How to File a FOIL Request in NYC: Fees, Timing, and Appeals

To file a FOIL request in NYC, submit a written request describing the records you want to the city agency that holds them. Most agencies accept requests through the city’s OpenRecords portal at a860-openrecords.nyc.gov; a handful take requests directly by email or mail. You don’t need to be a city resident, and you don’t need to explain why you want the records. New York Public Officers Law Article 6 presumes government records are open, and the agency carries the burden of justifying any refusal.1New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 86

How to Submit the Request

Through OpenRecords

Most NYC agencies take FOIL requests through OpenRecords, the city’s centralized online platform. Create a free NYC.gov account, log in, select the agency that holds the records, describe what you want, and submit. The system issues a tracking number you can use to monitor the response.2NYC OpenRecords. NYC OpenRecords – Home

Pick the right agency before you start. Requesting building permits from the wrong body means starting over. The statute requires only a “reasonable description” of the records, but vague requests slow things down because the agency can ask for clarification before the response clock begins. Include date ranges, names, case numbers, or addresses whenever you can.

Agencies That Aren’t on OpenRecords

Several city agencies handle their own requests outside the portal. According to OpenRecords’ own listing, these include the Department of Design and Construction, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Homeless Services, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Human Resources Administration, NYC Economic Development Corporation, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, the New York City Housing Authority, and the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.2NYC OpenRecords. NYC OpenRecords – Home For these, send your request directly to the agency’s Records Access Officer by email or regular mail. Keep proof of delivery so there’s no dispute later about when the response clock started.

What You Can Ask For

FOIL defines “record” broadly. It covers any information an agency keeps, holds, produces, or reproduces in any physical form: reports, memoranda, files, maps, photos, letters, computer data, emails, and internal policy documents.1New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 86 “Agency” is just as broad, reaching any city department, board, bureau, commission, public authority, or public corporation performing a governmental function. NYPD, the Department of Buildings, Sanitation, the Department of Education, and dozens of others are all within reach.

Typical requests cover NYPD incident reports, building inspection records, contracts, agency correspondence, internal policy manuals, statistical data, and final agency determinations.

What the Agency Can Withhold

Section 87(2) lets agencies withhold specific categories of material. The main ones:

  • Records whose disclosure would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
  • Law enforcement records, but only when release would interfere with an investigation, deprive someone of a fair trial, reveal a confidential source, or expose non-routine investigative techniques.
  • Trade secrets submitted by a commercial enterprise that would cause substantial competitive harm if released.
  • Records whose disclosure could endanger someone’s life or safety.
  • Records that would impair pending contract awards or collective bargaining.
  • Inter-agency or intra-agency deliberative materials. This exemption carves out four things the agency still has to release: statistical or factual data, instructions to staff that affect the public, final agency policy determinations, and external audits.
  • Records whose disclosure would jeopardize the security of an agency’s IT systems.
  • Test questions or answers requested before the final administration of the exam.

These are not blanket shields. When a record contains both exempt and non-exempt information, the agency has to redact the protected portions and release the rest.3New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 87 An agency can’t refuse a ten-page document because two paragraphs are exempt, and it has to justify every portion it withholds.

What You’ll Pay for Copies

Paper copy fees are capped at 25 cents per page for standard photocopies up to nine by fourteen inches. For larger or non-standard reproductions, the agency can charge actual reproduction cost, limited by statute to the hourly salary of the lowest-paid employee with the skill to prepare the copy, the cost of any storage media, and the cost of outside professional service when the agency’s own equipment can’t handle the job. Search time and general overhead can’t be included.3New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 87

Electronic records come with a break. If an identical record was already prepared for a prior request within the past six months and an electronic copy exists, the agency can’t charge reproduction fees beyond the actual cost of a storage device. The agency also cannot charge for employee time unless preparing the copy takes more than two hours, and if it does, it has to tell you the estimated cost before proceeding.3New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 87

How Long the Agency Has to Respond

Within five business days of receiving your written request, the agency must do one of three things: grant access, deny access in writing, or send a written acknowledgment with an approximate date when the request will be granted or denied.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89 That approximate date should fall within twenty business days of the acknowledgment. If the agency can’t meet that window, it has to explain why in writing and give a specific date for its response.5New York State Committee on Open Government. Explanation of Time Limits for Response

Silence past these deadlines counts as a “constructive denial,” which gives you the same appeal rights as a written denial.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89 This is where most requesters lose momentum. The agency’s quiet feels like a dead end, but under the statute it unlocks the next step.

How to Appeal a Denial

You have thirty days from the denial, or from the date a constructive denial occurred, to submit a written appeal. Send it to the head, chief executive, or governing body of the agency, or to the person that official has designated for FOIL appeals.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89

The agency then has ten business days to release the records or explain in writing why it’s continuing to deny access. It also has to immediately forward a copy of your appeal and its determination to the state Committee on Open Government, which creates a paper trail with an oversight body even if it doesn’t change the outcome.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89

Before you file the appeal, it can help to call the Committee on Open Government. Staff respond to phone inquiries and publish written advisory opinions on specific fact patterns under FOIL.6New York State Committee on Open Government. Committee on Open Government – Home Those opinions don’t bind an agency the way a court order does, but agencies often treat them as persuasive, and prior opinions can help you frame arguments against the exemption the agency cited.

If the agency doesn’t respond to your appeal within the ten business days, you’ve exhausted your administrative remedies and can go to court.7Committee on Open Government. FOIL-AO-14913

If the Appeal Fails: Article 78 in Court

You can challenge a final denial by filing an Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court within four months of receiving the agency’s final determination.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89 The proceeding uses a verified petition explaining what you requested, what the agency denied, and why the denial was improper. In the litigation, the burden to justify the refusal stays on the agency.

Attorney’s fees are available in two ways. A court may award reasonable attorney’s fees when the requester has substantially prevailed and the agency failed to respond within the statutory time limits. A court must award fees when the requester has substantially prevailed and the agency had no reasonable basis for denying access.4New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO – Section 89 The split between “may” and “shall” matters: a missed deadline makes fee-shifting discretionary, but a baseless denial makes it mandatory.