About Know Your Block

Know Your Block is a free, independent tool that maps housing and property complaints filed with City of Columbus code enforcement — pests, mold, sewage backups, no heat, fire and safety hazards, and landlord complaints — so renters and homebuyers can check any Columbus, Ohio address before committing to it. Everything on the map comes from the city's own public records: more than 76,000 complaints across 38,000+ Columbus addresses, from January 2025 to the present, refreshed as the city publishes new records.

It exists because an address's complaint history — infestations, mold, sewage, utility failures, unresolved maintenance — is public record, but does not appear on listing sites, in reviews, or during a tour.

Why this exists

The underlying records are public but not practically accessible. Complaint data sits in the city's Accela permitting portal and a separate ArcGIS mapping service. Neither system carries the complete record on its own, and neither is built for address-level research by a non-specialist: retrieving the complaint history for one address means knowing both systems exist, querying them separately, and reading raw case records one at a time.

Know Your Block's purpose is to remove that barrier: take data the public already owns, join it, categorize it, and present it at the level people actually make decisions — a single address and the block around it. Housing is the largest recurring cost in most households, and the decision is usually made from a listing and a short tour. This site adds the city's own complaint record to that decision.

The project is free and non-commercial. No account, no ads, no sponsored placement, and no mechanism for a property owner to pay to change or remove what is shown. The goal is for this to be the most useful single source for choosing where to live in Columbus.

Fast facts

  • What it is A free map and address lookup of official City of Columbus code-enforcement complaints
  • Address lookup Search any Columbus address and get a Block Report: what's been filed at that address, at the same building, and on the surrounding block
  • Coverage City of Columbus, Ohio
  • Data window January 2025 to present — 76,000+ complaints at 38,000+ addresses, as of August 2026
  • Sources The city's Accela code-enforcement portal and the city's public ArcGIS map service
  • Updated As the city publishes new records, typically monthly
  • Cost Free. No account, no paywall. Independent and non-commercial
  • Affiliation None — not affiliated with the City of Columbus
  • Built by Gabriel Peck, Columbus, Ohio
  • Operated by Canary Civic LLC dba Know Your Block, an Ohio limited liability company
  • Contact Corrections, data requests, and press

Search any Columbus address and the site returns a Block Report: every complaint on record at that exact address, at the same building or lot, at chronic-reporting neighbors, and within the surrounding one-third mile. Results are ordered by severity and recency rather than raw counts, so recent high-severity records (sewage, no heat, active infestations) rank above older low-severity ones (tall grass, signage). The report ends with verification and reporting steps based on what it found.

Because the source is complaint records rather than listings or reviews, this lookup surfaces problems that have no other public surface: conditions reported by previous tenants, recurring seasonal failures, and complaints describing a landlord's non-response. If a problem at an address was reported to city code enforcement within the data window, it appears here. The full citywide map is also available — heatmap, scatter, and marker views with filters by issue, severity, and date.

What you can look up

Every complaint is sorted into plain-language categories and scored on a four-step severity scale, from low (1) to critical (4), so you can read a block at a glance:

Or start from a place instead of a problem: browse every Columbus neighborhood, or the full issue index.

How the map is built

Know Your Block combines two official City of Columbus sources: the Accela code-enforcement portal, which carries each complaint's written narrative, and the city's public ArcGIS mapping service, which carries each record's location. We join them by record number — about 98.5% of records match — so every complaint lands on the map with its full description attached.

Each record then runs through a two-step categorizer: first the city's own record-type labels, then a keyword pass over the complaint text, because a record the city files as a generic "structure inspection" can describe anything from a broken porch light to mushrooms growing out of black mold. Records are scored 1–4 for severity, and addresses with repeated or tightly clustered reporting are flagged as repeat-report properties.

The dataset currently covers January 2025 to the present and grows as the city publishes new records, typically monthly. Routine, non-complaint inspections (like scheduled boiler checks) are filtered out so the map reflects what residents actually reported. We geocode, categorize, and score the records — we do not add, edit, or invent complaints.

What reviews can't tell you

Review sites are the most common research tool for rentals. They have structural gaps that complaint records don't:

  • Most rentals have no reviews. Single-family homes, duplexes, and small multi-unit buildings run by small landlords make up a large share of Columbus rental housing and rarely have a review page anywhere. Every one of them has an address, and any complaint filed about it appears in this dataset.
  • Reviews are editable and incentivized. They can be solicited, filtered, or reset when a property changes its name or management. Complaints filed with the city remain in the public record regardless of ownership or branding changes.
  • Reporting asymmetry. Tenants in the worst conditions often avoid posting reviews out of concern about landlord retaliation; filing a complaint with the city is a more common channel, and those filings are what this site indexes.
  • Coverage. A review describes one property's management. Complaint records are address-level and citywide, so the surrounding block can be read alongside the property itself.

Reviews are still useful context; this site covers what they structurally miss. Full comparison: Apartment reviews vs. the city's record.

What Know Your Block is not

  • Not the City of Columbus. This is an independent public-information project, not a government site. The official city site is columbus.gov; report new problems to Columbus 311, not to us.
  • Not a violation database. A complaint is a report, not a finding. Records may be unfounded, resolved, or out of date, and no complaint proves a violation occurred.
  • Not a landlord blacklist. We show what was reported, address by address, and never rank or rate owners or companies.
  • Not legal, real-estate, or housing advice, and not a substitute for an in-person walk-through or a licensed inspection.

