Caught in a Rat Trap - Mayor Adams Fined $300 for Home Rat Infestation

by Mindy Cohn

Mayor Eric Adams, who has made rat reduction an integral part of his agenda as mayor, received a $300 fine on Tuesday for a rat infestation at his four-story home in Brooklyn.

The original summons was issued in December after the mayor's household failed to follow waste management laws requiring recyclables to be stored in airtight receptacles. Instead, bags of recycling were left in a fenced-in concrete yard in front.

The mayor protested the complaint that bags of clean and empty recyclables create "harborage conditions that encourage the nesting of rats." His argument didn't hold up in court.

"Whether food waste was present in the bags is irrelevant," wrote Sam Chetrit, a hearing officer with OATH, the City's administrative law court, who ruled on the decision based on the remote hearing that took place last week, "and I find that the presence of several bags on the ground could provide shelter or protection for rodents, which amounts to a harborage condition," 

The mayor also argued that he had already done all he could to rodent-proof his home. Additionally, he blamed an active rat runway at his home on the next-door neighbor's rat burrow utilizing a video to prove his point.

The mayor's second summons for that active rat runway was dismissed as the mayor presented proof he had spent $8,000 in trying to prevent and control the rat infestation before the summons was issued. 

Mayor Adams also installed a rat-killing contraption outside his home after he received the two summonses.

Last year, the mayor received a $300 violation after a health inspector noted rat droppings on his property. Other past violations include allowing trash to accumulate outside his home in 2012 and 2013. All of those violations were dismissed.

As for today's fine, Adams can still appeal the ruling.