RPIE Preparation: What We Built and What We Need From You

A briefing for an NYC RPIE filing specialist. No software details — only what matters for the filing process.

Please: read the explanation below first (what we already built, how we fill the form today, and what we still need to decide). Then answer the questions. Your responses are saved when you click Submit at the bottom.

Why we need your help
What we already built
Who fills what today
How each form section is filled
What we want to do next
Questions for you

1. Why we need your help

We are building a tool that helps an owner (or their representative) prepare an RPIE draft. It pulls public NYC property records, reads uploaded owner documents, and asks the owner only for facts that cannot be obtained any other way.

You do not need to know how the software works. We need your filing expertise:

where the system may fill the form on its own;
where a document (financial statement / rent roll) is required;
where the owner must confirm or provide the answer.

Your answers will set the business rules before we finish the remaining logic. If something “depends,” please say on what (residential vs commercial, hotel, condo, etc.).

2. What we already built

The RPIE preparation flow already does the following:

Find the property by street address or by BBL (Borough / Block / Lot).
Collect public property facts from NYC open sources: building class, unit and floor counts, year built, square footage, tax class, assessed value, deed/sale information (year of purchase, owner of record), storefront registry data, and similar items.
Determine the filing type: claim of exclusion, short form, or full form — and whether a rent roll and/or storefront registration is required.
Prefill a draft for Sections A, B, C, D, E, F, I, and S with what is already known from public records.
Accept owner documents: a financial statement (P&L / income statement) and a rent roll — then place income, expenses, and unit-level lease data into the right parts of the form.
Ask the owner short follow-up questions when something is still missing (for example EIN, contact details, owner-occupied share, confirmation of consolidated lots, storefront details).
Produce a package: RPIE PDF draft, a data file with the form contents, and an Excel rent-roll addendum.

Important: this is draft preparation, not an automatic filing with NYC DOF. A person responsible for the filing still reviews and submits.

We already ran a real large-property example (Queens, about 418 units) to check how data lands on the form. That is an illustration, not the only scenario we support.

3. Who fills what today — simple rule

System fillsAnything available in public NYC records, or clearly derived from them: property identity, building characteristics, owner of record, filing type / exclusion based on public criteria, square footage, year of purchase (when a recorded sale exists), and similar facts.

From documentsReporting-year dollars come from the financial statement (income and expenses — Sections J and L). Unit-level leases and residential vacancy come from the rent roll (Section J addendum and % vacant in Section E).

Ask the ownerFacts that are not public and not in the uploaded files: tax IDs (EIN/SSN), phone and email, owner-occupied share, NNN / ground lease, sponsor units for coop/condo, confirmation of lot consolidation, business income (Section K), storefront details (Section S), and a fallback when needed income/expense totals are missing from the files.

4. How each form section is filled today

Short summary by official RPIE structure. “Source” is in filing terms, not software terms.

Part I — Owner and Property Information

Section	What we fill	Source today
A — Owner / Filer	Owner name; additional owner when applicable. EIN/SSN and filer relationship are not public.	System name from records; Owner EIN/SSN, relationship
B — Contact	Firm name and mailing address often come from recorded parties; phone and email do not.	System address / firm; Owner contact name, phone, email
C — Property ID	Address, BBL, contiguous / consolidated lots, condo range, hotel flag. Apportionment method and consolidation still need confirmation.	System prefill; Owner confirm lot list and method
D — Exclusions	Some of items a–k can be suggested from public criteria (low assessed value, small residential, vacant land, mid-year purchase, etc.). Facts such as related-party lease, owner-occupied, or vacant all year with no income are not visible in public records.	System where criteria are public; Owner for non-public facts
E — Use & Vacancy	Building class, units, floors, year of purchase — from public records. Residential % vacant — from rent roll. Vacancy for office / retail / other uses — from the owner.	System + Rent roll + Owner
F — Coop / Condo	Section applies for coop/condo. Sponsor / unsold unit count comes from the owner.	System whether section applies; Owner sponsor units
H — Lease & Occupancy	NNN, who pays utilities / maintenance / taxes, annual rent, ground lease, owner-occupancy. Per the form: if there are multiple tenants and none is on triple-net, Section H may be skipped.	Mostly Owner today; public records give only a weak NNN hint, mainly for single-tenant properties

Part II — Income and Expense

Section	What we fill	Source today
I — Reporting Period	Calendar / fiscal / partial year; From–To dates.	Financial statement; if no period is stated — prior calendar year
J — Income from Real Estate	Residential regulated / unregulated, office, retail, parking, laundry/storage and other lines; total income. Residential unit counts from the rent roll. Owner-occupied % from the owner.	Financial statement / Rent roll + Owner (owner %)
K — Income from Business	Merchandise, food & beverage, business parking, admissions, etc. Not filled from public records or from the financial statement today.	Owner (for hotels — from Part III / statement of operations)
L(I) — Operating Expenses	Fuel, utilities, payroll, repairs, management, insurance, water & sewer, etc.; total expenses; optional line 15.	Financial statement; if none is uploaded — fallback question to the owner for a total
L(II) — Reserves	Replacement reserves (roof, boiler, elevator, etc.) — only when it makes sense to fill.	Financial statement and/or Owner — open question below

Section S — Storefront Registration

Storefront count and some address / activity / vacancy facts can come from the city’s Storefront Registry. Per-storefront contacts, entrance type, floor size, rent per sq ft, concessions, and DOB job numbers for construction usually come only from the owner or managing agent.

Rent Roll Addendum (to Section J)

Separate pages with one row per unit (unit, floor, occupancy, months vacant, tenant, lease dates, rent regulation, monthly rent). Built from the uploaded rent roll. Regulated / unregulated totals and vacancy feed Section J and Section E.

