What is an I-card and how can I obtain one?
The Department of Housing and Buildings was an agency of the City of New York responsible for building inspections and maintaining occupancy records. The agency maintained historical occupancy records called Initial Inspection cards (more commonly referred to as “I-cards”) which captured occupancy and arrangement information based on the initial inspection of the property by the agency and any subsequent applications filed with that agency during the late 1800s and early 1900s. For buildings without a Certificate of Occupancy (which was not required until 1938), the ” I-cards” have been accepted as the legal record of existing occupancy as of the last date indicated on the card. The majority of the HPD I-cards are accessible by entering the building information on the home page of HPD’s website. After entering the building information, an option to obtain I-card Images will appear on the left hand side tool bar. Buildings with I-cards may have more recent legal occupancy records if any
