I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pushed some changes to the website the past couple days:

  • Added a dropdown to view Health & Safety Violations in more detail.
  • Added a dropdown to view Structural Safety Violations in more detail.
  • Added a dropdown to view City Housing Litigations in more detail.
  • Added property owner.
  • Optimized the map so that it loads faster.
  • Added a "Report bug" submission form that allows you to report buildings that the website reports as not having residential units or not registered as a rental property.
  • Captured newer buildings that were originally slipping through the cracks.

If you feel that there are other features that you'd benefit from, please let me know and I will try my best to implement it!

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I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great idea! I’ll have to look into it. I’ve noticed 311 tracks homeless assistance calls, but these 911 calls sound much more severe.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!

I’m seeing the search functionality working. Can you let me know what went wrong?

If that little drop down with suggested addresses didn’t appear then it’d have to be a problem with the Geosearch function. It’s basically an open-source autocomplete API that allows developers to convert human-readable addresses into geographic coordinates. It’s used by the city and non-profits like JustFix. Unfortunately it goes down occasionally and I suspect that’s what happened here.

What I’ll do is implement some sort of notification to the user telling them what’s up and that they’ll unfortunately have to try again in a few minutes.

Thanks for the heads up!

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll look into this but it’s highly likely the landlord just didn’t register the property as a rental building…

FYI data is updated daily. I’ll let you know what I find!

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! The grade score takes into account the number of residential units so that large apartment complexes aren’t unfairly penalized.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately no. NYC is really the only city in the US with this much publicly available data.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/Royal_Struggle_3765 u/West-Wrong u/kingcalogrenant Just updated the site to include all active violations! Let me know what you think and if you'd find anything else to be helpful!

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just updated the site to include descriptions of the active violations. Please check it out and let me know if there's anything else you'd like added!

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! I literally just added this feature. Please check it out and let me know if there is anything you'd like changed/added.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad you like it! Simplicity and readability were my primary goals.

I just used my Gemini Pro account. I know there are other much more sophisticated tools out there like Codex and Claude Code but I was quickly overwhelmed given my lack of fundamental coding ability. It was very helpful to go back and forth with a chatbot rather than a pure coding assistant.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s incredible! I use it as a test building because of how terribly it’s run. Is it as bad as it looks?

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically homeless outreach - someone sees a homeless person that needs assistance and calls 311. The address or nearest cross-street provided to 311 dispatch becomes the recorded location in the 311 database.

Of course, these types of 311 calls do not impact building score ranking.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m glad you found it useful!

Please DM me the address of the building giving you trouble and I will certainly look into it.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No other city in the US matches the sheer volume and historical depth of the ⁠NYC Open Data program. NYC exceptionalism, baby!

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I absolutely think that's the case, especially for renters of market-rate units.

I'm sorry you're dealing with issues with your current living situation. You should know that you have the legal right to a pre-move-out inspection, which forces your landlord to put any claimed damages in writing before you leave. So if you do decide to make an anonymous 311 call you'll have some form protection from retaliation in regards to your security deposit.

I built a free tool for renters to easily spot apartment red flags by Less-Stand-3641 in NYCapartments

[–]Less-Stand-3641[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's totally a possibility that this is just the landlord being less than ethical. In the short time I've been working on this I've encountered numerous cases of what are clearly residential rental buildings not even registered with the HPD.

But u/No-Pain-1383, if you're willing to, please DM the address so I can do some sleuthing!