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).
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).
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.
See the Limits tab for full documentation of what this record cannot tell you and why.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How 4philly turns three scattered city systems into one landlord check.
Four city websites, four answers about the same rental license.
Two live rankings straight from the City's own open data.
In Philadelphia, the facts about a single rental property are scattered across at least four City systems that don't talk to each other — the rental-license portal, the Licenses & Inspections (L&I) violation record, the Philly311 complaint feed, and the permits-and-certifications database. In practice, that fragmentation means the full story of a building is available to almost no one. 4PHILLY closes that gap: type an address, a building name, or a 9-digit OPA account number, and it pulls those records into a single, readable view — for free, with no account and nothing stored.
Rental and business license status (and whether it has lapsed), open and historical L&I code violations, Philly311 complaints filed against the property, building permits and certifications, and the City Council district and councilmember who represent the address. Every record is shown verbatim as the City publishes it.
4PHILLY reads directly from the City's own authoritative sources, live: the Eclipse system behind li.phila.gov for licenses and violations, and the Carto open-data mirror for historical records and city-wide scans. When two sources disagree, it flags the discrepancy instead of hiding it, and treats the authoritative record as controlling.
Under Philadelphia Code § 9-3902, a landlord may not collect rent on a property that requires a rental license unless a valid license is currently in force. An expired or missing license isn't a clerical detail — it goes directly to whether the person asking for your rent check is legally entitled to it. The City's public map tools can lag up to 60 days behind on a lapsed license, publishing the later internal “Inactive” date instead of the expiration date that actually carries legal weight. Surfacing that gap — so a renter sees the real status today — is one of the main reasons 4PHILLY exists.
Yes. There is no account, no login, no paywall, and nothing is stored on the server. Every record shown is public information the City of Philadelphia already publishes.
No. These are public records. 4PHILLY never notifies a property owner that an address was searched, and keeps no record of who looked up what.
Address lookups read the City's Eclipse system live; city-wide scans use the City's daily-refreshed open data. For anything consequential, confirm the record at atlas.phila.gov as of today.
No. 4PHILLY provides legal information, not legal advice. For advice about a specific situation, contact a housing attorney or Community Legal Services (215-981-3700).
New here? Read About 4PHILLY for the full methodology and data sources, browse the guides & articles, or get in touch. 4PHILLY is an independent, non-governmental tool — not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the City of Philadelphia.
| # | ZIP | Score | Level | Violations | 311 | Expired | Properties | Why |
|---|
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.
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.