For Cleveland renters
Your building has a public record. You're allowed to read it.
The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County publish what they know about every rental: registration, lead safety, violations, fines. We check those records daily. Searching your address is free, anonymous, and takes ten seconds.
What the record tells you
Is the building registered?
Cleveland requires every non-owner-occupied rental to be registered with the City each year. Registration is the baseline: it's how the City knows your building is a rental and holds someone responsible for it.
Is it Lead Safe certified?
Buildings built before 1978 need a Lead Safe Certification to be rented, renewed every two years. If you have kids in an older building, this is the single most important line on the record.
Does it have its CARO?
The Certificate Approving Rental Occupancy is the City's sign-off that the building may legally be rented. It's issued once the other requirements are current.
Are there open violations?
Code enforcement cases the City has opened on the building, from a broken handrail to structural problems, with each case's current status.
Has the City issued fines?
Civil tickets are the City's $200 fines for unresolved problems. The record shows when a building has them on file.
How to read it fairly
A red line on the record is information, not a verdict. City records lag real life, sometimes by weeks. A lapsed registration is often an administrative miss, not neglect; Cleveland spreads a landlord's obligations across several systems that are genuinely hard to track, which is the problem this site exists to fix, for renters and owners alike.
In our experience most landlords fix a lapse quickly once they actually know about it, and many simply never got the notice. If something on your building's record surprises you, mentioning it to your landlord is a fair first step, and it usually works. The record is also worth reading in the other direction: a building that shows registered, certified, and violation-free is a landlord doing the unglamorous work right, and that's worth knowing when you're choosing where to live.
Own a rental? Same record, your side of it.
Everything a renter can see here, a lender, a title company, and the City can see too. RentPup's other half works for owners: we watch all eleven City and County records on your properties daily, alert you the day something changes, and remind you before every deadline, so your record stays the kind renters read and relax about.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out if my Cleveland apartment is registered?
Search the address on RentPup, free, no account needed. The result shows the building's rental registration status straight from the City of Cleveland's published records, along with Lead Safe Certification, violations, and more.
How do I check if my building is Lead Safe certified?
Search your address and look at the Lead Safe line. Buildings built before 1978 are required to have a current certification to be rented; the record shows whether one is on file and its status.
Does looking up my building notify my landlord?
No. Searching an address on RentPup is anonymous and free. Nobody is notified, and no account is required to look.
My building shows a lapsed registration or a violation. What should I do?
Start by remembering that records lag and paperwork lapses are often administrative, not neglect. A reasonable first step is simply mentioning it to your landlord; many genuinely don't know, and most fix it quickly once they do. For concerns about conditions in your home, the City of Cleveland's Department of Building and Housing takes complaints directly, and for lead concerns the City's Lead Safe resources are the right door. RentPup shows the record; it doesn't give legal advice.