ACRIS NYC: How to Search Property Records (Free, 2026)

How Many Ways Can You Search ACRIS?

Six, not eight. Somebody miscounted once, and the internet has copied that mistake for years. That is honestly a very ACRIS thing to happen.

• Party Name
• Document Type (Deeds and Other Conveyances, Mortgages & Instruments, Other Documents, or UCC and Federal Liens)
• Document ID / CRFN works only from January 2, 2003, onward
• Transaction Number, a 12-digit code printed in the corner of the document image
• Reel and Page, the paper-era method, is still technically alive
• Parcel Identifier (BBL)

The “seventh method” everyone mentions, Find Addresses and Parcels, isn’t a search at all. It converts an address into a BBL number so the real search can happen.

Skip that step, and you’ll spend twenty minutes wondering why nothing works. It’s a rite of passage.

How Do I Find My BBL Number?

1. Go to a836-acris.nyc.gov and click “Find Addresses and Parcels.” Not “Search Property Records”; that’s a trap for later.
2. Enter borough, house number, street name. Buying a condo or co-op? Include the unit number.
3. It gives you a BBL: borough code (1 Manhattan, 2 Bronx, 3 Brooklyn, 4 Queens, 5 Staten Island), a five-digit block, and a four-digit lot.
4. Already own the place? It’s on your property tax bill. You’ve had it the whole time.

Why Does ACRIS Say My Search Failed?

We pulled real questions from years of StreetEasy forum posts. Same three problems, over and over, since 2005. That tells you it’s not you.

“Where’s the price?” This is the ACRIS equivalent of a national pastime. Co-op sales before 2003–2004 weren’t recorded at all because a co-op sale is a stock transfer, not a deed.

HDFC co-ops show nothing, ever, because they’re exempt from the transfer tax that would’ve triggered a filing in the first place. And when a sponsor-unit sale does show a price, it can run 8–10% higher than what actually changed hands, because certain taxes get baked into the number.

One buyer on a forum called this a scam. It’s not a scam. It’s a system that never explains itself.

“It says the unit doesn’t exist. I’m standing in it.” The BBL lookup fails silently on real, occupied apartments, usually over something as trivial as “5A” versus “5-A.” The error message won’t tell you which. You just get to guess.

“Where’s the mortgage amount?” Blank, on purpose. Co-op financing is a UCC filing against shares, not a real-property mortgage, so ACRIS knows the loan exists but declines to disclose its amount.

How Do I Unmask an LLC Buyer?

Half of NYC’s interesting deeds list the buyer as some anonymous LLC, because rich people love privacy and paperwork loopholes in roughly equal measure. Four steps:

1. Copy the exact LLC name off the deed image, not the search-results text. The two differ just often enough to sabotage your next search out of spite.
2. Run that name through the NY Department of State’s entity database (apps.dos.ny.gov/publicInquiry).
3. Check the mortgage recorded against the property. The signature block often has a real name, even when the deed is playing coy.
4. Three or more units? Pull the HPD registration. It usually names the managing agent.

Is ACRIS a Substitute for a Title Report?

No, and every NYC real estate attorney will tell you the same thing. Adam Leitman Bailey and Colin Kaufman describe ACRIS as “a reliable device for discovering… owners, documents, prices, mortgages, filed liens, and legal descriptions.”

Reliable for discovery, sure. Reliable enough to skip a title report before closing on a place worth more than your car? Absolutely not. The same firm’s advice elsewhere: use “all search options, as opposed to just one.” Running one search and calling it due diligence is how people find out about a lien the hard way, at the closing table, in front of everyone.

What ACRIS structurally can’t catch: most judgments, mechanic’s liens, and building loan contracts, filed elsewhere entirely. The Department of Finance records what it’s legally required to record. It doesn’t vet any of it.

Does Buying a Co-op Change Anything?

Yes. Braverman Greenspun’s Lauren Piechocki makes the distinction attorneys constantly make: co-op purchases require a lien search, since there’s no deed to record as there is with a condo.

Budget “at least a few thousand dollars” for title insurance on a condo. Co-op buyers sometimes get a bond or leasehold policy instead, usually only when the board insists. Boards often insist on things.

What If I’m Buying Outside the Four Boroughs?

ACRIS has nothing for you:

• Westchester: wro.westchesterclerk.com
• Nassau County (Long Island): lrv.nassaucountyny.gov
• Hudson County, NJ: straight to the county clerk
• Staten Island: Richmond County Clerk, the borough ACRIS forgot

More NYC Property Records Guides

ACRIS covers deeds, mortgages, and liens for the four boroughs. These cover what it doesn’t:

• RP-5217, TP-584, and NYC-RPT Explained
• Westchester County Clerk Property Records
• Cooperative Apartment Lien Search
• NYC Property Due Diligence: The Government Links List
• eAccessNY: Verify a Broker’s License
• NYC Due Diligence: Websites to Check Before You Buy
• How to Look Up Your NYC Property Tax Bill

ACRIS NYC FAQ

Do I need to pay or register?
No. Searching and viewing are free; no account is needed. A certified copy runs $4.00/page, and an uncertified one $1.00/page, if you need something official.

Can I search by owner name instead of address?
Yes, but try both “LLC” and “L.L.C.” before you assume it’s not there. Formatting is petty like that.

Why can’t I find a sale from before 2003?
If it’s a co-op, that’s why. Anything before 1966 isn’t online at all, no exceptions; records that old are kept in person at the City Register’s office.

Is Staten Island really not in ACRIS?
Recording, no, that’s the Richmond County Clerk. But Staten Island still has to file its transfer taxes through ACRIS, plus a paper filing on top, the detail every other guide skips.

The site broke at 1am. Is it me?
No. Sundays 5–10am and daily 1–2am are official maintenance windows. Try again outside those hours before you assume the worst.

Nobody’s answering the phone.
(212) 487-6300 or acrishelp@finance.nyc.gov, the ACRIS help desk. They’ve already heard every version of your confusion.

Written by Nicole Fishman Benoliel

Co-founder of NestApple and a lawyer admitted to the New York bar, not currently practising.