Research My Landlord

In Minneapolis there are many ways to research a landlord. Landlords often try to spread and hide ownership and responsibility behind multiple LLCs, and sometimes multiple nesting-doll levels of LLCs. Often a property manager or management company may not be the same as the business LLC or individuals that own a building, which may not be the same as the investors who have money tied up in a building. None of those things might be the actual human names and addresses of the individual owner(s), shareholders, and controllers/managers of the LLCs.

In general the key is to find the individual humans with ultimate decision-making power within the corporate entities for these elements of a landlord:

🤴🏻 Ownership/Control: Who is legally the owner and on the line?

👨‍💼 Management/Enforcement: Who is supposed to run it day to day?

💰 Debt/Financing/Resourcing: Who has money on the line? Who is owed?

Research Starting Points:

  • Active Minneapolis Rental Licenses – All active/approved licenses and landlords in a table format. Find your Minneapolis building address and information about the property. Use the filters to find what you are looking for. For most exact results use the property ID/APN. Use the search/filter by the email address or phone number of the owner or property manager (“Applicant”) to find related buildings.

  • City of Minneapolis Property Lookup – Get the property ID/APN here. Find how many units and what types of units are in a building and information about the owner and taxpayer on the city information site. Find out whether your building is unlicensed or licensed.

  • Mapping Tool for Active Licenses in Minneapolis – This mapping tool pulls data from the current “Active Minneapolis Rental Licenses” resource below. Zoom in and use the filter function to find basic info about the property you are looking for.

  • Minneapolis Regulatory Services Violations Dashboard – Violations reported by housing inspectors or complaints to 311. Navigate the dashboard options at the top of the screen.

  • Twin Cities Landlord Research Tool - Connect a landlord to other buildings. Look up rental licenses and violations. (privately maintained)

  • Minneapolis Landlord Dataset and Dashboard - A data analyst created a dataset of Minneapolis landlords and a searchable tool for finding and connecting landlord LLCs. The data includes nonprofits, landlords who own three or fewer properties, and some co-ops. The data does not include public housing. (privately maintained)

  • City of Minneapolis Regulatory Services - You can request a physical copy of the rental license application for your building for each year it has been licensed. Sometimes the physical copies contain information not found online.

Other Government, County, City, and Public information:

  • Your Landlord or Property Manager’s Website – Often lists other buildings or openings.

  • Social Media and Internet searches - Time-consuming but generally the best way to get information about individuals and their lives.

  • Google Maps Satellite and Street View, and Zillow - It might be motiving for your neighbors to see that your landlord lives in a mansion on a lake valued at $3 million dollars and to have a picture of it.

  • Hennepin County Property Information – Using the “Interactive Map” is very useful for mapping and finding the address and Property ID of buildings for which you don’t know the physical address. Sometimes a mailing address may not be the same as a property’s legal address.

  • Hennepin County Property Recorder / Registrar of Titles - Original & detailed recording and information about the mortgages or property transactions for a property. It is not common to go this deep into ownership, but can be useful. Public access is free and computers are available at the Hennepin County Government Center. During COVID they have allowed the creation of online accounts. Printing recorded source documents costs money, but you can view them for free downtown.

  • MN Secretary of State Search Business Filings – Many landlords hide their holdings among multiple LLCs, a new one for each property or group of properties. There is no perfect way to search out all of the interests in a property, but sometimes the business contact info found at the MN Secretary of State site for a registered LLC can give clues to point you in the right direction. Tip: Try different combinations of these options: ‘Search Scope,’ ‘Filing Status,’ and ‘Include Prior Names.’ You can visit the SOS in St Paul and for a fee they can run a search and print you everything registered to a particular address.

  • MN Search Certificate of Real Estate Value (CRV) - Get info from the last sale or previous sales of the building. You are more likely to find information if the home or building was sold more recently and was above a certain dollar amount. Select ‘Completed’ and the correct ‘County’. The ‘Parcel ID’ is the property ID/APN.

  • MN Court Records - Your landlord may have personal criminal/traffic case records, or Civil cases connected to their personal name or LLC/corporation.

Interested in data on the rental housing market and evictions? Check out the Housing Reports and Data page.

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