5. What we want to do next

We want to finish the product rules so the draft is as complete and correct as possible before the owner has to answer anything. Specifically, we need your judgment on:

Condos / multi-lot starts — which BBL is “the” filing property when someone searches by address.
Section C consolidation — whether income/expenses should aggregate across listed lots, and who confirms the lot list / apportionment method.
Section D exclusions — whether to check exclusion boxes on the PDF when public data supports them, and what to do for exclusions that only the owner can know.
Section H — how much we may infer from documents vs always ask the owner.
Sections K and L — business income mapping, expense sources, and whether a full form can finish without a financial statement.
Reserves and storefronts — when those sections are required and which fields are safe to take from city data.

Once you answer, we will update the preparation rules to match real filing practice, then keep asking the owner only for what still cannot be known from public records or documents.

6. Questions for you — please reply

Answer the way you would handle a real filing. If it “depends,” say on what in the notes box.

Your name (optional) Email (optional)

Role / firm (optional)

5.1 Condominiums: which property is the “main” one

Question 1.1

Which BBL should be treated as the primary one when preparing a condo filing?

one “main” building lot (as shown in city maps / assessment) the BBL the user explicitly selects always the assessment / filing lot another rule (please describe in notes) Notes / details (optional)

Question 1.2

If the person searches by address — what should they pick from the list?

a specific unit BBL the entire condominium a range of lots address is only for search — a BBL must be chosen before starting Notes / details (optional)

Question 1.3

Is an address alone enough to start, without an explicit BBL selection?

Yes No It depends (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

5.2 Section C — lot consolidation

Question 2.1

If Section C lists several contiguous / consolidated lots — should income and expenses be totaled across all of those lots?

yes — consolidated filing means aggregate across all listed lots no — only the primary case BBL it depends on the apportionment method (units / sq ft / %) — explain in notes Notes / details (optional)

Question 2.2

Who should confirm the lot list and the apportionment method (by units / by square footage / by percentage)?

owner only system prefills from city data; owner confirms another process (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

5.3 Section D — Exclusions

Question 3.1

If public data supports an exclusion (for example AV ≤ $40,000 or vacant land) — should we check that box on the PDF draft?

yes — check the box on the draft do not check boxes on the PDF — only show filing type on screen ask the owner to confirm each matching exclusion item Notes / details (optional)

Question 3.2

For exclusion items that public records cannot show (related-party lease, owner-occupied, vacant all year, owner did not operate) — leave them blank, or always ask the owner?

leave blank always ask the owner an explicit question ask only for full-form filings (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

5.4 Section H — Lease and Occupancy

Question 4.1

Can Section H be filled reliably from the rent roll and financial statement, or should the owner almost always confirm?

can fill from documents when signals are clear owner should almost always confirm hybrid (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

Question 4.2

If the rent roll shows only residential units — is that enough for owner-occupied questions (8a–8c), or should owner-occupancy always be asked separately?

rent roll is enough when it shows owner-occupied units always ask owner-occupancy separately it depends (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

5.5 Section K — Income from Business

Question 5.1

Who should fill Section K?

owner only (current approach) try to extract from the financial statement for hotels / retail hybrid — describe in notes Notes / details (optional)

Question 5.2

If the P&L has “ancillary / business income,” does that belong in Section K or stay in Section J?

Section K Section J depends on the line — describe mapping in notes Notes / details (optional)

5.6 Section L(I) — Operating Expenses

Question 6.1

Should expenses always come only from the financial statement? Or can some lines come from the rent roll (e.g. CAM / NNN pass-through)?

always only from the financial statement some lines may come from the rent roll (list which in notes) it depends (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

Question 6.2

If no financial statement is uploaded — ask the owner for one total operating-expense figure, or block finishing a full-form draft?

ask owner for a total is enough block finishing full form without the statement other (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

5.7 Section L(II) — Reserves for Replacement

Question 7.1

When is the reserves section required, and when may it stay blank?

only if the financial statement has reserve lines always optional required in specific cases (describe in notes) Notes / details (optional)

Question 7.2

Where should roof / boiler / elevator / other come from: financial statement, ask the owner, or never auto-fill?

financial statement ask the owner never auto-fill financial statement first, then ask owner if missing Notes / details (optional)

5.8 Section S — Storefront

Question 8.1

Who fills each storefront’s details: system from the city registry plus owner follow-ups, or the owner entirely?

system from city registry + owner follow-ups owner entirely hybrid (explain in notes) Notes / details (optional)

Question 8.2

Which Storefront Registry fields are reliable enough that we should not ask the owner? (address, business activity, vacant flag — what else?)

Please type your answer in the notes box.

Notes / details (optional)

Question 8.3

Rent per sq ft, concessions, and DOB job numbers for construction / alteration — always owner-only?

Yes — always owner-only No — some can come from documents/registry (explain) It depends Notes / details (optional)

Anything else we should know?

Contents

1. Why we need your help

2. What we already built

3. Who fills what today — simple rule

4. How each form section is filled today

Part I — Owner and Property Information

Part II — Income and Expense

Section S — Storefront Registration

Rent Roll Addendum (to Section J)

5. What we want to do next

6. Questions for you — please reply

5.1 Condominiums: which property is the “main” one

5.2 Section C — lot consolidation

5.3 Section D — Exclusions

5.4 Section H — Lease and Occupancy

5.5 Section K — Income from Business

5.6 Section L(I) — Operating Expenses

5.7 Section L(II) — Reserves for Replacement

5.8 Section S — Storefront