WHO'S IN CHARGE OF THE LLC THAT OWNS YOUR BUILDING?
Landlords conceal ownership in a variety of ways. They'll list P.O. boxes as company addresses & employees as owners; they'll create a corporate entity (usually a limited liability company, or LLC), and list that corporate entity's name as the owner; sometimes, they'll create a different LLC for each building they own "making it hard for even the city to figure out how many buildings are owned by a particular landlord." (Source.) While a law was passed in 2010, presumably making it easier to find actual names behind those LLCs -- today, any landlord who controls more than a 25 percent stake in an LLC is required to be listed in city registration documents -- as to how well this law is enforced is another story. Still, below are two ways you theoretically can find a legitimate name behind an LLC.
1. Look your building up in NYC's Department of Housing Development & Preservation site.
A) Type in your address here & click "Search." (Note: this will only work with apartment buildings).
B) You'll see your address listed with an "Info" button next to it. Click this.
C) To the left you'll see a list of links, including "Property Owner Registration Information." Click this, and the resulting page will list your building's owner, or a “head officer,” if an LLC owns your building. (In my case, the address listed is in Colorado. Googling the name and address, I find Fred Meyer is listed as a contact at this shady-looking website for "Saint Cloud Mortgage.")
1. Look your building up in NYC's Department of Housing Development & Preservation site.
A) Type in your address here & click "Search." (Note: this will only work with apartment buildings).
B) You'll see your address listed with an "Info" button next to it. Click this.
C) To the left you'll see a list of links, including "Property Owner Registration Information." Click this, and the resulting page will list your building's owner, or a “head officer,” if an LLC owns your building. (In my case, the address listed is in Colorado. Googling the name and address, I find Fred Meyer is listed as a contact at this shady-looking website for "Saint Cloud Mortgage.")
2. You can also find a scan of the actual deed to your building (and in theory, find a name on that deed) via NYC's Department of Finance Records.
A) Input your address here and click "find BBL":
B) You'll now see a "Document Search By BBL" button in the bottom right corner. (BBL is short for Borough, Block and Lot.) Click this button.
C) Under "Select Document Class," choose "Deeds and Other Conveyances."
D) A list will come with your building's current and previous owners, dating back to 1983. There will be an "IMG" button next to each owner listed. Click the IMG button at the top of the list, to see your building's current deed.
E) Supposedly, an actual human being will have signed this deed -- but as you can see from the screenshot below of my own building's deed, that signature may be illegible. (Also, every other place on the deed requiring "Buyer Signature" was left blank.)
