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SCANTHEBLOCK

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 and the county's records show the building on every other day: the fire hazard zone and the ground under it, what is actually standing on the parcel, and what has been reported on its block. Oakland has rent control and publishes no register of covered units, so this report does not pretend to test for it, and the city publishes no code-enforcement file at all. One report, before the lease.

The questions it answers

The sections that earn their keep

The ground under it, and the fire above itLiquefaction and landslide susceptibility, the state's fire hazard severity zone, the wildland urban interface, the NEHRP soil class and mapped serpentine — six of the city's own layers, read at the address. A layer that maps no zone here says so, and one that did not answer is marked unread rather than counted as clear.
Complaints and violationsWhat has been reported wrong here and whether it was fixed — allegations and findings, counted separately.
What was reported on the blockPolice incident reports, 311 service requests and parking citations within the radius, by year and category, each against what an average Oakland area of the same size records.
The last 90 daysWhat this block has been like lately, against its own usual.
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.
Before you sign, freeThe building’s card — the fire hazard severity zone, the ground under it, what is standing on the parcel and what the county assesses it at — free at /check, shareable with a roommate before anyone pays for anything.

Written for you

How to read an Oakland reportWhat the city publishes, what the county publishes instead, and the one section every other city has that this one cannot.Why there are no permits in an Oakland reportThe city runs its permits through a portal that answers one typed address at a time and publishes no dataset. Where to look instead, and what the report gives you in place of it.What seven roll years show that one does notAlameda County publishes its secured roll one fiscal year at a time, back to 2019-20. Read together they are the staircase Proposition 13 builds, and the step where the building sold.How to see a price in a state that discloses noneCalifornia publishes no sale prices. Alameda County publishes the value its documentary transfer tax was computed on, which is the consideration on the deed.

See it on a real address

Run any Oakland address and the report reads that city's portal live, at the moment you ask. Plans start at $49 a month, billed monthly or annually, and re-reading a report you have run is always free.

See the plans Try an address

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