U.S. Code Violation Report 2026: The Cities Filing the Most Property Violations

ViolationNet analyzed 505,175 building and housing code violations across 66 U.S. cities in 25 states — the most current snapshot available of how American cities enforce property maintenance, safety, and zoning rules. This report shares the headline findings: which cities file the most violations, what they cite property owners for most often, and what it means if you own or manage real estate in 2026.

All figures are drawn from official municipal and county code-enforcement records aggregated by ViolationNet. See Data Sources & Methodology for how the data is collected.

Key findings

• 505,175 active code-violation records are tracked across the 66 cities in this dataset, spanning 25 states.
• About 1 in 5 violations (21.5%, ~108,800 records) are currently open — meaning the underlying issue has not yet been resolved or closed out by the city.
• New York City files more code violations than any other city by a wide margin — over 123,000 records, more than the next five cities combined.
• Overgrowth and trash are the most common violations nationally. Outside of NYC's bedbug-reporting filings, the single largest categories are tall grass/weeds/overgrowth and improper trash storage and litter.
• Vacant and neglected property is a recurring enforcement theme, with thousands of "vacant housing" and "property abatement" violations across cities.

The 15 cities filing the most code violations

New York City's total reflects both the size of its housing stock and the breadth of what its Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) records — including a very large volume of annual bedbug-report filings that other cities don't track the same way. Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Antonio round out the cities with the deepest violation records.

What property owners get cited for most

Setting aside NYC's bedbug-report filings (a city-specific administrative requirement), the most common violations nationally fall into a handful of clear categories:

• Overgrowth — weeds, tall grass, and unmaintained lots. Combined, "weeds," "tall grass," "exterior area weeds," and similar citations are the single largest real-world category, with well over 14,000 records. It is the most common avoidable violation in America.
• Trash, litter, and improper storage. "Improper storage of trash," "litter," and large-item dumping account for tens of thousands of records.
• General property condition and maintenance. Broad "general condition" and maintenance citations are consistently among the top issues city to city.
• Vacant and abandoned property. "Vacant housing" and "property abatement" violations show up across markets — a leading indicator of distressed properties.

The takeaway for owners: the most common violations are also the most preventable. Routine lawn care, trash management, and basic exterior upkeep would clear the majority of the citations cities issue.

Why this matters for landlords and investors

Code violations are not just paperwork. An open violation can affect a property's value, complicate a sale or refinance, trigger escalating fines, and in some cities create liens that follow the property. For investors evaluating a purchase, a property's violation history is one of the fastest ways to spot deferred maintenance and hidden risk before closing.

With roughly one in five tracked violations still open, a large share of these issues are live — not historical. That's exactly why monitoring matters: the owners who get hurt are usually the ones who didn't know a violation had been filed until the fines stacked up.

How to check any property

You can look up the code-violation history of any address in a covered city for free with ViolationNet's address lookup, or browse the full violation records for major cities including New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and dozens more from our cities directory. Property owners and managers can set up monitoring to get alerted the moment a new violation is filed against a property they own.

Methodology

This report is based on 505,175 building and housing code-violation records aggregated by ViolationNet from official municipal and county code-enforcement sources across 66 U.S. cities, current as of June 2026. Counts reflect what each jurisdiction publishes; cities differ in how much data and history they expose, so totals are best read as a measure of recorded enforcement activity, not a per-capita violation rate. Full details on sourcing, update cadence, and limitations are on our Data Sources & Methodology page.

Journalists and researchers: you're welcome to cite this report with a link to ViolationNet. For custom city or state breakdowns, contact us.