A property report tells you what the record says. It cannot tell you what you are entitled to, settle a dispute, or issue a document. These are the bodies that can — checked, not remembered, and dated at the foot of this page because contact details move.
If you rent
415-252-4600 · 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 700
Administers the rent-stabilization and just-cause eviction ordinance, receives eviction filings, and gives free counseling on rent increases, evictions and buyouts. Phone counseling weekday mornings and afternoons. This is the first call for almost any rent question.
415-947-0797 · 976 Mission Street
If you have been served with an unlawful detainer, this is where to go. Free eviction representation, rental assistance, and drop-in hours four days a week.
415-282-6622 · 558 Capp Street
Volunteer-run membership organization with drop-in counseling on rent control, evictions, harassment and repairs.
415-703-8644 · 11 Grove Street
Counseling clinics and tenant organizing, running since 1979. Clinic hours move, so check the site before traveling.
415-885-3286 · 126 Hyde Street
Free landlord-tenant legal representation for low-income tenants, plus supportive housing.
415-896-1701 · 55 Columbus Avenue
Civil rights legal organization advising on landlord-tenant and eviction matters, with a focus on immigrant communities.
Neighborhood offices across the city
Free civil legal services including eviction defense and habitability. Check the site for the office nearest you.
Causa Justa :: Just Cause closed at the end of 2024. It is still listed on a great many San Francisco tenant-resource pages, which is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon trying to reach it.
If you are being discriminated against
415-252-2500 · 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 800
Investigates and mediates housing discrimination complaints within San Francisco. Call to arrange an intake appointment.
Beyond the city: the California Civil Rights Department on 800-884-1684, and HUD Fair Housing on 800-347-3739.
If you need a lawyer
Legal advice line 800-551-5554 · SF office 415-982-1300
1800 Market Street, 3rd Floor
Free civil legal help for low-income residents, including housing and eviction.
415-989-1616 · 301 Battery Street, 3rd Floor
Refers you to vetted private attorneys, including landlord-tenant and eviction defense, with reduced-cost services for those who qualify.
If you are buying, selling or building
628-652-3200 · 49 South Van Ness Avenue
Permits, inspections, and the building and housing codes. Also where an open permit gets closed out.
628-652-3420 · DBI Records, 49 South Van Ness, Suite 400
$379 per residential building, or $388.48 paying by card online. Issued in seven to ten business days. Order it for any residential sale.
Many sites still quote $214 for a 3R. That figure is out of date; DBI's own page says $379. If a checklist you have been handed says otherwise, it was written a while ago.
628-652-4900 · 49 South Van Ness Avenue, 2nd floor
One counter for about two dozen permitting services from Planning, DBI, Public Health and Public Works. Uses a virtual queue, so join it before you arrive.
49 South Van Ness Avenue, Suite 1400
Zoning and land use, environmental and design review, historic preservation, short-term rentals. Use the contact page on the site — the department does not publish a single public number.
628-652-8100 · City Hall, Room 190
Assesses every taxable property, administers Proposition 13 base-year values and exclusions, records deeds, and collects the transfer tax. The place to ask why an assessment is what it is.
California Department of Real Estate · 877-373-4542
Search by name, company or license number. Takes about ten seconds and is worth doing.
If your question is about earthquakes
628-652-3706 · softstory@sfgov.org
DBI's mandatory retrofit program: whether a building is in it, its tier, and its compliance status.
California Geological Survey
The state's own map of fault-rupture, liquefaction and seismic-landslide zones — the zones that trigger hazard disclosure in a sale. It also shows where the state has not yet evaluated.
There is no unreinforced masonry hotline. San Francisco's UMB ordinance deadlines passed decades ago and DBI publishes no current contact for it, which is why this report says the UMB list is not available as data rather than implying it covers it. For a specific brick building, ask DBI's records division. A separate concrete building screening program was added in April 2025.
If you are looking for the records yourself
No counter, no charge
The city's own parcel lookup: zoning, height, permit and planning history, complaints, historic status and hazard zones for one address. The best free starting point, and the tool most people do not know exists.
support@datasf.org
Where nearly everything in a Scan the Block report comes from. Every dataset is public, downloadable and has an API. We compile and compare it; we do not produce it.
If you need help affording it
415-701-5500 · 1 South Van Ness Avenue, 5th floor
Below Market Rate ownership and rental units, inclusionary housing, downpayment assistance and community development grants.
415-202-5464 · info@homesanfrancisco.org
A silent second loan of up to $500,000 toward a market-rate San Francisco home for first-time buyers, repaid as a share of appreciation. It runs in periodic lottery rounds rather than continuously — check the page for the current one and sign up for alerts.
What none of these are
Not us. Scan the Block compiles public records and compares them; every body above is the one that actually decides the thing you are asking about. Bring the report — a building's permit, complaint and filing history is often exactly the evidence that is tedious to assemble — and get the answer from the people whose job it is.