NYC seeks court orders to access infested properties in war on rats

A Harlem lot that has sat vacant for more than a decade has become so infested with rats that city attorneys persuaded a judge to let them in so that they can clean it up and exterminate the vermin.

The petition in Manhattan Supreme Court shows the lengths the city will go to as it wages Mayor Eric Adams’ war on rats. A sanitation official said the city law department had obtained similar court orders eight other times this year granting rat inspectors access to properties that are often the subject of 311 complaints. A judge allowed sanitation officials into the Harlem property on May 1.

Angel Negron, a super of a nearby building, said he sometimes cleans up the sidewalk around the lot, which is filled with litter and weeds.

"It's empty…They come and put garbage,” he said. “But it's illegal to put garbage there.”

He added, “Any animal is always hanging around looking for places like this."

Gothamist visited the lot on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 149th Street and saw a pile of trash bags vibrating with rats. Weathered signs on a chain link fence warned of rat poison. A stray cat prowled the lot, apparently aware of the abundant prey.

Court filings indicate sanitation inspectors found a similar scene.

“DSNY staff found the following conditions at the subject premises: active rodent signs including gnawed black plastic bags, gnawed white plastic bags, and a gnawed aluminum container and putrescible waste including plastic bottles, a glass bottle, and an aluminum can presumably containing beverage residue,” city attorney Marquis Bradshaw wrote.

The LLC that owns the site, identified as the FDB Group in court records, had not responded to demands to clean up the property or allow sanitation officials in, according to the city. Attempts to reach the owner were unsuccessful. Court filings indicate the landlord will be receiving a bill for the cleanup.

Plans filed with the city last year call for an eight-story mixed use residential building at the site, but there was little evidence of that work moving forward.

The lot sits in one of the city's four rat mitigation zones, which see heightened inspections and anti-rodent measures. Since 2023 the lot has been dosed with rat bait or visited by inspectors 18 times, according to public records.

Chris Cruz said the lot has been vacant since he started working around the corner for a plumbing company 10 years ago. The rat activity would occasionally surge, then drop off after officials left poison at the lot, he said.

“A whole decade It's been empty,” he said. “I kind of appreciate that it's like an open lot just because it's a concrete jungle…As long as they keep it clean, I don't see, I don't have any objection.”