I see a building (in New York City) and I would like to know who owns
the building (and who owned the real estate, is there talk of change
of ownership? the history of this property, et cetera), how do I track
rhis information?

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Clarification of Question by courious-ga on 27 Feb 2003 21:50 PST

Reliable goverment source would be nice.

Hello.

The information that you seek is available from New York City's
Automatic City Register Information System, hosted by the New York
City Department of Finance.
http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/CoverPage.dll/index

Use "Find Address and Parcels" to find out the block & lot number of
the property, and then use the "Search Property Records" feature to
find out ownership, transfers, etc.

There's also a simplified New York City Property Search for homes,
hosted by NYC.gov
http://webapps.nyc.gov:8084/CICS/fin1/find001I

search strategy: browsed nyc.gov

I hope this helps.

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Request for Answer Clarification by courious-ga on 02 Mar 2003 20:38 PST

The first link doesen't realy have any information.
The second link gives me this:
PROPERTY SEARCH NOT AVAILABLE - TRY AGAIN LATER  
02/10/03 10:00AM - A ERROR IN LINK TO FIND003I  

(dnb.com, hoovers.com, sec.gov, bbb.org).



Where is the ownership of real estae registered?

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 02 Mar 2003 21:52 PST

The ownership of real estate in New York City is registered with the
Office of City Register part of New York City's Department of Finance.
The ownership of real estate is not registered anywhere else.

The sites provided above are on the official site of New York City's
Department of Finance.

For more information, visit:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/acris.html

If you need help understanding how to use the site, visit Acris
Document Tutorial:
http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/references/DSTutorial/index.html

Also see: Acris FAQ
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/pdf/02pdf/acrisfaqs.pdf

The site was working on Feb 27 when the answer was posted. I checked
several addresses and was able to retrieve ownership information for
various addresses. If the site is down right now, please be patient.
Perhaps it will be fixed soon.

If you need additional assistance, I recommend that you contact the
City Register Office:
The telephone number for Manhattan:
(212) 361-7550
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/email.html#register


Just to reiterate, though, I have directed you to the correct site
(i.e., the official New York City agency that registers the ownership
of real estate).
I hope this helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 03 Mar 2003 13:50 PST

Just wanted to let you know that the site is working fine today...

I went to:
http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/CoverPage.dll/index  

I selected "Find Address and Parcels." I typed in the address of the
Chrysler Building (405 Lexington Avenue) and was able to find out
theof
the Building (Block 01297 Lot 23). 

I then went to "Search Property Records" and used the block & lot
number  to find out all sorts of information about the building's
ownership, mortgages, leases, transfers, etc.  You can even view
images of deeds, mortages, ets. It's quite a remarkable system.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 03 Mar 2003 13:51 PST

That should have read:

"... and was able to find out the block and lot number of the building..."

Thanks.