Why this matters
Most renters in San Francisco sign a lease without ever looking at the building's complaint history. There is no requirement that landlords disclose past violations, formal notices, or fire records. Some of that information lives on the city's website, but it is hard to find unless you already know which dataset to open.
I built Housing Report Card after I moved into a place where the elevator was broken and the unit had pests on day one. I found out later that the building had a long pattern of similar complaints. If I had searched the address before I signed, I would have seen it.
What is publicly available
San Francisco publishes more about every address than most renters realize. The pieces worth knowing about:
- Department of Building Inspection complaints. Every complaint filed with DBI, with the date, the current status, and a description of the issue. This is the highest-signal source.
- Notices of violation. Formal city enforcement records. A notice means an inspector confirmed something was wrong and the property has not yet resolved it.
- Building permits. Every permit application, with the filed, issued, and completed dates. The description tells you what the work was.
- Fire violations and inspections. Fire-safety-specific records, including unresolved violations and follow-up inspection status.
- 311 cases. Resident-submitted reports. Less rigorous than DBI complaints but informative when patterns repeat.
- Property tax roll. Year built, unit count, property class, and ownership context.
All of this has been public on DataSF since 2016. Almost nobody outside city government knows.
How to use Housing Report Card
- Type the address into the search box on the homepage.
- Pick the matched address from the suggestions; we match against San Francisco's official address dataset.
- Read the report.
What to look for in the report
The grade and score
A grade is a quick read on the overall picture. F or D should make you stop and read carefully. The grade is non-official and is product logic on top of public records, not a city-issued risk rating. Read the underlying records, not just the letter.
Active complaints
These are open DBI complaints the city has not closed. A single active complaint by itself is not a deal-breaker; it could be a recent tenant report awaiting inspection. Several active complaints, especially across different units, is a stronger signal that the building is not staying on top of issues.
Active notices of violation
Formal notices are the clearest red flag in the report. They mean an inspector confirmed something was wrong and the property has not yet resolved it. Notices stay open until fixed. If a building has multiple active notices on multiple complaint files, the management is not responsive to the city, which means they are unlikely to be responsive to you.
Fire records
Fire violations and inspection findings matter regardless of how recent the complaint history looks. Issues around alarms, sprinklers, exits, and life-safety systems are the most likely to actually hurt you. Read these even if the rest of the report looks clean.
Permit history
Recent permits can mean the landlord is taking care of the building. They can also mean the landlord is dressing up a unit before listing it. Look at what was done. A cosmetic refresh after a long stretch of complaints reads differently from steady, consistent maintenance.
Themes and patterns
Recurring issues across multiple complaint files are the most useful signal. A single broken-heat complaint is one tenant. Twelve broken-heat complaints across five years is the building. Housing Report Card flags these as themes so they stand out.
311 reports
Resident-submitted reports are less rigorous than DBI complaints, but repeated 311 reports about the same building tell you what neighbors are noticing.
What to do with what you find
If the report is clean, no complaints, no notices, no fire issues, recent permits with maintenance scope, you have reduced your risk meaningfully. Sign with normal due diligence.
If there is a single old issue that has been resolved, ask the landlord about it directly. A reasonable landlord will tell you what happened and how it was fixed. The conversation itself is informative.
If there is a pattern of unresolved or recurring issues, you have leverage. Your options:
- Ask, in writing, for the issues to be addressed before move-in.
- Negotiate a rent reduction reflecting the building's history.
- Walk away. Some buildings are not worth signing.
Other things worth doing before you sign
- Talk to current tenants. A short conversation with a neighbor in the hallway is often more honest than the listing agent.
- Visit at different times. A unit is one experience at noon and another at 11pm. The building is too.
- Read your lease for monitoring devices. A growing number of rental units include in-unit smart devices that quietly produce a record of when you come and go. See The rise of landlord surveillance.
- Get the conversation in writing. Email, not casual mention, so you have a record of what the landlord said.
A note on the score
The score on each report is a starting point, not a verdict. The data behind it is real. The weights and categories that turn that data into a grade are choices I made. Read the records, not just the letter.