To find out who owns a property in NYC, start with the Department of Finance’s free online property tax lookup: type in the street address and the owner’s name, mailing address, and assessed value come back on the same screen. That covers the basic question for most searchers. If you need the legal chain of title, the person behind an LLC, or a working phone number for the landlord, the city hosts several other free databases that build on the same property identifier.
Start With the Address, Get a BBL
Nearly every NYC property database runs on a ten-digit Borough-Block-Lot number. You don’t need to memorize how it’s built; you just need to know that a street address can be converted to a BBL in seconds through NYC 311’s free lookup.1NYC311. Borough-Block-Lot (BBL) Lookup For a condominium, make sure you have the specific unit designation, because each unit carries its own lot number.
The Fastest Answer: Department of Finance Property Lookup
The Department of Finance’s Property Information portal ties every parcel in the five boroughs to a tax account. Enter an address or BBL and the results show the owner’s name, mailing address, property class, and assessed value.2NYC Department of Finance. Property Information For most searchers, this is the end of the trip.
Two caveats. The name you see is whoever Finance has on file as the taxpayer, so a property held by an LLC or trust shows the entity name rather than a person. And the mailing address is the address where tax bills go, which is often a management office rather than the building itself. Useful, but not the same as a residence.
Deed History Through ACRIS
For the legal owner on record, pull the deed. The Automated City Register Information System stores deeds, mortgages, liens, and other recorded documents for Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens from 1966 forward.3NYC Department of Finance. ACRIS Search by BBL and you’ll get a chronological list of every recorded document for the parcel.
Find the most recent deed, open the document image, and look at the Grantee field. That’s the party that took title in the last transfer. The images are free to view online. A certified copy, if you need one for court or closing, costs a per-page fee at the City Register’s office.
Staten Island Is Separate
ACRIS does not cover Staten Island. Richmond County property documents are recorded with the Richmond County Clerk, which runs its own online search for deeds and mortgages by BBL or by party name.4Richmond County Clerk New York. Richmond County Clerk – Land Documents Search Scanned images are free to view; certified copies cost $4.00 per page.5Richmond County Clerk New York. Recording Fees and Taxes for Land Documents
HPD Registration: Current Contact Info for Residential Buildings
When the deed shows only an LLC and you need to reach a real person about a residential building, go to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Owners must register annually with HPD if a building has three or more residential units, or if it’s a one- or two-unit dwelling where neither the owner nor the owner’s immediate family lives.6NYC Housing Preservation & Development. Register Your Property Registrations are due September 1 each year.
The filing lists the owner’s name, residential address, telephone number, and a managing agent, who must be a real person over age 21. Search the address on HPD Online and you’ll see a Property Registration section with the current contacts.7NYC Housing Preservation & Development. HPD Online Owners have to provide an actual residential address on the form; a P.O. box or mail-service address won’t satisfy the requirement.8NYC HPD. NYC HPD Property Registration Online System
Department of Buildings Records
The Department of Buildings runs the Building Information System, which holds permit applications, certificates of occupancy, and violation histories. Each of those records lists the property owner’s name as of the most recent filing, so a recent permit can be fresher than an older deed. The respondent on an open violation is almost always whoever the city currently considers responsible for the property. BIS searches are free and use the same address or BBL.
When the Owner Is an LLC
A large share of NYC investment property is held through Limited Liability Companies, so deed and tax searches often return a company name instead of a person. A few additional tools help.
NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database
Start with the New York Department of State’s free entity search.9New York State Department of State. Existing Corporations and Businesses Enter the LLC’s name exactly as it appears on the deed. The filing shows formation date, status, jurisdiction, and the address designated for service of process. For smaller LLCs, the service-of-process address often leads directly to the owner or the owner’s attorney. A registered agent, if listed, is another thread to pull.
This database won’t always surface the beneficial owner by name. New York LLCs are not required to list their members on formation documents. But the process address and registered agent, combined with the HPD managing-agent name, often get you to a real person.
Cross-Referencing Across City Records
When the state entity record doesn’t name a human, cross-reference. If the LLC’s building has three or more residential units, HPD registration will name a managing agent and a real residential address. Compare that against the registered agent in the state database. You can also search ACRIS for the LLC’s name as a party to other transactions; owners who hold each building in a separate LLC often sign the deeds themselves, and the same name turns up on multiple document images.
Federal and State Beneficial Ownership Rules Won’t Help You
The federal Corporate Transparency Act was once expected to require LLCs to report beneficial owners to FinCEN. As of March 2025, that requirement no longer applies to domestic entities, and FinCEN is not enforcing penalties against domestic companies or their owners for non-reporting.10Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Reporting obligations remain only for certain foreign entities, and even that database is closed to the public, with access limited to law enforcement and specific authorized users.11FinCEN.gov. Frequently Asked Questions New York State has its own beneficial ownership disclosure framework administered by the Department of State, but as of early 2026 those filings function as a law-enforcement tool, not a public search.
What These Records Won’t Tell You
Public records have real limits. A deed reflects the last recorded transfer; if the property changed hands informally or through an unrecorded contract, the deed is out of date. The tax record shows the taxpayer on file, which can lag reality by years, as when an estate hasn’t been settled and the deceased owner’s name still appears. HPD and DOB records are only as current as the last filing or inspection.
None of these databases will tell you whether the owner actually lives at the property, what was paid in a private transaction, or who holds an equitable interest that was never recorded. For contested ownership, pending foreclosure, or inheritance disputes, you may need to check court records through NYC Civil Court or the state Supreme Court’s eFiling system, which use many of the same identifiers to get started.