Tenants at 1245 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights say their building has turned into a full-time battle zone against rats and roaches, with pests showing up in apartments, hallways and other common spaces. Residents report spotting rodents at all hours and say that whatever extermination plans management has tried so far have been hit-or-miss. The situation has gotten bad enough that neighbors are organizing a building-wide meeting to push for a real, lasting fix.
News 12 Brooklyn reports that the property currently has 61 open Housing Preservation & Development violations on the books, including citations for roach infestations, hot-water issues and repeated rat sightings. According to the outlet, building management did not respond to requests for comment, and tenants say multiple scheduled exterminations have either been skipped or have not solved the problem.
Tenants Describe 'Wave' of Rodents and Missed Exterminations
Residents say the rat problem is so intense it barely feels real. "There's like a wave — it looks like a wave of rats; either daytime or nighttime," one tenant told News 12 Brooklyn. Others say roaches have become a constant presence in both apartments and hallways, and complain that pest-control visits either do not happen as scheduled or do not provide relief for long.
City Tools and What Landlords Must Do
By law, property owners are responsible for keeping their buildings free of rats and other pests, and the city tracks when they fall short. The Department of Housing Preservation & Development maintains a public violations feed where housing-code violations are logged; on the city's Open Data portal, that record appears in the NYC Open Data Housing Maintenance Code Violations dataset, which tenants and advocates often use to confirm and document outstanding problems. The Department of Health also runs free "Rat Academy" trainings and offers other guidance for residents, building staff and pest professionals on preventing and handling infestations; details are listed at NYC Health.
What Tenants Are Doing Next
Residents say the upcoming meeting is their chance to coordinate next steps, including renewed waves of 311 complaints and fresh requests for HPD follow-up inspections. Neighbors are also planning to reach out to local elected officials and to more carefully document rat and roach sightings, as well as any no-show or ineffective extermination appointments, to help strengthen enforcement cases. In the meantime, tenants report pitching in on extra clean-up duties and keeping detailed logs of what they see so they can submit evidence to the city or bring it to housing court if needed.
For now, tenants say they plan to keep the pressure on until they see sustained improvements in the building they pay to call home. This story will be updated if building management or city agencies provide comment.
