How we know
ACRIS is operated by the NYC Department of Finance and is the official public-record system for property documents in all five boroughs of New York City. Anyone can search ACRIS, and full document images can be downloaded as PDFs at no cost. The system covers the period from 1966 to the present; pre-1966 records exist on paper at the borough Block & Lot offices and are out of scope for ACRIS itself.
Two perspectives on ACRIS access exist, and they have different freshness characteristics. The official ACRIS web search at https://a836-acris.nyc.gov reflects newly-recorded documents in close to real time but is rate-limited and is not designed for programmatic access — it is built for human, document-by-document search. The parallel NYC Open Data export (the Real Property Master at dataset bnx9-e6tj and the Real Property Parties at 636b-3b5g) refreshes monthly and is the source most data-driven workflows depend on. Recordings typically lag real-world activity by 30 to 60 days from the date a transaction settles.
For a deeper definitional treatment of ACRIS — what it contains, what it does not contain, common edge cases like condo unit BBLs and stated-vs-actual consideration on intra-family transfers — see the MetroDeeds glossary entry on ACRIS at /glossary/acris.
In depth
How to access ACRIS in 60 seconds
Open https://a836-acris.nyc.gov in any browser. There is no login. Pick "Property Records" from the navigation, then choose either "Search Property Records" (search by BBL or address) or "Search Document ID" (when you already have a recording reference). Both paths produce a list of documents with a link to the full PDF for each. Document images are free to download.
What is recorded in ACRIS
- Deeds — every transfer of NYC real property since 1966
- Mortgages, mortgage assignments, and mortgage satisfactions (payoffs)
- Mechanic's liens, federal tax liens, and NYC tax liens
- UCC filings on real property collateral
- Easements and right-of-way grants
- Building loan agreements, consents, and other related instruments
What ACRIS does not contain
Lease agreements are not recorded against real property in NYC and do not appear in ACRIS. Foreclosure case filings live with the New York State court system rather than NYC Finance, though the lis pendens that initiates a foreclosure does appear as an ACRIS document. Building permits and certificates of occupancy live with NYC Department of Buildings (DOB), not DOF. Tenant-side records — rent registrations, harassment cases, eviction filings — live with NYC HPD or the NYC Office of Court Administration. Reading ACRIS in isolation gives a partial picture; serious due-diligence workflows always cross-reference DOB and HPD.
How professionals use ACRIS
Three of the most common professional workflows: title research (ownership history for a parcel, typically for a sale or refinance), lien tracking (open tax liens, mechanic's liens, mortgage satisfactions), and party-name traversal (every property an LLC or named individual has been on either side of a deed for). The party-name search is what makes ACRIS useful for portfolio research — you can search for a person or entity name and see every transaction they appear on across NYC.
What MetroDeeds adds on top
MetroDeeds ingests the daily ACRIS feed, joins it to NYC HPD registration contacts to attribute LLC-named buyers to the operators behind them, and surfaces the result on every Landlord Ripoff Watch operator profile. The last-five-deeds widget on each profile shows the most recent ACRIS transactions for portfolio properties, the recent-acquisitions table flags rapid-acquirer patterns, and the shell-cluster detection links related LLCs through registered agent addresses. All of that is public — no signup required.
Pro and Scout+ users can also browse the MetroDeeds deed feed, which surfaces recent NYC ACRIS sales with full buyer / seller names, mortgage status (cash vs financed, with loan amount and lender at Scout+ and above), and one-click property reports for any BBL. Anonymous and free-tier visitors see the deed feed with names redacted, which keeps the entry-level experience focused on transaction shape rather than on individual operators.
Frequently asked
Is ACRIS the same as the NYC City Register?
ACRIS is the NYC City Register's online system. The City Register is the office at NYC Finance responsible for recording real-property documents; ACRIS is the public-facing search and document-image interface that exposes the City Register's records on the web.
How far back does ACRIS go?
ACRIS covers documents recorded from 1966 onward across all five NYC boroughs. Pre-1966 records exist on paper at the borough Block & Lot offices and require an in-person visit or a certified copy request from NYC Finance.
Is ACRIS data free?
Yes. Searching ACRIS at https://a836-acris.nyc.gov is free, and full document images download as PDFs at no charge. NYC Department of Finance charges a fee only for certified copies of recorded documents.
What document types are recorded in ACRIS?
Deeds, mortgages, mortgage assignments and satisfactions, mechanic's liens, federal and NYC tax liens, UCC filings on real-property collateral, easements, building loan agreements, and various related real-property instruments. Lease agreements, building permits, and tenant-side records are not in ACRIS.
Why does MetroDeeds use ACRIS data?
ACRIS is the authoritative public record of NYC property transfers. MetroDeeds ingests the daily ACRIS feed, joins it to NYC HPD registration data and NYS DOS entity records, and surfaces the connections ACRIS itself does not make explicit — most importantly, which LLCs trace back to which named operators. The Landlord Ripoff Watch operator profiles are the public surface for that join.