NYC Property Records: How to Find Who Owns a Property in All Five Boroughs

To find who owns a NYC property, look at the most recent deed. The buyer named on it is the owner of record. In Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, deeds are in ACRIS, the city’s free online database. On Staten Island, deeds are with the Richmond County Clerk, which has its own online search.

Three other free sources also show an owner’s name: Department of Finance (DOF) tax records, the City Planning dataset called PLUTO, and HPD building registrations. HPD also shows who manages a rental building. These sources don’t always agree at the same moment, and none of them shows who is behind an LLC.

Where to search

  • ACRIS: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Deeds, mortgages and document images. Free.
  • Richmond County Clerk: Staten Island. Deeds, mortgages and document images. Online, from 1945.
  • DOF Property Information Portal: all five boroughs. Owner name and tax class. Free.
  • PLUTO / MapPLUTO: all five boroughs. Owner name and lot data. Free.
  • HPD registration: all five boroughs. Owners and managers of rental buildings. Free.
  • NYS Department of State: statewide. Basic filing details for an LLC. Free.

Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens: ACRIS

The deed is the record of who owns a property. In these four boroughs it is recorded with the City Register and listed in ACRIS from 1966 to today.

You can search ACRIS three ways:

  • By address. “Find Addresses and Parcels” gives you the property’s borough, block and lot number (its BBL).
  • By BBL. This lists every document recorded against the property.
  • By name. This finds every document a person or company signed.

DOF lists these and other search types, such as by document type or file number, in its ACRIS FAQ.

The current owner is “Party 2,” the buyer, on the most recent DEED (the code for a deed). Open the document image, not just the list entry. Check for a later correction deed, or a later deed from the same owner to someone else. For what each document code means, see how to read ACRIS for title.

Staten Island: the Richmond County Clerk

ACRIS does not cover Staten Island. Deeds, mortgages and other land records there are recorded with the Richmond County Clerk.

The Clerk’s Land Documents Search lets you search by person or company name, block and lot, document number, book and page, or date range. It links to images of recorded documents.

The New York Public Library’s guide says this search goes back to 1945 and that the records are free online. The Clerk’s own page does not state a start year or any fee, so confirm coverage in the search itself. Records before 1945 may require a visit to the Clerk’s office.

The Clerk’s search has no address lookup. Get the block and lot from the DOF portal first (below), or search by the owner’s name.

DOF tax records: the Property Information Portal

DOF keeps the property tax records for all five boroughs. Its Property Information Portal can be searched by address or BBL, including on Staten Island. Each property’s card shows the owner, property type and tax class (user guide). The portal also tracks recent recordings, such as changes of owner. Tax bills and payment history are in DOF’s property tax lookup.

This is the fastest free way to look up an owner and the best way to get a BBL. But it is a tax record, not a title record:

  • The name shown is the person DOF bills. It updates after a new deed is recorded.
  • Owners can file a Property Information Update form to change the name or mailing address DOF uses.
  • When the tax record and the last recorded deed disagree, the deed controls.

PLUTO: owner names for many lots at once

The Department of City Planning publishes PLUTO, a free dataset of every tax lot in the city, on NYC Open Data. MapPLUTO is the map version. Its owner name comes from DOF’s tax system, and City Planning standardizes the names of government-owned lots (data dictionary).

PLUTO is useful for looking at many lots at once, such as every lot one owner holds on a block. It comes out in periodic releases, so it can lag behind DOF and miss recent sales. City Planning does not promise the data is accurate or complete (readme). Use it for leads, then confirm in ACRIS or with the Richmond County Clerk.

HPD registration: who runs a rental building

For rental buildings, HPD’s records often tell you more than the deed. These owners must register with HPD every year:

  • Owners of buildings with three or more units.
  • Owners of one- and two-family homes where neither the owner nor a close family member lives.

The registration names the owner, the managing agent and, for a company owner, anyone who owns more than 25%.

You can see a building’s registration in HPD Online. HPD also publishes the contacts as the Registration Contacts dataset, updated monthly. It lists each contact’s role, such as owner, officer, managing agent or site manager, with a business address. Phone numbers are not included.

This is often how you find a real person behind an LLC that owns an apartment building. Owners fill in the registration themselves, so it can be out of date, or missing if the building never registered.

When the owner is an LLC

Many NYC properties are owned by LLCs. The deed gives you the LLC’s name. The NYS Department of State’s business entity database gives its filing details and an address for legal papers. That address is often a lawyer or registered agent. The database does not list the LLC’s members.

There is one more record for homes. When an LLC buys or sells a residential building with one to four family units, the state transfer tax form must list the names and business addresses of all its members, managers and other authorized people (state law). DOF requires the same list with the city transfer tax form (the NYC-RPT) for these deeds dated on or after September 13, 2019 (DOF).

  • The list is filed with the tax forms. It is not part of the recorded deed, and you can’t search it as an owner field in ACRIS.
  • The law says releasing these names is not an unwarranted invasion of privacy under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. That suggests you can request the list from DOF or the State under that law.
  • Larger buildings, and transfers before that date, are not covered.

For more on the filing, see deeding a NYC rental into an LLC.

What these records can’t tell you

Who really owns an LLC or trust. Every source above shows the owner on paper or on the tax roll. The people who own or control an LLC, or benefit from a trust, are not in property records.

Recent sales. A deed is recorded after closing, sometimes weeks later. DOF and PLUTO update after that. A property sold last month may still show the seller everywhere.

Whether the deed is genuine. Forged deeds get recorded too. Owners can check their property and sign up for DOF’s free recording alerts; see deed theft in NYC.

Liens and violations. These sources don’t show court judgments, lawsuit notices or mechanic’s liens (claims by unpaid contractors) filed with the County Clerk, or open violations. Before a purchase, a title search and title report covers the ownership history and the liens. You can also check violations and permits yourself.

A quick search order

  1. Look up the address in the DOF Property Information Portal. Note the BBL and the owner name on the tax roll.
  2. Pull the most recent deed: ACRIS for Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens; the Richmond County Clerk for Staten Island.
  3. If the owner is an LLC, search the Department of State database. For a rental building, check HPD registration.
  4. If the sale was recent or the sources disagree, rely on the recorded deed and its recording date.

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.