How Long a Landlord Takes to Fix a Pest Violation
A New York pest violation takes a median of 102 days to clear, 72.6 per cent take more than 90 days, and 22.2 per cent take more than a year. Of 75,224 roach and mouse violations issued in 2024, 28.6 per cent were still open when we pulled the records. The lower quarter of the distribution starts at 88 days, which suggests the clock is being set by process rather than by how long a repair takes.
Housing inspectors issue a pest violation when they find roaches or mice in a rented dwelling. The violation carries a legal obligation to correct it. The public record includes the date it was issued and the date its status last changed, which makes it possible to ask how long that obligation actually takes to discharge.
What the distribution looks like
| Measure | Days |
|---|---|
| Fastest quarter closed within | 88 |
| Median | 102 |
| Slowest quarter starts at | 321 |
| Over 90 days | 72.6% of violations |
| Over 365 days | 22.2% of violations |
Roach and mouse violations issued in 2024, measured from issue to the date the violation’s status changed to dismissed, closed or certified. 53,733 of 75,224 violations had reached such a status.
The shape is unusual and it is the most interesting thing here. There is almost nothing below 88 days, then a dense cluster through the median at 102, then a long tail stretching past a year. A distribution with a hard floor and a long tail is what an administrative process produces, not what a repair schedule produces. Some roach problems are dealt with in a week. Almost none are recorded as cleared in a week.
The likely mechanism is the certification cycle. An owner is given a correction period, then a window to certify that the work was done, and the record updates when the certification is processed or when a re-inspection happens. The floor around three months reflects those stacked deadlines. That means these figures measure the time for the paperwork to resolve, which is a real and meaningful number for a tenant, but it is not the same as the time a technician needed.
What “closed” covers
| Current status | Violations |
|---|---|
| Violation dismissed | 27,866 |
| Violation closed | 20,325 |
| Notice of issuance sent to tenant | 9,626 |
| Not complied with | 4,858 |
| First no access to re-inspect violation | 4,277 |
| Defect letter issued | 3,175 |
| Notice of violation sent out | 3,031 |
| Certified late | 684 |
The eight most common statuses, covering 73,842 of the 75,224 roach and mouse violations issued in 2024, as recorded when we pulled the data.
Dismissal is the single largest outcome. In this system a violation is generally dismissed when the owner certifies correction and that certification is accepted, or when a re-inspection finds the condition gone. It is an administrative removal from the record rather than a finding that the violation was unfounded.
Two statuses deserve attention from anyone reading this as a tenant. “Not complied with” covers 4,858 violations where the deadline passed without correction being established. “First no access to re-inspect” covers 4,277 where the inspector could not get in, which keeps the violation open without progressing it and is a common reason a case stalls.
The quarter that never closes
28.6 per cent of 2024 violations had no closing status at all when we pulled the records, more than a year after most were issued. Those are excluded from the timing figures by necessity, and their exclusion biases the medians downward: if the open cases eventually close, they close late.
The honest summary is therefore that 102 days is the median among violations that resolved, and the median across all violations issued would be higher, though by how much cannot be determined from this data.
What this means in practice
- For tenants: a violation being issued is the start of a process measured in months. Keep your own dated record of conditions and of access offered, because “no access to re-inspect” is one of the more common ways a case stalls.
- For landlords and managers: the certification window, not the treatment, is what drives the recorded timeline. Missing it converts a fixable problem into an open violation that persists on the building’s record and feeds the repeat-violation pattern covered in our analysis of repeatedly cited buildings.
- For operators bidding multifamily work: the compliance calendar is the buying trigger. An owner sitting on a violation with a certification deadline is a different customer from one shopping on price, and pricing for that is covered in our guide to pricing pest control services.
- Treatment alone rarely closes a case where the underlying conditions persist, which is the recurring theme in our apartment violation analysis.
How we did this
We took every housing maintenance code violation from the New York City housing department dataset whose description references roaches or mice, with an inspection date in calendar year 2024, and paginated the full result set rather than taking the first page. That distinction matters: the initial query returns a 50,000 row cap, and the capped set is not a random sample of the 75,224 actual violations.
Clearance time is the difference between the violation’s issue date and the date of its current status, for violations whose current status indicates dismissal, closure or certification. We excluded durations that were negative or over 1,500 days.
Three limits. The status date reflects the most recent change, which for a violation that reopened is not the original clearance. Violations still open are excluded, which understates the true typical duration. And the description filter captures violations mentioning roaches or mice, so pest violations recorded under other wording are not counted.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a landlord have to fix a pest violation?
The legal correction period is set by the violation class and is generally far shorter than what happens in practice. In the New York records, the median roach or mouse violation issued in 2024 took 102 days from issue to being recorded as cleared, 72.6 per cent took more than 90 days, and 22.2 per cent more than a year.
What does it mean when a housing violation is dismissed?
Usually that the owner certified the condition was corrected and the certification was accepted, or that a re-inspection found it gone. Dismissal was the largest single outcome, covering 27,866 of the 75,224 roach and mouse violations issued in 2024. It removes the violation from the record rather than indicating it was unfounded.
Why do pest violations take so long to close?
The data points to process rather than repair time. Almost no violations are recorded as cleared inside 88 days, which is consistent with a correction period followed by a certification window and a re-inspection step. Cases also stall when an inspector cannot get access, which affected 4,277 violations.
What if my landlord does not fix a pest violation?
4,858 of the 2024 violations sit at “not complied with”, meaning the deadline passed without correction being established, and a further 28.6 per cent had no closing status at all. Tenants can escalate through the housing department’s complaint process and, in the relevant jurisdictions, through housing court. Our guide to landlord and tenant responsibilities sets out who is obliged to do what.
Sources
- NYC Open Data, Housing Maintenance Code Violations, roach and mouse violations issued in calendar year 2024. data.cityofnewyork.us
- Analysis by The Pest Control Brief, September 2026.
