Maintained by BPD Consultants as a courtesy resource for clients and colleagues navigating NYC code compliance.
One property check.
Not six different websites.
A guide to the ten free tools built and maintained by BPD Consultants
Checking one building in New York normally means BIS WEB, DOB NOW, ACRIS, ZoLa, DOF PIP, LPC Portico, and a folder of code PDFs, each with its own URL, its own interface, and its own version of “current.” These tools run on the same open data every professional already relies on, but connected to each other. This page shows you which one answers your question, in what order.
Already dealing with a filing, violation, objection, or deadline? Find your starting point →Context-switching eats the hour
Every property check means re-opening five or six separate sites, each with its own URL and its own search box.
Nothing cross-references
A zoning number, a violation record and a permit filing never talk to each other. You reconcile them by hand, every time.
Saved copies go stale
A PDF or a screenshot is out of date the moment you save it, and there is no way to know what changed since.
The difference
Every source separate, or one connected context
The tools are not new data. They are the same City records, wired together. Switch between the two structures to see what actually changes.
Start here
What are you trying to do?
Pick the situation closest to yours. You will get the order to work in, what to do in each tool, and where the tools stop and a licensed professional starts.
Choose one
Count your own workflow
The six-webpage test
Think about the last time you checked a property in New York. Tick every separate site you had to open. Nothing is stored or sent. This runs entirely in your browser.
The mechanism
Search once. It follows you everywhere.
This is the part that is different from every other NYC lookup. Enter an address in one tool and the rest already have it. No re-typing, no re-searching, no losing your place.
Look up an address once
The address resolves to its BIN and BBL, the two identifiers every City dataset actually keys on, and is saved to your recent list.
Switch without losing work
Your last eight buildings stay in a chip row. Inspection Matrix keeps each building’s scope selections and notes separately.
Jump to any other tool
Every tool page carries the same navy context bar naming the active building, with direct links across to every other tool that can use it: Inspections, Violations, Record Web, Zoning and the Local Law Index.
Nothing to log into
The recent list and your matrix selections are stored locally. No account and no server-side profile.
If you already know what you need
Building · Planning · Design
The tools group by the job you are doing, not by the agency the data came from.
Building
What is there, and what is wrong with it
Planning
What you are allowed to build, and under which rules
Design
Standards to draw and specify against
Read this before you rely on a number
What these tools are not
They are screening instruments built on published City data. Knowing where they stop is what makes them safe to use.
They report the record, not the determination
Everything shown is pulled live from published City data. The record itself is sometimes wrong, incomplete, or out of date at the source. Roughly four percent of administratively deleted DOB violation records, for one, still carry an ACTIVE status.
They do not file, certify, or dismiss anything
No output here is a filing, a certification, a zoning determination, or a legal opinion. Nothing is submitted to DOB, DCP, OATH or LPC on your behalf. Exports are working documents, not submissions.
Screening, not sign-off
Use them to scope a problem, price a job, or decide whether something needs a closer look. Anything going on a drawing set, a contract, or a filing should be confirmed against the governing code section and a licensed professional’s review.
Thresholds and rules move, so read the law, not the summary
Local Law 84 benchmarking applies at 25,000 sf as amended by Local Law 133 of 2016, not the 50,000 sf still quoted in a lot of secondary sources. The Zoning Resolution changed substantially in December 2024 under City of Yes. Where a number matters, read the governing section.
Open data lags reality
A recent filing, a pending violation, or an in-progress LPC action may not appear yet. On anything price-sensitive or time-sensitive, confirm at the source before you act on it.
They are a courtesy resource, and they will keep changing
Maintained as a courtesy resource. What these tools cover, and how they are offered, may change over time. They are built and maintained alongside a working consulting practice, and they follow that work.
The business behind the tools
The tools are free. Knowing what to do next is where we come in.
Every tool here is a courtesy resource, built and maintained by BPD Consultants, a NYC code compliance and zoning consulting practice. Architects, building boards, contractors and developers bring us what a lookup cannot settle: scoping a job before it is priced, helping with a plan examiner’s objection, resolving a code compliance question before it stalls a filing, or working out what a violation actually requires. We work alongside the design professionals on your project, not in place of them.
inquiries@bpd-consultants.com