Frequently Asked Questions

Your first 3 reports are free, no credit card required. After that, an access window covers unlimited reports for one flat price — no per-search fees, nothing that auto-renews.

Every new user gets 3 free property reports — no credit card required. Just search an NYC address and we'll generate a full report instantly. Once you've used all 3, you can purchase an access window for unlimited reports — no per-search fees.

To view the full report you'll need to sign in — either with your email via a one-time passcode or with Google. It takes a few seconds, and there's no password to remember.

VeriCrib covers all five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. We aggregate data from government, public, and third-party sources, so if there are records on a building, we can generate a report for it.

Each report covers four pillars: Building Safety (fire, gas, structural, elevator, vacate orders), Day-to-Day Living (lead, pests, mold, heat, hot water, plumbing, noise, maintenance and construction), Landlord Red Flags (harassment, evictions, enforcement, tax liens, litigation, portfolio insights), and Area Context (crime, street noise, community concerns, nearby construction). You also get an AI-powered verdict with a plain-English summary of the building's overall condition.

Every HPD and DOB violation is public record — the city just scatters them across separate databases that don't talk to each other. You can search each agency site yourself, or search the address on VeriCrib and get it all in one report: violations, complaints, evictions, pest history, and the landlord's record, drawn from 12M+ records covering 816,000+ NYC buildings. Your first 3 reports are free.

Yes — every record we use is public, and you can search HPD, DOB, 311, court records, and NYPD data yourself at no cost. What VeriCrib adds is the assembly: one search instead of eight databases, size-adjusted comparisons against similar buildings, and a verdict that tells you what the records add up to. Most renters don't know all the places to look — that's the gap we close.

A landlord's paper trail is spread across eviction filings, harassment cases, housing-court litigation, tax liens, and city enforcement actions — all public, none of it on the listing. VeriCrib assembles that record for any building, so you can see how a landlord actually behaves when something breaks, not how the listing says they do.

HPD violations are about living conditions — heat, hot water, pests, mold, leaks, lead paint. DOB violations are about the building itself — structural work, permits, elevators, facades. A building can be spotless in one database and a disaster in the other, which is why a VeriCrib report always shows both.

Every report ends in one of seven plain-English verdicts, from "Looks solid" to "Steer clear." The verdict is computed from the building's actual records — building safety, health hazards, living comfort, and the landlord's record. "Steer clear" isn't an opinion: it takes something like an active vacate order or critical findings across multiple pillars to trigger it.

It's a real count, not a score. We tally a building's violations over the past two years, adjust for building size, and compare against every building of the same type in the same borough — walk-ups against walk-ups, condos against condos, Brooklyn against Brooklyn. When a report says "only 305 of 5,641 had more," those are 5,641 actual buildings from city records.

No — listings are marketing. Open violations, bedbug filings, and eviction history almost never appear on them, and nothing requires them to. That history lives in public city records, which is exactly what a VeriCrib report is built from.

The big five: open hazardous violations, winter heat and hot-water complaints, bedbug or pest history, an active vacate order, and a landlord with eviction or harassment cases. A VeriCrib report checks all five in one search.

A report is generated each time you look up a new address. Revisiting an address you've already searched doesn't count as a new report — your previous results are saved and accessible anytime during your access window.

No. Your 3 free reports never expire. If you use one today and come back in six months, you'll still have the remaining two waiting for you.

When your window ends, you'll need to purchase a new one to run reports on new addresses. Any properties you've saved to your list stay saved — you won't lose your research.

Not yet, but we're working on it. For now, we recommend choosing the window that best fits your apartment search timeline. Most users find the 1-month window is the sweet spot.

All data comes from government, public, and third-party sources — including NYC housing, buildings, health, and fire safety agencies. We don't scrape or estimate; every data point links back to an official record.

We sync with city databases regularly. Most datasets update daily or weekly at the source. Each report shows the exact "last updated" date for every data source so you know exactly how fresh the information is.

We take data accuracy seriously. If something looks off, use the Contact page to report the issue — select "Data Accuracy Issue" as the topic and include the address. We'll investigate and correct any errors.

Official public records: HPD violations, complaints, and litigation; DOB violations, permits, and vacate orders; 311 service requests; NYPD crime data; FDNY records; eviction filings; tax liens; bedbug filings; and rodent inspections. Every report shows the exact "last updated" date for each source, so you know how fresh each number is.

No — VeriCrib is an independent service. Reports are built from official public records published by city agencies, but we're not endorsed by or connected to any government agency.

Yes — reports are building-level, so they cover any residential building in the five boroughs: rentals, co-ops, and condos. Buying instead of renting? The same safety, maintenance, and neighborhood history applies — arguably more, since you're committing for longer.

No. Searches are completely private — landlords, brokers, and management companies are never notified, and we never sell or share your search history with anyone.

We store your search history so you can revisit past reports, but we never sell or share your search data with landlords, brokers, or any third party. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes — tap the Share button in the report header or the "What's next?" section at the bottom of any report. You can copy the link or share directly via your device's share sheet.

You can delete your account from the Account page under Settings. This permanently removes your profile, search history, and saved properties. If you need help, reach out via our Contact page.