’s Harlem zone. The bad news: filing a 311 complaint in 2026 is still confusing if you don’t know which complaint category triggers an actual inspection. This is your decoder.
What the 2025 NYC Rat Report Actually Shows
The Health Department publishes this data twice a year under Local Law 110, which requires public reporting on rat mitigation in four designated zones: the Grand Concourse neighborhoods in the Bronx; Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Prospect Heights in Brooklyn; West, Central, and East Harlem; and the East Village, Lower East Side, and Chinatown in lower Manhattan. Together these zones cover 37,545 tax lots and include 209 parks, 79 NYCHA developments, and 184 schools that get monthly surveys.
Three numbers from the report matter most for residents:
- Bed-Stuy/Bushwick 311 rodent complaints fell from 946 (Jan–June 2024) to 761 (Jan–June 2025) — a 20 percent drop, driven mainly by fewer rat sightings reported.
- Harlem rodent complaints fell from 2,301 to 2,133, a roughly 7 percent decrease.
- Bronx Grand Concourse rodent complaints actually increased even as the percentage of properties with active rat signs decreased — meaning more residents are reporting, which is what the city wants.
The Department also issued 6,583 Commissioner’s Orders to Abate (COTAs) to private property owners in the four zones during the first half of 2025, plus 7,142 summonses on follow-up compliance inspections. Translation: filing a 311 complaint that triggers an inspection has teeth. Landlords get fined when conditions aren’t fixed.
Why Most 311 Rodent Complaints Don’t Trigger an Inspection
Here’s what the report buries on page two: when you call 311 about a rat in your apartment, the city routes the complaint based on which descriptor you choose. The wrong descriptor sends your complaint into a black hole. The right one triggers a Health Department inspection within 14 days.
The official Rat or Mouse Complaint category at NYC311 routes to the Health Department for outdoor or public-area rat activity. The Residential Pest Complaint category routes to HPD for pests inside an apartment — which is what most renters actually want. The two complaints look almost identical in the 311 app. The difference is who shows up, when, and what they’re empowered to do.
How to File a 311 Rodent Complaint That Actually Works
If the rats are inside your apartment or in the public area of your residential building (hallway, basement, courtyard): File a Residential Pest Complaint. HPD will attempt to contact your landlord first. If the landlord doesn’t fix the problem, a uniformed Code Enforcement inspector is dispatched. The inspector also checks for smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, lead paint (if a child under 6 lives in the unit), window guards (if a child under 11 lives there), mold, and self-closing doors — meaning one rat complaint can surface multiple violations the landlord owes you.
If the rats are outside — in the street, around a sidewalk tree pit, in a park, or coming from a neighbor’s property: File a Rat or Mouse Complaint. This routes to the Health Department’s pest control team, which is the team running the Rat Mitigation Zone work. If the property is in an RMZ, your complaint may trigger a new initial inspection if no inspection has happened in the prior three months.
If you live in NYCHA public housing: Use the dedicated NYCHA Public Housing Maintenance Complaint, not the regular pest complaint. NYCHA developments get monthly rat surveys under the Neighborhood Rat Reduction Initiative.
How to Take Action — File Your Complaint Today
- Decide where the rat is. Inside the apartment or in the public area of the building? Use Residential Pest Complaint (HPD). Outside on the street, in a tree pit, or in a park? Use Rat or Mouse Complaint (Health Department). Inside NYCHA? Use the NYCHA-specific complaint.
- File at portal.311.nyc.gov or by calling 311 (711 for TTY). You must provide your contact information — anonymous complaints don’t trigger HPD inspections.
- Document everything before the inspector arrives. Take date-stamped photos and video of rat sightings, droppings, gnaw marks, holes in walls or floors, and any garbage conditions outside your building. If your landlord ignored prior requests, save the texts and emails.
- Get the complaint number. Save it. You’ll use it to check status at portal.311.nyc.gov/check-status or via the NYC311 mobile app.
- If HPD doesn’t reach the landlord, an inspector is sent. If English isn’t your primary language, tell the inspector — they can call a translator.
- If the landlord doesn’t fix it after the inspection, take it to Housing Court. Document every contact with your landlord and HPD so you have a paper trail.
Why Some Buildings Repeat-Offend (And What the City Is Doing About It)
The Health Department’s 2025 report introduced “elevated compliance inspections” specifically to deal with large, high-income buildings that were treating rat-violation fines as a cost of doing business. In all zones except East Village/Chinatown, the share of compliance inspections that escalated to second or higher-tier inspections roughly doubled between late 2024 and the first half of 2025. Each elevation level carries a higher fine. If your building has repeat rat issues and the landlord keeps paying the fine instead of fixing the conditions, your follow-up complaints will eventually trigger elevated fines that hurt enough to force action.
Free City Resources to Use Today
- NYC Rat Information Portal: nyc.gov/rats — guidance materials in multiple languages plus an inspection results lookup so you can check the rat history of any address before you sign a lease.
- Rat Academy: Free training run by the Health Department teaching Integrated Pest Management. Block associations, community boards, and BIDs can sponsor a session. The Department offered 26 trainings in the first half of 2025 with 1,693 registrants.
- Rat Inspection Mapping Tool: a816-dohbesp.nyc.gov/IndicatorPublic/Rats — search any NYC address and see every inspection result, COTA, and summons issued.
- HPD Online: nyc.gov/site/hpd/about/hpd-online — check complaint and violation history before you rent.
- Tenant Harassment hotline: If a landlord retaliates against you for filing a complaint, that’s illegal harassment under NYC law. File a Tenant Harassment complaint through 311.
What to Do If Your Complaint Goes Nowhere
If you filed correctly and 14 days have passed with no inspection, escalate. Call the HPD Code Enforcement Borough Service Center for your borough (numbers at portal.311.nyc.gov/article/KA-01073) and reference your complaint number. If you’re in a rent-regulated apartment, you have additional protections under NYS DHCR rules — withholding rent for habitability conditions is legally complex, so consult a tenant lawyer before doing it, but document everything so you can pursue an abatement.
The bottom line: rats in NYC are a structural problem that won’t be solved by one phone call, but the city’s Rat Mitigation Zone framework actually generates inspections, fines, and follow-through when you file correctly. The numbers from 2025 show it’s working in the zones where residents kept filing. Don’t let the panic stop you from being one of those residents — but file the right way.
