Scan the Block · for renting

The building's record, before you sign for a year of it.

A listing shows you the flat on its best day. The city's records show the building on every other day: every code-enforcement case LADBS holds open against it, what has been permitted around it, and the police record on its block. Los Angeles has rent stabilization in law and publishes no register of covered units this report can read, so it does not pretend to test for it. One report, before the lease.

The questions it answers

Does the city hold any code-enforcement case open on this building?
What has LADBS closed here, and when?
What has been permitted on this building?
What has been reported wrong with this building?
Who do I call about a repair?
What has been filed on the blocks around it?

The sections that earn their keep

Complaints and violationsWhat has been reported wrong here and whether it was fixed — allegations and findings, counted separately.

Code enforcement on this parcelEvery LADBS case the city holds open against the parcel, by type, and how many it has closed and when. No case is reported as no case, never as compliance.

Police reports on the blockLAPD incident reports within the radius by year and category, against what an average Los Angeles area of the same size records — published to the hundredth block, so counted as a box the width of the radius, and said so.

Licensed for entertainment nearbyWhich places around the address hold a live permit to put on amplified sound, and under which class. You cannot hear a nine o'clock bar at a Tuesday afternoon viewing, and the listing will not mention it.

Work permitted in the street outsideStreet-use permits in force nearby, grouped by job, with the window each runs for — whether the street is being dug up for the six months after you move in.

Written for you

How to read a Los Angeles reportWhat the city publishes, how the two parcel numbers meet, and what a comparison claims.What a Los Angeles assessment actually isAnchored to the last sale, capped at about two per cent a year, and reset the day the deed records. Why a seller's bill says nothing about a buyer's.What Los Angeles files every dayFifteen lists from five LADBS feeds, keyed on the day a permit was issued rather than the day it was asked for. What each is, and why the issue date.Who to actually call in Los AngelesTwo governments hold this record — the city and the county — and each department's own page. No number here is one we made up.

See it on a real address

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Also written for: buying a home · owner or landlord · agent or broker · investor · developer or builder · lender or underwriter · insurance · hoa or property management · attorney or other professional · contractor or trade