Do Home Inspectors Check for Rats?

Standard home inspectors look for visual evidence of pest activity — droppings, gnaw marks, entry points — but a home inspection is a single-visit snapshot. In NYC, the more reliable check is the DOHMH rodent inspection record: a recurring city program with a public result for every residential building.

• NYC's DOHMH inspects buildings on a rotating schedule; results are one of six: Passed, Failed for Rat Activity, Failed for Garbage, Bait Applied, Cleanup, or Monitoring
• 311tracker shows the last 25 DOHMH rodent inspections for any NYC address — a longitudinal record no private inspector can provide
• Private home inspectors in NYC are not required to test for rodents specifically; it's a visual check only and not standardized
• A building that passed its most recent inspection may have had 10 failures in the prior two years — only the history reveals that

Search any NYC address for its full rodent inspection history at 311tracker.com.