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Scored based on an analysis by Rentlogic, here’s the areas where tenants should tread carefully

School is back in session. Does your neighborhood get straight As?

AI has also been touted as the new must-have for business, for everything from customer service to marketing to IT. However, for all its usefulness, AI also has a dark side. In many cases, the algorithms are biased.

A company called Rentlogic has raised $2.4 million to take the guesswork out of determining whether that cheap, beautiful New York apartment is actually a deathtrap wrapped in a brownstone’s clothing. Renting in New York is murder already, but using Rentlogic, apartment hunters can figure out if their new housing situation could actually kill them (or put them […]

In an age in which many aspects of technology could still be considered the “Wild West,” and tech gurus “outlaws,” I contend, as a whole, that this is a problem we should get in front of rather than behind. It is imperative that companies should voluntarily prescribe to Algorithmic Audits — an unbiased third-party verification. […]

Managing director Micah Kotch told Compelo: “We’ve funded some of the most interesting companies who are working to improve city living, and we work with start-ups from all around the world. “We started this about two years ago – we’re in the fourth programme now – and what we’re seeing is a really interesting evolution […]

While many landlords are doing great things, sadly, a few bad ones give the industry a negative reputation. In the rental market, however, fairness and transparency can work to everyone’s advantage – for renters and property owners alike. After my experience in the West Village, I knew there had to be a better way. I […]

Every registered residential rental property in New York City gets rated on Rentlogic’s website, but not all building owners display the letter grade on their property. Fox learned that part of the issue was the graphic design of Rentlogic’s bright green signage. “Landlords put a lot of care and money into their buildings and they didn’t like the previous […]

Right before the election, O’Neil launched her own company, O’Neil Risk Consulting and Algorithmic Auditing, or ORCAA, with the aim of helping organizations, including the rental startup Rentlogic, that rely on algorithms to ensure that they’re not accidentally harming people. So far, ORCAA has certified Rentlogic and one other company and has a dozen or so more that are […]

Each year, New York City’s Public Advocate releases a list of the worst landlords in the five boroughs, a ranking of those who leave their tenants to live in dangerous or despicable conditions. It’s a great resource for landlords to avoid, but what if you’re looking for suggestions? You can look up any building on […]

To fill the void, Brick Underground is profiling the “best” landlords in each borough, using methodology similar to that of the public advocate. But whereas the city looks for landlords with the most building maintenance violations, our data partners at the website Rentlogic tabulate those with the least. Rentlogic’s website and plugin grade apartment buildings based on […]

Rentlogic culled information from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development website to determine whose buildings racked up the fewest maintenance violations over the last four years. The list is a positive spin on Public Advocate Letitia James’ annual list of New York City’s 100 worst landlords, which shines a harsh spotlight on property owners […]

Dive Brief: Brooklyn, NY-based startup accelerator URBAN-X has announced its fourth cohort of companies to undergo a 20-week program that will equip them with resources and guidance to help develop smart city-related products and solutions. URBAN-X, which is backed by MINI, chose the startups out of a pool of 400 applicants based on their potential […]

URBAN-X has announced the fourth cohort of early-stage companies. Backed by MINI in partnership with urbantech venture fund Urban Us Capital, URBAN-X chose seven startups from 400 applications to participate in Cohort 04 of the accelerator program. Cities, their inhabitants and infrastructure worldwide face mounting risks, and Cohort 04 companies are building hardware and platforms […]

Also in the fourth cohort is Rentlogic, which takes city data about building inspections and violations and makes it available to prospective renters. The company is currently focused on New York City buildings. The fourth cohort of the New York City-based URBAN-X startup accelerator includes two gov tech companies, as well as a third startup that […]

For Rentlogic to work, both landlords and tenants, two groups with competing interests, have to believe the business is fair. Fox thought that having a neutral third party, like O’Neil, review the company’s technology and offer a stamp of approval would be an easy way to prove Rentlogic’s protocol was bias-free.

