ACRIS Deed Search: How to Read NYC Property Records

ACRIS is the free online database of property documents recorded with New York City. For a property in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx, it shows the current deed, every recorded mortgage and the papers that cleared those mortgages. It also shows some recorded liens. Most documents come with a scan of the original, from 1966 to today.

ACRIS does not cover Staten Island. It also misses much of what matters at a closing: court judgments, lawsuit notices and mechanic’s liens (claims by unpaid contractors), unpaid taxes and water bills, building violations and state tax warrants. This guide shows how to read what ACRIS does show and where to look for the rest.

What ACRIS covers

ACRIS stands for Automated City Register Information System. It holds documents recorded with the City Register, part of the NYC Department of Finance (DOF). The City Register records property documents for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

Use the official site, a836-acris.nyc.gov. DOF says sites such as ACRISasap and ACRIS.com are not approved by DOF.

Words you will see on screen

  • BBL (borough, block and lot): the city’s ID number for each property. ACRIS files property documents by BBL. Each condo unit has its own lot, separate from the building’s lot.
  • CRFN (City Register File Number): the number given to each recorded document. Older documents use a reel and page number instead.
  • Document ID: the number given to one document when it is prepared for recording. One transaction can include several documents, each with its own ID.
  • Party 1 and Party 2: the people or companies on the document. On a deed, Party 1 is the seller and Party 2 the buyer. On a mortgage, Party 1 is the borrower and Party 2 the lender.
  • Cross-reference: a field that points back to an earlier document, for example from a mortgage payoff to the mortgage it clears.

How to search a property, step by step

  1. Find the BBL. On the ACRIS home page, choose “Find Addresses and Parcels” and enter the address. DOF’s property lookup also gives the BBL. For a condo, make sure you have the unit’s lot, not the building’s.
  2. Search by parcel. Choose “Search Property Records,” then “Parcel Identifier (BBL).” Pick the borough and enter block and lot. Leave the document class on all classes and the date range at its widest, so nothing is hidden.
  3. Sort by recorded date. Each line shows the document type, date, parties, amount and CRFN or reel and page. Start from the most recent deed.
  4. Open the detail and the image. The detail page shows the index entry. The image is the recorded document itself. Read the image: index entries can contain mistakes, and the recorded document is what counts.
  5. Search by name too. Search the owner’s name, and the seller’s name if you are buying. Some filings, such as federal tax liens and UCC filings, are listed by name and may not appear in a parcel search. Try more than one spelling (“LLC” and “L.L.C.”, with and without a middle initial).
  6. Check old lot numbers. If the property was split, merged or turned into condos, its earlier history sits under the old lot numbers. Search those too.

What the document codes mean

ACRIS shows each document type as a short code. DOF publishes the full list of more than 120 codes as the ACRIS Document Control Codes dataset. These are the ones you will see most.

Ownership

  • DEED: transfers ownership. The most recent DEED names the current owner of record.
  • CORRD / CONDEED: a correction deed or confirmatory deed. It fixes or confirms an earlier deed, so read the two together.
  • TODD / RTOD: a transfer on death deed names who gets the property when the owner dies. RTOD cancels it.

Mortgages

  • MTGE: a mortgage, a loan secured by the property. It stays open until cleared.
  • AGMT: an agreement. Often this combines older mortgages into one loan when a home is refinanced (a CEMA, explained below). Read the image to be sure.
  • M&CON: a new mortgage combined with existing ones into one loan.
  • ASST: an assignment. The mortgage moved to a new lender, who is now the one that must clear it.
  • SAT: a satisfaction. The lender confirms the mortgage is paid and released.
  • PSAT / PREL: a partial satisfaction or partial release. Only part of the debt or part of the property is released, so the mortgage may still be a lien.
  • SPRD: a spreader. An existing mortgage now covers more property.
  • SUBM: a subordination. It changes which of two mortgages comes first in line to be paid.
  • ASPM: an assumption. A new owner takes over an existing mortgage.

Liens and other claims

  • UCC1 / INIC: a lender’s claim on fixtures or, for a co-op, on the shares and lease.
  • FL / FTL: a federal lien, such as an IRS tax lien.
  • RFL / RFTL: a release of a federal lien.
  • JUDG: a judgment recorded with the City Register against the property. This is not the same as a money judgment filed with the County Clerk (see below).
  • CTOR: a court order recorded against the property. Read the image to see what it does.
  • LOCC: a condo board’s lien for unpaid common charges.
  • TLS: a tax lien sale certificate. Unpaid city charges on the property were sold in the city’s tax lien sale.
  • MLEA / EASE: a memorandum of lease or an easement. Someone else has recorded rights in the property.

Is the mortgage paid off on the record?

A MTGE in ACRIS only tells you a mortgage was recorded. To know whether it still counts as open, find the document that cleared it.

