eCLIPSE: the license record itself
Go to eclipse.phila.gov and open the Rental License Search by Location tool (linked from the eCLIPSE home screen as "Search for Rental Licenses"). Type the property address into the Address field and click Search — no account or login is required. If you already have a license number from a lease packet or a Certificate of Rental Suitability, eCLIPSE also supports searching by license number directly, which skips the address-matching questions below entirely.
A result row gives you the pieces that actually matter:
- License number and license type (a standard rental license, not a Limited Lodging or other business license)
- Status — active, inactive, or expired
- Initial issue date
- Current expiration date
Reading a no-results search
A blank result doesn't automatically mean the property is unlicensed. Double-check the address for typos first, and if you already have a license number from a lease packet or a Certificate of Rental Suitability, search by that instead — it skips the address-matching question entirely.
If the property still returns no results after that, the record shows no rental license on file as of your search. Cross-check with L&I Property History and Atlas below before drawing any conclusion: all three pull from the same underlying license data but can occasionally be out of sync with each other by a day or more.
L&I Property History: everything else tied to the address
li.phila.gov/property-history is the City's broader lookup. Enter an address and it returns permits, licenses (including the rental license, cross-referenced against the same eCLIPSE data), open and closed L&I violations, license and violation appeals, zoning history, deed and mortgage records, and recent Philly311 complaints for that property.
This is the tool worth checking alongside eCLIPSE, because the license and the violation history are the two inputs that determine whether a license can renew: a property can show an active license today and still be sitting on open violations that will block the next renewal. The rental license page alone won't tell you that — the property history will. Appeals show up here too, which matters if a violation looks unresolved but the owner has actually challenged it through the Board of License and Inspection Review — that dispute status won't appear on the license record itself.
See where your property actually stands
Type your address and we check all of this — license, violations, taxes, lead, CRS, and more — against the City's live records in seconds. Free preview; the full report is a one-time $9.99.
Check my propertyAtlas: the map view of the same records
atlas.phila.gov puts the license and violation data on a map. Search the address, then open the property panel and look under the "Business Licenses" layer — an active rental license appears there as "3202 Rental." Click the license entry to see its status. Open violations show under the separate "Violations" layer on the same panel, alongside zoning base district, zoning overlays, assessed value, and ownership/deed information for the parcel.
Atlas is the most useful of the three when you want context around the property — nearby zoning, ownership changes, other 311 activity on the block, or a look at current and historical aerial photos of the parcel — but for confirming a license number or exact expiration date, eCLIPSE's dedicated search is the more direct source.
How current the data actually is
None of these three tools is a real-time feed. They're administrative databases that L&I updates on its own schedule, and a status change — a license renewal that just posted, a violation that was just cleared — can take a business day or more to show up in any of them. Treat a search result as accurate as of the moment you ran it, not as a live status.
That lag cuts both ways: a property can look licensed and clean in a search that was run before an inspector logged a new violation, and a property that looks unlicensed may already have a renewal in process that hasn't posted yet. If a result matters for a decision you're making now, search again close to the date you need it, and don't treat an older printout or screenshot as still current.
What a lookup can and can't tell you
These tools answer a narrow question well — is there a license on file, what's its status, and what's tied to the address in L&I's records — and they're the same public data any of the site's guides describe (the license basics are covered in our Philadelphia rental license guide). They don't tell you whether a lease is enforceable, whether a specific violation is serious, or what a tenant or owner should do about what turns up. A property without a license on record, or with open violations, raises questions worth following up on — not a conclusion to act on without more context.
Operating without a valid rental license limits an owner's ability to recover rent or possession through the courts under Phila. Code §9-3902, which is exactly why the license status shown in these tools carries real weight beyond a paperwork formality. This guide describes the City's published lookup tools and how to use them; it is general information, not legal advice. For questions about what a specific result means for your situation, talk to a licensed Pennsylvania attorney.