Fox says that he understands the gripe, and in fact he’s a landlord back in his native Toronto, though he rents his apartment here in New York. To address landlords’ concerns, he is now beta testing a methodology to allow building owners to contest their grades. Under the new system, owners can hire third-party inspectors to perform […]

“The first thing you should do is call your landlord or email them, or text the super, and do so in a very calm and cordial and professional manner,” says Yale Fox, founder and CEO of the site Rentlogic, which rates New York rental buildings. “What people often do is call screaming, and if the end goal […]

On this episode of The Brick Underground Podcast, host Nathan Tempey talks to Yale Fox, founder of the rental-building rating website Rentlogic and data partner for Brick’s Best Landlords series, as well as Arik Lifshitz, CEO of the family-founded DSA Property Group, a developer, building owner, and property manager with apartments in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Yale and Arik share […]

A new survey found that 76 percent of renters in New York City have experienced issues in their apartments. The most common problem is plumbing defects and leaks, which affected 36 percent of respondents, followed by pest infestation at 29 percent, structural damage at 28 percent, loss of heating at 27 percent and electrical problems […]

In Rentlogic’s survey of 250 New York apartment dwellers—a small sample size, it should be noted—the organization found that 36 percent of those surveyed noted plumbing issues and leaks in their apartments, making it the most common issue reported. Pest infestation plagued 29 percent of those surveyed, while 28 percent of participants reported structural damage; […]

The Rentlogic study, conducted in February among 250 renters in the city, found that 96 percent of them had price in their top five priorities when searching for an apartment, while 95 percent put location in their top five. This was followed by cleanliness—94 percent—quality—93 percent—and transportation—92 percent. Only 36 percent put amenities in their top five, […]

“We live in the Amazon age,” Fox said. “People look up reviews on anything before they make a purchase. The startup previously tried to work with real estate listing sites and to launch a web plugin, which overlaid its grades on other websites. Rentlogic no longer wants to get in on the listings industry. Instead, […]

Yale Fox, founder of the rental-building rating website Rentlogic, and DSA Property Group CEO Arik Lifshitz were featured on the

Any renter knows that it’s often in the days after signing a lease that an apartment’s unsavory surprises are revealed — the pest infestation, stubbornly broken bathroom plumbing, black mold in the kitchen, and so on. Insight into ongoing safety issues in the building, as well as the landlord’s responsiveness to maintenance issues, can help renters make […]

Mr. Fox founded the company in 2013 based on his experience working as a landlord of a rental property in Toronto and with a problem landlord in New York City. He found traditional forms of tenant advocacy had limited persuasive power because they had minimal effect on landlords’ bottom lines.

Rentlogic wants landlords in New York to receive a grade based on how well they take care of their properties When renting an apartment, the potential resident wants to know all the little details about a building, from what the water is like to how quickly the landlord responds to a maintenance request. These questions don’t […]

Yale Fox wants to hold landlords accountable–by giving them a report card. On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, what appears to be a beautiful old brownstone building has an apartment available for rent on the fourth floor. But would-be renters don’t have any idea that the building has had safety, water, fire code, heat, and hot water […]

Apartment hunting in New York City just got a whole lot easier. Letter grades are no longer just for restaurants, as tech start-up Rentlogic is now slapping letter grades of its own on the dwellings you call home.  In a city as high-priced and cut-throat as New York, almost everyone has a nightmare rent story — broken […]

One quirky feature of New York at the moment is that the city has developed a clear, useful letter grading system for restaurants that you may spend an hour or two in, but not for the buildings that you could potentially be lease-shackled to for years. Bon Appétit! Thankfully, the site Rentlogic hopes to fill that informational […]

Renting an apartment in New York is invariably a game of roulette. A place may look great from the outside — central heating and exposed brick, you say?! — but then it quickly falls to pieces once you’ve moved in. A new feature from the apartment listings site Rentlogic is aiming to give renters a heads-up about […]

MIDTOWN — When searching for rentals online, clicking through pretty pictures and reading the glowing blurbs, wouldn’t it be helpful to also see an objective lowdown on whether a unit’s building has red flags before you sign a lease? The data hounds at Rentlogic created just that. Rentlogic has launched an independent building rating system for the […]

The for-rent advertisement on East 75th Street in Manhattan, just a half-block from Central Park, boasts natural light, a marble bathroom, and a granite kitchen. It sounds lovely, a gem of the Upper East Side—perhaps even “triple mint,” as some real estate ads breathlessly proclaim. It better be, given that the price for the apartment is $4,095 […]

MANHATTAN — When Sarah Burns received a lease renewal from the landlord of her West Harlem apartment last year, she noticed something strange about the document: her name wasn’t on it. Despite having been on the lease for the rent-stabilized apartment for 8 years, the new lease was made out to her ex-boyfriend, who had moved out months before — […]

When applying to rent an apartment, prospective renters often have to do everything short of turning over their Tinder password—landlords regularly require background checks, credit checks, employer and landlord referral letters, and in some cases more. When I last applied for an apartment in New York, I had to turn over two pay stubs and […]

