Philadelphia Apartment & Landlord Record Check — 4PHILLY

4PHILLY
v4.0
A Tenants App for Philadelphia Properties - made easy.
4PHILLY is an independent, non-governmental tool. It's built by a private developer and is not operated, affiliated with, or endorsed by the City of Philadelphia or any government agency. Every record shown here comes from Philadelphia's public data systems — always verify before relying on it, directly at the City's official property lookup: atlas.phila.gov
Renting an apartment in Philadelphia? Before you sign the lease, check the building's public City record. Type any address to pull the building's record straight from Philadelphia's public government records — open code violations, whether the rental license is actually active, and 311 complaints filed by tenants and neighbors. Know exactly what you're moving into before you commit.
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License Gap Scanner
Finds Philadelphia rental properties whose license has expired right now — a status the City's own map tools (Atlas, Property History) won't show for up to 60 days.
What "expired" means here, in plain terms
Philadelphia law is specific: under Code § 9-3902(1)(a), a landlord may not collect rent on a property that requires a rental license unless a valid license is currently in force. Under § 9-3901(4)(e), an owner who lets that lapse cannot collect rent or evict for nonpayment during the period of non-compliance.

Every rental license carries two dates. The expiration date is the one with legal weight — it's when that authority to collect rent ends. About 60 days later, the license is reclassified "Inactive" — an internal bookkeeping change, not a legal deadline.

The City's own map tools publish the second date, not the first. For the full 60-day window between them, a lapsed license shows no expiration date and a status that hasn't yet flipped to "Inactive" — so the property looks unremarkable on the map even though, right now, it isn't legally licensed to collect rent.

This scanner queries that same City data directly for every Rental-type license currently sitting in that window — status Expired, expiration date already passed, not yet reclassified. It reads the City's independently-verified, correctly time-zoned copy of the data (a separate, confirmed bug shifts the same date a calendar day early on the City's map-facing copy — not used here).

This is public licensing information, not legal advice. A property here means its rental license shows expired in the City's own daily-refreshed data as of the scan time — confirm specifics for any one address with a full lookup before relying on it.
4P Zip Code Scanner
Search a Philadelphia zip code's public data for properties with the most open violations, 311 complaints, and expired rental licenses.
Where do these numbers come from, and why?
Same source as the city scanner: Philadelphia's open data on Carto (phl.carto.com), filtered to the ZIP you enter. Violations and licenses are matched by OPA account number; 311 complaints are matched by ZIP code on the complaint record (the 311 dataset has no OPA number, so it is joined by location, not parcel ID).

Why it can differ from a property lookup: this reads the Carto historical mirror, which lags L&I's live Eclipse backend that the property lookup uses. Numbers here can be days-to-weeks behind — use the ZIP scan to spot problem properties in an area, then confirm any one of them with a lookup against the live data. Government, institutional, and hotel owners are filtered out.
Know the OPA number? Search by it instead (more precise — optional)

An OPA number (Office of Property Assessment account number) is the city's unique ID for a single parcel of land — like a fingerprint for the property. Every property in Philadelphia has one.

Why it can beat the address: one street address can cover several parcels (a corner lot, a subdivided building, a condo with many units), and the same address can be written many ways (“1500 Market St” vs the city's official “1500-16 MARKET ST”). The OPA number points at exactly one parcel with no ambiguity, so if you have it, the lookup is guaranteed to hit the right record. Don't have it? Just use the address — that's what most people do, and this tool figures out the matching OPA for you. You can find a property's OPA number on Atlas or a tax bill.

try:
A lookup shows: Inspect · Drift · Brief · Records · Limits · Council

Business & trade licenses

Open violations

Violation history — status distribution

311 complaints (last 24 mo.)

Business license drift

Violation drift

Coverage gaps

See the Limits tab for full documentation of what this record cannot tell you and why.

Permits

Building certifications

What 4PHILLY can't tell you — and why.

This app queries data the city already publishes. Where it falls short, the limitation is a city data gap, a policy decision, or a technical constraint of running without a server. Future versions will try to address each of these.

Why renters use 4PHILLY

Don't rent blind in Philadelphia.

Every apartment in Philadelphia carries a paper trail most landlords would rather you never read. 4philly pulls it into the open — free, in seconds, straight from the City's own Licenses & Inspections and rental-license records — so the power isn't all on their side of the lease.

Before you sign a lease

Check the apartment you're about to call home — or any Philadelphia address you're thinking of renting. See open code violations, whether the building's rental license is active, and the 311 complaints past tenants filed. Fresh paint and a friendly tour hide a lot; the City's record doesn't. Walk in knowing exactly what you'd be signing up for.

When your landlord won't listen

Repairs ignored, rental license lapsed, deposit games? Pull the same public records the City relies on and turn “he said / she said” into documented facts — ready to bring to your landlord, a housing attorney, Philadelphia L&I, or your City Council member.

Built for Philadelphia renters and tenants. No account, no cost, no catch — just the truth about your address before you sign or when you need to fight back.

Philadelphia ZIP Code Rankings

Ranked by public records — based on open violations, 311 complaints, and expired rental licenses (private landlords only)
#ZIPScoreLevelViolations311ExpiredPropertiesWhy

Licensed & Clean — Sample by ZIP

Not every Philadelphia rental has a problem record. Pick a ZIP code to see how many properties currently hold an active rental license with zero open L&I violations and no open 311 complaints — queried live from the City's own open data — plus the three covering the most rental units.

Live point-in-time query of Philadelphia's public rental-license, violation, and 311 data (phl.carto.com, refreshed daily by the City). 311 complaints are matched by address text — the 311 feed carries no parcel ID — so that filter is approximate. A listing here is not an endorsement of any property or owner; records change daily. Verify anything that matters at atlas.phila.gov.

ZIP Codes 4PHILLY Covers

Every Philadelphia ZIP code, laid out like the city grid. 4philly checks open code violations, rental license status, and 311 complaints across all of them — pick yours and scan the whole neighborhood.

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