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SCANTHEBLOCK

Scan the Block · for renting

The building's record, before you sign for a year of it.

A listing shows you the flat on its best day. The city's records show the building on every other day: what inspectors cited and whether it is still open, whether the rental is registered as Cleveland requires, whether a lead-safe certificate is in force, and what has been filed on the street around it. Ohio has no rent control, so this does not pretend to test for it. One report, before the lease.

The questions it answers

The sections that earn their keep

Complaints and violationsWhat has been reported wrong here and whether it was fixed — allegations and findings, counted separately.
Registration and lead-safeWhether the rental registration is current and for how many units, and whether a lead-safe certificate is in force and when it expires. Both run with the building.
Violations on the surrounding blocksWhat the city has filed nearby by year and category, against what an average Cleveland area of the same size records — and how much of it is still open.
Licensed for entertainment nearbyWhich places around the address hold a live permit to put on amplified sound, and under which class. You cannot hear a nine o'clock bar at a Tuesday afternoon viewing, and the listing will not mention it.
Work permitted in the street outsideStreet-use permits in force nearby, grouped by job, with the window each runs for — whether the street is being dug up for the six months after you move in.
Before you signThe building's own record — open violations, condemnation status, whether the rental is registered — read before the lease rather than after the first winter.

Written for you

Cleveland's rental registration, and what a failure to register tells youEvery rental must be registered. Nine hundred were cited for not being, and four in five of those citations are still open.How to read a Cleveland reportWhat the city publishes, what each comparison claims, and the three places a Cleveland report is quieter than a San Francisco one.What a Cleveland condemnation actually meansTwo thousand structures condemned since 2024, two thirds of them still open. What the notice says, what it does not, and why the garage counts separately.Reading vacancy in ClevelandSixteen thousand vacancy reports, and the five neighbourhoods that produce most of them are the same five that lead on condemnation.

See it on a real address

Run any Cleveland address and the report reads that city's portal live, at the moment you ask. Plans start at $49 a month, billed monthly or annually, and re-reading a report you have run is always free.

See the plans Try an address

Also written for: buying a home · owner or landlord · agent or broker · investor · developer or builder · lender or underwriter · insurance · hoa or property management · attorney or other professional · contractor or trade