Habitable Evidence
Scope boundary: this page helps preserve records; it does not file a complaint, check an address, display live status, calculate a deadline, identify a remedy, or give legal advice. Use the receiving agency’s current instructions and get local help for decisions about a particular matter.
A complaint creates several different records
Keep each stage as its own event. Record who created the item, when it was created or displayed, when you saved it, and which earlier event it refers to. Do not replace an earlier item when the status changes.
- Repair request. Preserve the request in the form sent, its attachments, the destination or contact used, and any delivery or submission confirmation that actually appeared.
- Agency intake. Save the complaint or service-request ID, the channel and date used, the submitted description, and the confirmation page, email, text, or letter.
- Scheduling and access. Keep appointment messages, attempted-contact records, entry notices, access notes, cancellations, and rescheduling messages. Describe missed contact without guessing why it happened.
- Inspection. Preserve the inspector’s report, photographs or attachments released by the agency, inspector or agency identifier, inspection date, and the areas the record says were inspected.
- Finding or citation. Keep each citation, violation, notice, or order as an agency-created record. Retain its identifier and stated location without rewriting it as your own conclusion.
- Response and claimed correction. Keep owner, manager, contractor, and agency correspondence, work records, certifications, and your separate observations of what changed or recurred.
- Reinspection or closure. Save reinspection records and the final status display or closure notice as new events. Preserve the earlier status too, together with the date each status was observed.
Build a reviewable record set
Identifiers
Complaint, service-request, inspection, citation, violation, case, and reinspection IDs exactly as issued or displayed.
Source files
Original reports, notices, letters, emails, attachments, and exported portal records. Keep later annotations as separate copies.
Correspondence
Messages with owners, managers, contractors, inspectors, and agencies, with sender, recipient, channel, and date kept visible.
Condition observations
Your own dated descriptions and captures, kept distinct from agency findings and from what another person reported.
Status history
Each open, pending, closed, dismissed, certified, or reinspected display saved with the date and source where you observed it.
Disclosure notes
A list of originals, private details, attachments, or metadata withheld from a shared copy so a reviewer can see what is missing.
Preserve the display, not a stronger claim: a screenshot can show what a page displayed at a particular moment. By itself, it does not establish who submitted an item, agency receipt, the state of the property, or what the system displayed later.
Read portal status as workflow metadata
What the record can support
- an identifier or label was displayed in the named source;
- a report or notice contains the quoted agency text;
- you preserved that version on the recorded date;
- different versions can be placed in chronological order.
What still needs separate support
- who caused a status change or why;
- whether every relevant area was observed;
- whether a condition later changed or recurred;
- whether a legal requirement was satisfied.
Status is not condition: an open or closed portal status—and the presence or absence of a recorded violation—does not prove current physical conditions, legal compliance, receipt of a notice or complaint, or completion of a remedy. Keep the official record and current observations separate.
Official-record starting points
This small directory links only to official sources reviewed for this page. It is not a national directory, does not reproduce or scrape live records, and does not tell you which process applies. Check the source itself for current scope and instructions.
California · statewide
Health and Safety Code § 17970.5
Reviewed The official statute addresses specified complaints to a city or county about potential substandard housing conditions. When the section applies, its text covers inspection, documenting findings in an inspection report, copies of reports and citations, and reinspection as applicable.
Read the current California Legislative Information text. Do not rely on this summary to decide whether the section applies to a particular complaint.
New York City · citywide
HPD complaint and property records
Reviewed NYC Housing Preservation and Development publishes separate official pages for reporting a maintenance issue and for reviewing HPD property, complaint, and violation information. Preserve the confirmation and identifiers from the channel actually used.
Read NYC HPD’s maintenance-issue process and open the official HPD Online information page. The records displayed there can change; save the relevant record and observation date.
Prepare a copy for review
- Order records by the event date, while separately preserving when each item was received, recorded, or downloaded.
- Use the agency’s exact identifiers and status labels. Put your explanation beside them instead of silently changing the source text.
- Keep tenant observations, agency records, owner statements, and contractor records visibly separated by source.
- Include the earlier and later versions needed to understand a status change; do not present only the most favorable screen.
- Remove unrelated personal data from a review copy, retain the original safely, and state what was withheld.
- Use synthetic records when testing Habitable Evidence. Never submit tenant data, addresses, complaints, photographs, or inspection records to the public project repository.