If PARIS uses the Homeowner/Property Owner profile, stop before choosing maps. The 2023 manual limits that profile to tap and sewer cards for the owner’s property and requires a deed. For another record type, ask DEP which legitimate request route applies to you.
For other eligible requests, start with the work purpose. The record family returned for a request may differ from the permit, inspection result or completion evidence needed for a building-history question.
Match the purpose to the record family
Use DEP’s Request Records page.
| Stated purpose | Records the page associates with it | Keep separate |
|---|---|---|
| Water service or backflow | Water maps and tap cards | The resulting design or permit file |
| Building demolition or service repair/relay | Tap and sewer cards | Field inspection or final action |
| New sewer connection | Drainage plans and as-builts; sewer map if specified | Approval of the proposed work |
Except for requests limited to tap and sewer cards, the page calls for a project description and a site plan or map of the area or infrastructure; an annotated tax or aerial map may substitute. This is a request packet, not proof that the requested record exists.
For Water Service, Main Design, Backflow and Site/House Proposal work, a submitter other than a professional engineer or registered architect needs a professional’s signed-and-sealed cover letter. That condition applies to those four work types.
Build a request-and-return ledger
Preserve one row for each request:
- purpose stated in the request;
- account profile used without changing or misrepresenting it;
- borough and location identifiers entered;
- exact record family requested;
- request status, date and reference;
- returned filename, page date and remaining gap.
The PARIS information page says an account is required and nonlicensed users can request records. It links to Access PARIS.
DEP lists PARIS support at 718-595-3088 and paris@dep.nyc.gov. Use the request reference, location and exact missing record family when asking where an existing record is held.
Treat the manual as dated instructions
The PARIS records-request manual, version 1.0 dated September 8, 2023, documents work type, project description, borough, and location by address or block and lot. It also describes an intersection option and automatic leading zeros. These are dated instructions, not current screen observations.
The manual labels saved and unsubmitted as Draft, submitted as Review in Progress, and processed as Approved with records available for download. These are request states; Approved here means the records are ready to download.
Ask DEP about the earliest online year and the retention period. Keep a dated copy of the manual instruction you relied on and name the older document rather than assuming that an absent online file never existed.
Reconcile a fictional returned file
Imagine a fictional response folder for invented Site Q. It contains one PDF titled “Drainage Plan,” but a cover sheet cites “As-Built Sheet 4.” The property and records are invented.
Record the returned PDF under its actual title. Keep its title separate from the missing as-built, and file it as a plan rather than as project approval. Compare the location, date and request reference. Then ask whether As-Built Sheet 4 is a separate record, an attachment omitted from the response, or a title used by the cover sheet for the returned plan.
If the response instead contains a tap card, preserve it as a tap card. A record from the correct property can still answer the wrong document question.
Ask for the missing document, not a broader conclusion
Prepare the request reference, profile, purpose, borough, address or block and lot as documented in the request, record family, approximate date and missing filename. Ask PARIS support which existing-record route applies. To recover an older requested document, use that existing-record route rather than a new permit application.
The NYC DEP connection-record guide explains the separate certification, permit, inspection and tap-card chain. The final-inspection guide helps keep a returned map or card from being mistaken for a passed building inspection.
A record-request approval does not prove permit approval, completed work, a passed inspection or occupancy authorization.
NYC DEP sources checked October 9, 2026; interface instructions are from the dated 2023 manual.