  • Match the satisfaction. A SAT should point back to the mortgage it clears by CRFN or reel and page. Check that it points to your mortgage, not another loan on the same lot. On the image, check that the property matches and that the release is full, not partial.
  • Follow the assignments. If the mortgage was assigned (ASST), the SAT should come from the last lender it was assigned to. A SAT signed by the original lender after it passed the loan on is a problem a title examiner will flag.
  • Watch for refinances that combined loans. In a CEMA (a consolidation, extension and modification agreement), the old mortgage is not paid off. It is moved to the new lender and folded into one combined loan under an AGMT. So older MTGEs may never get their own SAT. One SAT on the combined loan later clears all of them. To check, compare the list of combined mortgages in the AGMT image with the MTGEs in ACRIS. For how mortgage recording tax applies to combined loans, see that guide.
  • Allow for delay. A loan paid off last month may not have a SAT yet. By law, the lender has 30 days from payoff to arrange for the satisfaction to be recorded, with penalties for delay. For a recent payoff, the payoff letter and proof of payment matter more than ACRIS.

A mortgage with no matching SAT and no CEMA to explain it stays an open lien on the record until it is cleared. See clearing an old or unsatisfied mortgage.

What ACRIS does not show

ACRIS only lists documents recorded with the City Register. Much of what affects a NYC title is filed somewhere else, or not filed at all.

Item In ACRIS? Where to look
Money judgments No County Clerk where the property is. A judgment is a lien on the debtor’s property in that county for ten years.
Lawsuit notices (lis pendens) No County Clerk. A lis pendens is a notice that a lawsuit, such as a foreclosure, affects the property (source).
Mechanic’s liens No County Clerk. A contractor must file within eight months of the last work, or four months for a single-family home (source).
NYS tax warrants No Since July 1, 2025, the NYS Department of State. That filing is a lien on the debtor’s property anywhere in the state. Older warrants are liens where filed with the County Clerk, and the state tax department still files there too, so both places are searched. A warrant is a lien on real and personal property.
Federal tax liens Yes (code FL) City Register for the four ACRIS boroughs, listed by taxpayer name (source). Staten Island: Richmond County Clerk.
Property taxes and DOF charges No DOF property account, by address or BBL.
Water and sewer charges No NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Unpaid charges can be sold in the tax lien sale; a TLS may then appear in ACRIS.
Building violations and HPD charges No The Department of Buildings (DOB), OATH/ECB and HPD systems.
Staten Island documents No Richmond County Clerk.
Records before 1966 No Land Records Research Library, on microfilm and in ledgers.

Note the split. In the four ACRIS boroughs, deeds and mortgages go to the City Register. Money judgments, lawsuit notices and mechanic’s liens go to the County Clerk of New York, Kings, Queens or Bronx County. A clean ACRIS search says nothing about those. For violations and HPD charges, see DOB violations, OATH/ECB summonses and HPD charges at a NYC closing.

Problems no public record shows

  • Forged deeds. ACRIS shows what was recorded. It does not show whether a signature was real or the signer had authority.
  • People living there. Tenants, occupants and people claiming the land by long use can have rights you only find by visiting.
  • Boundary problems. Fences or buildings over the line show up on a survey, not in the records.
  • Papers never recorded. Contracts, leases and easements that were never recorded can still bind a buyer who knew, or should have known, about them.
  • Estates. A deed from an heir or executor depends on court records in Surrogate’s Court, not ACRIS. See buying or selling from an estate.

An ACRIS search is not a title search. A title company also checks County Clerk records, taxes and city charges, bankruptcy and government watch lists, and the full history of ownership. The title policy then insures against set risks that no search can rule out. See who does what at a New York closing.

Using ACRIS before and after a deal

Before a contract. Confirm the seller is the owner of record and see the open mortgages. Look for anything unusual, such as a recent correction deed, a court order or a condo lien.

After closing. Check that your deed, and any SAT for the seller’s mortgage, were recorded under the right BBL.

Ongoing alerts. DOF’s free Notice of Recorded Document service tells a registered owner when a deed, mortgage, satisfaction, judgment or other listed document is recorded against the property. Notice comes by email or mail, usually the day after recording. You register each property separately. If you see a document you don’t recognize, DOF says to call 311 (212-639-9675 from outside NYC). The City says it takes no responsibility for recording documents later found to be fraudulent.

Details for attorneys and title professionals

  • Late satisfactions. The penalties for missing the 30-day recording deadline do not apply to a lender that makes fewer than five mortgage loans a year (state law).
  • Combined loans and tax. How mortgage recording tax applies to added and combined mortgages is set by state tax law.
  • What a title search covers. It typically includes County Clerk records of judgments and liens, tax and city searches, bankruptcy searches, a check of the federal sanctions list (the “patriot” search) and the full chain of ownership.

Official sources

Related guides

Korvane Title is preparing to launch in New York. It is not licensed as a title insurance agent and does not accept title orders. Content on this site is general information, not legal advice.