The rental market is on the rise. With 36% of US households deciding to rent in 2015, this makes it the largest share since the late 1960’s. Although the spike in multifamily units continues to drive the housing recovery, the high demand and low supply for affordable housing give landlords and rental companies the upper hand. With […]

rFrom the September issue: If you knew a building had a long rap sheet of violations, including everything from rats to no heat, would you live there? Rentlogic, a new website that compiles complaint and violation data citywide, wants to help renters see building violations before they move in. The company compiled a list of the best […]

The partnership lasted just eight days It looked like a victory for transparency in the rental market, but it was over basically before it started. Rentlogic, which provides renters with detailed information about their landlords and assigns them a letter grade, announced a partnership with Citi Habitats this month. The partnership lasted just eight days […]

The “worst” landlord in the city, is the city according to data compiled by a new website for renters to learn about where they’re potentially moving into. Toronto Community Housing – Canada’s largest landlord – had 452 bylaw violations according to LandlordWatch.com. “Based on the sheer size of the portfolio plus the repair backlog (estimated at around $2 […]

Renting an apartment in New York City is an exercise in financial exhibitionism. By the time you are offered a lease, your future landlord knows your salary, savings and credit history, down to that unpaid Verizon bill from four years ago. If a past rental dispute ended up in housing court, good luck getting the new apartment, […]

Renters undergo a slew of background checks before they move into an apartment. Who’s checking out the landlords? Toronto has a food scene like no other. In a city where 51 per cent of the population hails from somewhere else, a cultural synthesis of flavours works to offer the best of everything. Hailed by no […]

HUDSON HEIGHTS — A group of tenants living in a building on West 180th Street are accusing their landlord of a “fraudulent scheme to overcharge tenants and illegally deregulate the apartments,” according to a lawsuit expected to be filed in New York Supreme Court on Thursday. Twelve of the tenants of 854 W. 180th St., a pre-war building overlooking the Hudson River, are seeking […]

Tenants are more technologically savvy than their landlords, according to a new rental preference survey co-sponsored by Avison Young, Informa Canada and Rentlogic to to try and better understand tenant profiles, desires and technological take-ups. “If you have money available to invest in your unit next year and you don’t already provide high-speed Internet service to your tenants, put it […]

Tenants and landlords got their first chance at a public consultation Wednesday evening to voice their concerns about a proposed framework for a new landlord licensing system, which was approved by city hall earlier this year City hall committee votes to create licensing system for landlords It’s a system that can’t be set up soon enough for tenant Geri Stevens, […]

It’s an established fact that college tuition is expensive. But unfortunately, college students can wrack up a long list of other expenses — from dorm lodging to text books — without developing better spending habits or finding ways to stick to a budget. Let this guide help you to stop spending so much money on top of […]

Rentlogic to publish listings for buildings graded a B or higher Citi Habitats this week became the first brokerage to partner with Rentlogic, a website that grades landlords on how they manage their properties. Launched earlier this year, Rentlogic is a database that gathers public information on complaints about issues like mold, water leaks or […]

Council voted to explore next steps for a program in June. We explore what that means for tenants. I remember being a bright-eyed, innocent first-time renter two years ago. My best friend and I were moving to Toronto and into our first apartment together, and we were clueless about the signs to look out for […]

What does it mean to be a free person? What’s the best way to speak up at work? Is there a better way to treat depression? What’s next for Black Lives Matter? Who owns your internet? Why is your landlord so inflexible? On Saturday, September 10, 2016 at SVA Theatre in Chelsea, an incredible line­up […]

MANHATTAN — The rental market in New York City tends to heat up in August with the influx of newly minted grads angling to sign leases before starting work. Good news for renters: inventory is on the upswing. Last month, the number of apartments on the market in Manhattan and Brooklyn were the highest in […]

Twelve years ago, the landlord of 1765 and 1775 Weston Rd in Toronto was sued by his tenants for $250,000 in rent abatements. Tenants fought for working elevators, properly installed pipes, better lighting and safe electrical wiring. The buildings were owned by the Montreal-based landlord Vincenzo Barrasso and tenants claimed that the buildings’ conditions steadily declined […]

Subscribe to spoiled NYC’s official newsletter, The Stoop, for the best news, eats, drinks, places to go, and things to do. When you move into an apartment you’re taking plenty of gambles. There’s only so much you can know about about your new home. For all you know you may be walking into an apartment with […]

