Answers, not jargon.
The short version of everything people ask before signing up. If we missed yours, email us at support@borobeacon.com.
Getting started
How long does it take to set up BoroBeacon?+
About five minutes per building. You create an account, add each building by address and BIN, and we immediately start monitoring. Historical violations are backfilled within an hour.
What is a BIN and where do I find it?+
A Building Identification Number is a 7-digit ID the NYC Department of Buildings assigns to every structure. You can look it up for free at NYC BIS (a810-bisweb.nyc.gov) by entering the street address. BoroBeacon uses the BIN to connect each building to NYC Open Data.
Do I need a credit card to start?+
No. We're onboarding from a waitlist while billing finishes wiring up — no card on file until checkout is live. When billing opens, every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial and still requires no card to begin.
What if my building doesn't appear in NYC Open Data?+
That is rare but possible for very new construction or unusual lot configurations. If you can't find a BIN, contact our team and we will help you locate or register the building.
Coverage
Do you track DOB work permits?+
Yes. DOB NOW Build and DOB NOW Electrical, synced daily. Every permit carries a status timeline so you can see the chronology at a glance. M-prefixed filings sit alongside legacy BIS jobs in the same view.
Do you track elevator and boiler inspections?+
Yes. Cat 1, Cat 5, and Periodic for elevators. Annual for boilers. The dashboard shows compliance pies for the whole portfolio. A click on any slice opens the device list with last-inspection and next-due dates, so it is clear which buildings to call first.
Can tenants submit maintenance requests?+
Yes. Each building gets a tenant-facing URL you can share. Photo, location, description, and the agent on the building hears about it right away. The tenant gets a confirmation so they know it landed.
Do you handle work orders?+
Yes. Created against any unit or device, assigned to whoever owns the work. A tenant intake can be promoted to a tracked work order in one click, so nothing falls between the two.
Do you support manual property inspections?+
Yes. Vacant-apartment turnovers, weekly walkthroughs, monthly mechanical-room checks. Photos, checklists, and PDF exports for the file.
Monitoring & alerts
Which agencies does BoroBeacon monitor?+
HPD, DOB, FDNY, ECB / OATH, DSNY, DOT, and DEP. Plus DOB NOW work permits with status timelines, elevator and boiler inspection tracking, tenant maintenance intake, and internal work orders. We also track specialized filings like ARA / LAA asbestos abatement and DEC (state-level) permits.
How often is data refreshed?+
We sync NYC Open Data on weekdays. Most agencies are pulled once a day, with removals and dispositions checked in a second pass later in the day. If you forward an agency email to our inbound address, we parse and store it within minutes.
How "real-time" are alerts?+
For violations that post to NYC Open Data, alerts go out on the next daily sync — typically within 24 hours of the violation being recorded by the agency. For violations where your HPD owner email is configured to forward to BoroBeacon, alerts can go out in minutes.
Can I customize the reminder schedule?+
Yes. By default we send reminders 21, 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before a due date. You can disable specific intervals or add your own from account settings. Every customer gets this feature — there are no tiers.
Can each building send alerts to a different person?+
Yes. You can set a per-building alert email, or assign a building to an agent whose email is on file. Fallback to a default notification email if neither is configured.
Will I get emails on weekends or at night?+
By default, no. Most alerts are queued for business hours so your inbox stays quiet outside of work. The exception is a small set of alerts we consider genuinely urgent — things like a Class C HPD heat or hot water complaint, or a same-day OATH hearing reminder — which still go out after hours because they affect tenant safety or a hard legal deadline. You can tune which alerts count as urgent from your settings.
Do alerts ever stop?+
Reminders for a given violation stop when you click the one-click certify button in the email or mark the violation as certified inside the dashboard. If the agency later reopens the violation, reminders resume automatically.
Pricing & billing
How much does BoroBeacon cost?+
One dollar per unit per month. Every unit in every building you add, flat. No tiers, no feature gates, no minimum, and no setup fee. A 6-unit brownstone is $6/month. A portfolio of 1,800 units is $1,800/month. See the pricing page for a live calculator.
What counts as a "unit"?+
A unit is a single residential dwelling unit inside a building, as recorded by the NYC Department of Buildings. We pull the unit count from your BIN record automatically so you never have to count yourself. If a record is out of date, email support and we'll correct it.
How does the free trial work?+
We're in private beta and onboarding from a waitlist, so there's no card on file at all. A self-serve free-trial flow is on the roadmap for general availability — we'll announce it before it goes live.
What happens if I add or remove a building mid-month?+
During private beta we true up monthly: if you add a 30-unit building part-way through the month, the next invoice reflects the prorated amount. Removed buildings show up as a credit on the next invoice.
Is there an annual discount?+
Yes — once self-serve billing is live we plan to offer roughly one month off for annual prepay. During private beta, annual terms are arranged directly with us.
Can I cancel anytime?+
Yes. Email us and we'll cancel at the end of the current billing period. We do not pro-rate refunds on cancellation, but you keep full access for the rest of the month you paid for.
What payment methods do you accept?+
During private beta, we invoice directly (ACH or wire, NET-30). Self-serve card billing is on the roadmap for general availability.
Security & privacy
Is my data isolated from other customers?+
Yes. Every row of building, violation, and complaint data is tagged with an owner and protected by row-level security policies in the database. Agents only see the buildings assigned to them; admins see their own organization's portfolio.
Do you sell my data?+
No. We never sell, rent, or share customer data for marketing or analytics. The only third parties we share data with are the service providers we use to run the product (hosting, database, email, AI).
Where is my data stored?+
In a managed PostgreSQL database hosted in the US East region. Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256). Server logs are retained for 14–30 days.
Do you have a Data Processing Agreement?+
Yes. Any customer can request a signed DPA by emailing privacy@borobeacon.com — there is no minimum portfolio size required.
How do you handle security incidents?+
See our security page for our incident response process and responsible disclosure policy. In short: we notify affected customers within 72 hours and publish a post-mortem within 7 days.
Data & support
Can I export my data?+
Yes. From your account settings you can download every building, violation, complaint, and notification as a single JSON file at any time. Full notification history is included.
Can I delete my account?+
Yes. You can delete your account from settings or by emailing privacy@borobeacon.com. We permanently delete all personal data within 30 days. Aggregated, anonymized usage metrics may be retained.
How do I get help?+
Email support@borobeacon.com. Every customer gets priority email support — there are no tiers. Large portfolios (1,000+ units) can request a dedicated email channel for faster routing.
Do you publish an uptime page?+
We will publish a public status page as soon as we cross 100 customers. Until then we respond to incident reports within 30 minutes during business hours.
Can I self-host BoroBeacon?+
Not currently. The product is hosted only. If you have a strict self-hosting requirement, contact us and we can explore options.
Still not sure?
Real humans answer every email. We respond within one business day.