Navigating Philadelphia L&I Open Data

A reproducible verification protocol for Philadelphia property-compliance records. Written for AI agents acting on behalf of investigative journalists, tenants-rights groups, civic-tech researchers, and anyone trying to confirm what a property's record actually says.

This guide is descriptive, not editorial. Every claim about a data-system behavior was observed during the cross-referencing work that produced the property record for 315–23 N 12th Street (Goldtex Apartments), OPA account 881519440, in May 2026.

See also: Main report · Site overview

1. Source authority — what to trust for what

Philadelphia publishes property-compliance data through three overlapping interfaces. They are not equally reliable for the same question.

2. Known data-quality issues to test for

These have all been observed and should be assumed present until ruled out for the specific record being verified.

2.1 License-status mirror lag

The Carto open-data feed mirrors L&I license records but can lag by months or years for individual licenses. A license can show as Active on Carto while the authoritative Eclipse system shows it as Expired. Always re-pull license status from li.phila.gov directly before relying on it.

Verification pattern:

1. Pull license record from Carto.
2. Note the license number.
3. Open li.phila.gov/property-history/… for the property.
4. Find the same license number in the rendered table.
5. If the two disagree, the Eclipse value is authoritative.

2.2 Truncated property-history exports

The Property History page on li.phila.gov may present a violations list that is older than the most recent Carto-API result for the same address. The page does not warn the user about its cutoff date. Always check:

• The most recent violation date on the rendered page.
• The most recent violation date returned by a direct Carto SQL query.
• If they differ by more than one quarter, treat the rendered page as incomplete.

Example query (replace the address):

SELECT casenumber, casecreateddate, violationdate,
       violationcode, violationdescription, casestatus
FROM violations
WHERE upper(address) LIKE '%315%N%12TH%'
ORDER BY violationdate DESC

2.3 Inspector identity is not in the public data

Violation records contain casenumber, violationcode, violationdescription, casestatus, and casepriority. They do not contain an inspector name, badge number, or unit identifier. There is no public mechanism to:

• List all violations issued by a specific inspector.
• Track inspector-level patterns or geographic assignments.
• FOIA “all activity by Inspector X” without knowing X’s identity from another source.

If the investigation requires an inspector identity, the only known path is a targeted FOIA to L&I referencing a specific case number and inspection date. Plan accordingly.

2.4 Non-standard closure statuses

The casestatus field is not binary. Observed values include:

• COMPLIED — actual compliance recorded.
• NULL — open / no compliance recorded (often rendered as “UNRESOLVED” in UI exports).
• ERROR — data-entry anomaly. Not a clean closure.
• CLOSEDCASE — administrative closure. Compliance not confirmed.
• RESOLVE — resolved through appeal or non-compliance path. Compliance not confirmed.

Aggregate summaries on li.phila.gov typically count everything that is not NULL as “closed.” Do not propagate that framing. When reporting on a property, break out the status distribution explicitly.

2.5 311 complaints are a separate dataset

Tenant complaints filed via Philly311 are not part of the L&I Violations dataset. They live in a separate Carto table and are not surfaced in the Property History rendering. A property can show “no violations” while accumulating 311 complaints. If 311 history is relevant, query it separately:

SELECT requested_datetime, service_name, status, description
FROM public_cases_fc
WHERE upper(address) LIKE '%315%N%12TH%'
ORDER BY requested_datetime DESC

2.6 OPA assessment data is a third source

Property valuation, square footage, owner-of-record, and deed history come from the Office of Property Assessment, not L&I. The two systems share an OPA Account number but diverge on owner-name normalization. Use OPA for ownership questions; do not infer owner from L&I license records alone.

3. The minimum-viable verification workflow

For any property-compliance claim, an agent should execute the following before publishing or reporting:

1. Resolve the property to an OPA account.
   Source: atlas.phila.gov (search by address).
   Capture: OPA account number, parcel boundary, current zoning.
2. Pull live license status from L&I Eclipse.
   Source: li.phila.gov/property-history/…
   Capture: every license listed, with status, issue date, last renewal, and licensee.
   Flag any license whose status differs from what Carto reports for the same license number.
3. Pull full violation history from Carto.
   Source: Carto SQL endpoint against the violations table.
   Capture: every record returned, with casenumber, violationdate, violationcode, violationdescription, casestatus, casepriority.
   Do not rely on the Property History page export — re-pull from Carto to confirm completeness.
4. Pull 311 complaint history.
   Source: Carto SQL endpoint against the public_cases_fc table.
   Capture: complaint type, status, date, free-text description.
5. Cross-check ownership against OPA.
   Source: OPA records (linked from atlas.phila.gov or property.phila.gov).
   Capture: owner name, mailing address, transfer history.
6. Document what is missing.
   Note that inspector identity is not available in any of the above.
   Note any closure statuses that are not COMPLIED and treat them as unresolved unless an explicit compliance record can be located.
   Note the date of every pull. Re-pull before publication.

A complete record assembled this way has known boundaries. Treat anything not assembled this way as provisional.

4. Carto API quick reference

Endpoint:

https://phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql?q=<URL-ENCODED-SQL>&format=json

Useful tables (verify schema at opendataphilly.org before relying on column names — schemas change):

Output formats: json, csv, geojson, kml. Add &format=csv for direct CSV download. For large queries, paginate with LIMIT and OFFSET.

5. What the public data does not tell you

Document these explicitly when reporting; do not let the absence pass without comment.

• Who inspected. No inspector identity is published.
• When the page was last refreshed. Property History pages do not display a data-as-of timestamp.
• What was filed but not yet adjudicated. Cases in pre-violation stages may not appear.
• Tenant identity. Complaints are anonymized in the public 311 export; the identity of the complainant is not retrievable without FOIA.
• Internal L&I correspondence. Emails, inspection notes, and supervisor sign-offs are FOIA-only.
• Whether an inspection actually occurred. A “COMPLIED” status records that the case is closed, not necessarily that an inspector physically returned to the property.

6. FOIA — when to escalate

If verification requires any of the following, file a Right-to-Know request with the City of Philadelphia (RTKL, 65 P.S. § 67.101 et seq.). The L&I Open Records Officer handles property-record requests.

• Inspector identity for a specific case.
• Inspector handwritten notes or photographs from a site visit.
• Body-worn-camera footage from accompanying police response (filed separately with PPD).
• Internal communications about a property between L&I, PPD, or external counsel.
• Permit-application materials beyond the public abstract.

Standard response window: 5 business days, extendable to 30. Denials are appealable to the Office of Open Records.

7. Reproducibility note

The four data-integrity failures documented on the parent page were observed against the property at 315–23 N 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, OPA 881519440, on or before May 14, 2026. The full record set — the L&I Property History export, the Carto API query result, and the cross-source reconciliation report — is preserved and available on request.

An agent reproducing this verification today should expect:

• The Carto mirror’s stated status for Rental License #602204 to continue diverging from Eclipse until the underlying data feed catches up.
• The Property History page to continue presenting records through Sep 2019 unless the city extends the export window.
• Two open 2026 Unfit Structure citations (CF-2026-012614, CF-2026-012633) to appear in Carto but not in the Property History page.

If any of those expectations fail when you reproduce the query, the data systems have changed; update this guide accordingly.

Last reviewed: May 2026. Maintained at jlegal.pro/agents_philly_opendata_li.html.
Corrections welcome via the issues tab on the underlying repository.

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