In NYC, landlords have all the power. The mysterious figures behind official-sounding organizations and LLCs that you send your rent check to can turn out to be little less than crooks, yet it’s so hard to find out information about them unless they’re among the 100 worst landlords in the city.
A new website called Apartable helps give some of the power back to renters by equipping future tenants with a comprehensive report of a building’s history. DNAinfo reports that the site organizes public data from several city agencies that “detail[s] years of complaints, violations and building permits, as well as tax histories going back to 2009” in addition to culling reviews from tenants. The site has reportedly registered all of the residential buildings in New York.
“All of the information is public, so you could theoretically get it if you wanted to, but good luck getting information from all different websites in all different formats,” said site creator Avishai Weiss.
“This complete history will enable renters to pierce the veil of New York City slumlords,” he said. “It gives you a good idea of who your future landlord will be.”
(Photo: Ianqui Doodle)
