Building Owners Registry (BOR)

Online Digital BOR Submission in the Civics Portal

The City launched a new online property management portal on 8/4/2023. Civics provides a suite of self-service functions to help property owners and managers better manage their portfolios and interaction with the City. One of the key functions is designating and updating building owner and property manager contact information via the digital Building Owner Registry application.

 

The BOR is the mechanism by which users officially link themselves to the properties they own or manage. A BOR must be completed for each property before they can view the records associated with them, or take property-specific actions such as initiating digital applications.

Whenever the owner completes a new BOR, or updates the existing one, it will overwrite the old information. This includes replacing the property manager with a new one, etc.

For instructions on getting started with Civics and completing the BOR, please:

1. Click here to visit the Civics Instructions page:  www.CityofRochester.gov/CivicsPortal/ 
2. Click here to download the full Civics user guide

 

*New requirement as of 1/1/2024: LLC Property Owner Disclosure

City Council passed an amendment to the City Code in March 2023 that added additional requirements to City Code section 90-20. Any property owned by a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) must disclose all natural person owners, members, managers, or other authorized persons of the LLC as part of the BOR. If the LLC is owned by another LLC, the “natural person” owners, members, managers, or other authorized persons of the owner LLC must be listed. Continue this process until all LLCs in the ownership chain have disclosed all their associated “natural persons”

This requirement goes into effect as of 1/1/2024. Properties that fail to comply are eligible to be cited for a code violations and potential ticketing and fines.

You will be required to complete the LLC Disclosure Form for each property owned by an LLC. The form is available as a fillable PDF below, and should be completed and saved outside of Civics. It may be completed in paper form if desired, but must be scanned and saved as a PDF. The file must be uploaded as an PDF attachment when completing the Building Owner Registry application.

You may also add it to a Building Owner Registry application you have previously submitted. To find an existing BOR, go to the Civics homepage and scroll to the bottom to find the "My Records" section. If you have a large number of records you can use the filter function to search and find the correct record.

Click here to download a fillable PDF template for the LLC disclosure form.

Full User Guide and Contact Info

Please click here to download the full user guide.

For technical support please email CivicsTechSupport@CityofRochester.gov and attach a screenshot of the error or issue you are experiencing. The City does not have the capacity to provide customer support over the phone. Please provide up to 3 business days to receive a response.

To contact your inspector, please lookup their contact info here:

 https://maps.cityofrochester.gov/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b7ccd37b38044e93ae724f4a26f5741b

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and Common Issues

1. What information will be posted publicly online?
   • Please scroll down to see the separate section "What Information will be Available to the Public" below for full detail. 
   • The City’s launch of the Civics portal has not increased the amount of owner/manager contact information that the City makes public online. Starting in 2009, the City collected the same information via paper applications, and that information were entered into a database. Since 2017 that data has been made publicly available online in the Property Information viewer, the BuildingBlocks platform and other tools.
   • As a reminder, all of this information is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and the City would be required to disclose it upon request. If you are concerned about privacy or safety, the City recommends maintaining a business address separate from your residence.
   • Please note that the property owner name and address that will be displayed online will be populated from the official legal owner records maintained by the Bureau of Assessment, not the information submitted in the BOR or VBR. The owner name will match the legal owner per the deed on file with the County Clerk, and the address will be the tax bill mailing address. If you need to update this information, please visit this page for instructions and contact info: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/assessment/
    
2. Why is a government issued photo ID required?
   • Due to the ease of access to the online Civics system from anywhere in the world, the City has an obligation to mitigate the risk of individuals falsely submitting records for properties they don’t own, or other forms of falsifying records. The photo ID would only ever be used in cases where there is a dispute between two Civics accounts to help confirm who is the “true” owner, or in cases where the City may need to confirm the identity of the account for other reasons.
    
3. Who can manage their own properties? Why am I required to designate a property manager contact on the Building Owner Registry?
   • Per City Code section 90-20, a property owner may manage their own properties if they are not a corporation or LLC, AND they have a business or residential address located within zip codes 13020 through 13905 or 14001 through 14925, AND the address is not a P.O. Box. The City considers the tax bill mailing address of the property owner to be their business or residential address.
   • Any property owner who does not meet the above criteria is required to designate a property manager. This is to ensure the City has a local "natural person" contact who is responsible for the property, and able to respond quickly in the event of emergencies, and authorized to make decisions on behalf of the owner in such circumstances as well other code enforcement related matters.
    