Bedbugs and elevator buttons covered in saliva are just two of the complaints about 500 Dawes Rd. But city bureaucrats might be backing away from the idea. Robert Gay, a tenant of 500 Dawes Road, said his hallway’s carpet used to be green but has been soiled to the point of turning black.  (VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR)   […]

The average NYC resident tends to avoid eating at a restaurant with a C rating — would they rent an apartment with a D- rating? That’s the grade my current apartment received according to a new site, Rentlogic, that uses an algorithm to calculate letter grades for apartments and landlords in the city. Now, before you […]

Fiile this one under “Why didn’t we think of that?” NY1 reports that a new website is using a letter grade system–much like the one for restaurant—to rate New York City’s rental buildings. Rentlogic culls data from 311 complaints and building inspections to grade properties on a scale from A to F, and also asks current residents to write reviews, with […]

A new website is allowing New Yorkers to learn the ins and outs of a building’s history, before signing a lease. Rentlogic.com rates the city’s over one million residential buildings on a letter grade scale, much like the restaurant grading system. It uses almost a decades worth of data from various government agencies to rate a […]

MANHATTAN — It’s rare — and cumbersome — for a renter to do a deep dive into a building’s history to uncover violations or potential landlord/tenant problems before signing a lease. But Yale Fox, a TED Fellow focused on income inequality and housing rights, thinks it should be a standard part of the practice. That’s why his Rentlogic website, […]

After making my way through a gilded, marble-floor lobby worthy of Home Alone 2, I found myself at Civic Hall. The techy meetup spot and educational center is where likeminded hackers convene for “labs” and shamelessly use the kind of words (“disrupt”) that have become emblems of that heady cocktail of superiority and entitlement powering controversial profit vacuums like Uber and […]

Toronto is considering an experiment that would give landlords and apartment buildings restaurant-style grades. Last week, a Toronto City Council committee voted unanimously to endorse a new licensing regime for landlords. The proposal would institute a system for grading landlords of buildings of a certain size for conditions such as mold, bedbugs, working elevators, water cleanliness, […]

What happened at City Hall this week Moving toward regulation of multi-residential buildings. This Thursday, the Municipal Licensing and Standards Committee voted to move multi-residential property licensing forward to city council in June. The current MRAB (Multi-Residential Apartment Buildings) system allows the city to audit building owners and take legal action in court, but does not include any kind of […]

Toronto Community Housing is Toronto’s largest landlord and, according to one recent ranking, it’s also the city’s worst. Toronto Community Housing: Thousands of units could close due to lack of cash for repairs Toronto Community Housing unveils plan to improve housing for residents The ranking comes from a list put together by the advocacy group ACORN […]

New website aggregates landlords and addresses with the highest numbers of City of Toronto investigations in an effort to highlight the need for better regulations ACORN Canada and Rentlogic teamed up to create LandlordWatch.com a site that pulls data from the City of Toronto to display the landlords and addresses with the highest number of investigations […]

A website listing the 100 “worst” landlords in Toronto has launched on the eve of a debate on a possible bylaw to require a licence to rent out apartments. The website, LandlordWatch: Toronto is based on a similar listing in the out-of-control rental market in New York City, which lets potential tenants know when they […]

When the members of the Municipal Licensing and Standards committee meet tomorrow at City Hall, they’ll be considering the latest attempt to license the apartment sector, with a motion to create a public consultation process around how such a system might function, and how the city should rate multi-unit buildings, which provide homes for hundreds of thousands […]

Bryan Rickey has lived in the apartment tower at 1501 Woodbine Ave. for six years The 1960s-era high-rise was once the “gem of East York,” home to famous hockey players and a luxury indoor pool, he says. But now, he and his fellow tenants confront mould, bad plumbing, broken elevators, warped floors, crumbling balconies and […]

As the city of Toronto ponders spending millions on a program that would licence and regulate landlords, maybe it should ponder this: According to the recently-launched tenant advocacy website LandLordWatch.com, the city is the biggest slum lord out there — by a long shot. Toronto Community Housing is comfortably perched at the top of an ignominious […]

As Toronto debates a plan to license landlords, tenant advocates are calling out what they say are the city’s “worst” landlords. City inspectors hand out hundreds of landlord violations each year for everything from broken elevators to clogged toilets and cockroach infestations. The worst offenders have now been compiled on LandlordWatch, a website launched Wednesday using data […]