Who it's for

Anyone making a decision about where — or how — to live in Columbus:

  • Renters and homebuyers researching an address before committing — start with Check before you rent.
  • Anyone comparing neighborhoods, whether moving across town or relocating to Columbus sight unseen — the neighborhood pages summarize each area's record.
  • Current residents keeping an eye on their own street, or deciding whether something is worth reporting — see who to call.
  • Tenants and organizers documenting a pattern of neglect — see Landlord won’t fix it.
  • Parents, students, and anyone helping someone else choose — checking an apartment near campus or a first place from far away.
  • Researchers and community advocates studying housing conditions across the city.
  • Property owners and managers checking what's been reported about their buildings — try the code violation search.

Who builds it

Know Your Block is built and maintained by Gabriel Peck (Gabe), a builder and risk analyst based in Columbus, Ohio. He works in B2B credit and creates public tools that make opaque data usable. The throughline: take systems that are technically public but practically unreadable, like city complaint databases, and turn them into something people can actually act on.

He reads every message the site gets. To flag a record that looks wrong, ask for data or a custom analysis, ask a question, or report a bug, use the contact page.

In the news

NBC4 (WCMH-TV), September 2026 — New website simplifies Columbus code enforcement data. NBC4's report on how the site turns the city's public complaint records into something residents and renters can search by address. Also carried by Yahoo News.

Reporters and editors: the contact page has a short boilerplate and a data-request route. Custom cuts of the dataset for a story are free and usually take a day or two.

Frequently asked questions

Is Know Your Block an official City of Columbus website?

No. Know Your Block is a free, independent public-information project with no affiliation to the City of Columbus. It maps the city's own public code-enforcement records, but the city does not operate, sponsor, or endorse it. The official city website is columbus.gov.

Where does the data come from?

Every record comes from two official City of Columbus sources: the Accela code-enforcement portal (the written complaint text) and the city's public ArcGIS mapping service (each record's location). Know Your Block joins, categorizes, and scores those records but does not add, edit, or invent complaints.

How current is the data, and how far back does it go?

The dataset covers January 2025 to the present — more than 76,000 complaints as of August 2026 — and is refreshed as the city publishes new records, typically monthly. Older records back to 2019 exist in the city's systems and may be added in the future.

Is Know Your Block free?

Yes. The map, the Block Report, and every guide are free, with no account and no paywall. The project is independent and non-commercial.

How is this different from apartment review sites?

Review sites only cover properties big enough to get reviewed, and reviews can be bought, buried, or deleted. Know Your Block covers every Columbus address in the city's records — including single-family rentals and small landlords that have no review page anywhere — and shows the complaints residents filed with the city, which no landlord can edit or remove.

Does a complaint on the map mean a property has a code violation?

No. Each record is a complaint someone filed with code enforcement — a report, not a finding. Complaints may be unfounded, resolved, duplicated, or out of date. Anyone relying on a specific record should verify it against the original city source.

I found a record that looks wrong. Can it be corrected or removed?

If Know Your Block is displaying a record incorrectly, send the address and, if you have it, the record number through the corrections route on the contact page. It will be checked against the city's original record and fixed. The underlying records are public records held by the City of Columbus, so requests to change or remove an official record itself must go to the city.

Has Know Your Block been in the news?

Yes. NBC4 (WCMH-TV) covered the site in September 2026 in a story on how it simplifies Columbus code enforcement data, which was also carried by Yahoo News. Links are in the In the news section above.

Not affiliated with the City of Columbus

Know Your Block is an independent public-information project. It is not the official website of the City of Columbus, Ohio, and is not operated, sponsored, endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated with the city or any city department. "Columbus, Ohio" is referenced descriptively to identify the geographic area the underlying records cover. The official city website is columbus.gov.

Data source and accuracy

Complaint records come from the City of Columbus Accela permitting portal and the city's public ArcGIS mapping service. We geocode and categorize the records but do not add, edit, or invent complaints. Data may contain errors, omissions, lag, or duplicate entries from the upstream sources. Accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. Anyone relying on a specific record should verify it against the original city source.

A complaint is not a finding

Each record represents a report someone filed with code enforcement. It is not, by itself, a finding of a violation, proof of a current condition, an admission of fault, or a judgment against any property owner, manager, tenant, or other party. Records may be unfounded, rejected, resolved, or out of date.

Not legal, real-estate, or housing advice

Nothing on this site is legal advice, real-estate advice, a housing inspection, or a substitute for one. Use it as one signal alongside your own due diligence — an in-person walk-through, a licensed inspector, and qualified legal or housing counsel where appropriate.

No warranty

This site is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind, express or implied. Canary Civic LLC (doing business as Know Your Block) and its members are not liable for decisions made, actions taken, or harms suffered based on information shown here.

Corrections and removal requests

If you believe a record is being shown incorrectly, or if you are a property owner with a specific concern, use the corrections route on the contact page (email gabe@knowyourblock.org). Note that the underlying records are public records held by the City of Columbus; requests to alter or remove the official record itself must go to the city.

Privacy

What the site collects when you use it, which services see it, and a switch to turn analytics off are on the privacy page.

© 2026 Canary Civic LLC dba Know Your Block. Know Your Block is a registered trade name of Canary Civic LLC, an Ohio limited liability company. Independent of the City of Columbus, Ohio.

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