4. What do I do if I need to register properties for multiple LLC’s or companies? Do I need multiple accounts in Civics?
   • Option 1 (Recommended): Single Account, "Natural Person" Authorized Agent- You are permitted to create an account as yourself as a “natural person” (i.e. John Smith) and initiate the Building Owner Registry on behalf of any of the LLC’s you are a member, owner, or for which you are an authorized agent. Any authorized agent of the LLC would be permitted to file the Building Owner Registry on behalf of the owner and sign the certification as the owner. However, this does not change the legal property owner name for the City’s official records. The legal property owner name (as listed on the deed) will still appear on all official records and bills
   • Option 2: Multiple Accounts, One Per LLC- This would require you to create a separate login account for each LLC and maintain a separate email address for each. This can become quite cumbersome, so the City does not recommend this option.  
   • Option 3: Single Account, Master LLC- alternatively, you could incorporate a master LLC that owns and controls all of your subsidiary LLC's. You could then create a single account in the name of the master LLC and conduct business on behalf of all the LLC's. Please consult an attorney to assist with this process. The City does not recommend this option.  
   • Please note: regardless of the option chosen, you will still be required to invite yourself as an additional applicant to designate yourself as the property manager, since a property manager is required for all properties owned by an LLC. The property manager must be a “natural person”, and can’t be a LLC. Using options 1 or 3, you would need to maintain at least two accounts: one as the LLC and one as a natural person property manager.
   • Please note: regardless of the option chosen, the Building Owner Registry submission will not alter the legal property owner name (which matches the deed) or the official tax bill mailing address which are maintained by the City's Bureau of Assessment. The legal owner name and official tax bill mailing address will still be used and printed on all bills and official notices issued by the City of Rochester. All records for the property owner posted publicly online will also list the legal property owner name and official tax bill mailing address. If you need to update the official record for property owner name or tax bill mailing address, please see instructions on this page: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/assessment/
    
5. Can a hired property manager submit the Building Owner Registry on behalf of the property owner?
   • The BOR is intended to be initiated by the Property Owner. However, the property manager may initiate the BOR as long as the property manager is an authorized agent of the owner and has been granted authority to submit official records on behalf of the property owner. This is typically done via a management agreement, power of attorney, or if the manager is a controlling owner of the LLC property owner. In such cases the property manager may initiate the BOR on behalf of the property owner, and invite themselves as property manager.
    
6. Why am I having errors inviting my property manager to the BOR?
   • The most common issue is that the property manager is not allowed to be a company, per the City Code. They must be a “natural person”. It is recommended that property management companies create an account for a supervisor level person to manage records within Civics and serve as the lead contact, even if their employees may be doing most of the day-to-day work.
   • The manager must also have an address located in Monroe County, and the address can't be a P.O. Box
   • When accepting an invite from an email to be added as Property Manager, make sure you log into Civics first before clicking the link. If you are not logged it, it will show an error page. If you encounter the error page, attempt to log in and check your status. In most cases it will have accepted the invite.
     
    
7. I completed the BOR in Civics and I still can’t see my property records. Is this an error?
   • Locate the BOR record in your “My Records” list within Civics. Double check to make sure that the status shows as “Complete”. Otherwise check the “Current Step”- the following may still be required:
     • A photo ID upload is required
     • A property manager must be designated
     • The currently designated property manager is ineligible because their Civics account is for a company. Only individual natural persons are eligible
     • The currently designated property manager is ineligible because their address is located outside Monroe County
     • LLC disclosure upload is required
                      
                       
    
8. I can't find the correct property address? The address search looks like it isn’t giving me the correct address that matches the tax parcel address.
   • When filling out a BOR application, you will click “select site” to launch a popup window where you will search the address. Enter the street number in the top left box. Enter the street name in the box below that. Don’t touch the other boxes.
   • Make sure there are no spaces before or after your text entries before clicking search.
   • If your property has an address range, we recommend searching the lowest address in the range. For example, for 100-110 State St, search 100 State St.
   • The results will show every address and sub-address associated with the parcel. Select any of the addresses to proceed.
   • Even though it may look like you are only registering for a portion of the property, the BOR will be completed for the entire property as long as you have selected one address at the tax parcel.
     
     
    
9. I no longer am property manager for the property, how do I remove myself?
   • If the property owner initiated the BOR and invited you as property manager: you can locate the BOR application from the Civics homepage under the My Records section. Open the record and find the applicants section, click into it and you can remove yourself as a contact. Scroll down to the bottom and click submit to finalize your removal.
   • If you initiated the BOR: There is no way for you to remove yourself at this time. Instead the property owner or new property manager should submit a new BOR. Once it is complete, it will overwrite the old BOR and the new manager will be listed. If for some reason you have an urgent need to be removed, please email CivicsTechSupport@CityofRochester.gov with a list of the addresses for which you need to be removed and staff can remove you in the system backend. Please provide up to 3 business days to receive a response.
    
10. How does the BOR relate to the code compliance scoring system? 
    • The information submitted via the BOR will be used to link you to properties for the purposed of computing your portfolio average score. It will also link you to other property owners or property managers using the same mailing address, phone number, etc. It will consider such linked identities one entity for the purpose of scoring, and all of the properties owned or manager by these identities will be averaged together. For more background on the scoring system please visit: www.CityofRochester.gov/CodeComplianceScore