Documents and filing

How to find, generate, upload, sign, share and correct documents, and how a project's required paperwork is tracked and packaged for HPD. It is written for back-office and compliance staff. The documents come from decisions made in running a project; which form each HPD order needs is in the HPD rulebook.

A document is one PDF plus a record of what it is (its type, such as an inspection report or a lab result), what it is filed under (its level: a project, a building, a unit, a client, the company, or a person), how far along it is (its status), and whether the client can see it.

Before you start

• Permissions. Reading documents needs the view-documents permission (or a view key for the area: financials for proposals and invoices, licenses for license files, field jobs for reports on your own jobs). Uploading, generating, signing, sharing and voiding need the manage-documents permission. Proposals and invoices are written from Money and Work.
• Record a decision for each HPD order on the project's Decide stage. The checklist and the HPD response documents appear only for decided orders.
• Assign a client to the building. A document can be shared with a client only if it has an owning client, which comes from the building's client (or the client it is filed under).
• Keep licenses current. The EPA certification slots on a project's checklist are filled from the license files under Settings → Licenses, not uploaded per project (team and roles).

The Documents page (/documents)

The page lists every document you may read, across all levels. It shows the newest, unvoided version of each. It has no sidebar entry: open it from search (Ctrl+K / ⌘K).

• Tabs: All, Needs action (with its count), Building papers, Unit papers, Project papers (the documents filed at that level), Company (company-level and person-level documents) and Platform library. On a phone the tabs are a dropdown.
• Search by title, type, address, client or person, and pick a Building (search by address) or a Client on the toolbar. With a building picked, the page says how many documents are filed there and links to the building.
• More filters: Level (Platform (internal), From the platform, Platform library, Company, Client, Building, Unit, Project, Person), Category (Regulatory filing, Report, Affidavit / certification, Lab result, Financial, Credential, Correspondence, Reference, Other), Type, Status (Draft, Issued, Signed, Notarized, Filed, Voided), Shared, Uploaded by, and include old versions and voided. A saved view keeps a filter set.
• Groups: unless a building is picked (and except on Company and Platform library), each page of results is grouped by client, then building. A folded group shows how many of its documents need action and how many are at each status; big groups start folded and the page remembers what you fold, in this browser.
• Links: /documents?building=<id>, ?client=<id>, ?project=<id> and ?tab= (for example ?tab=unit) open the page that way, and the address follows what is on screen. A project shows as a Project at … chip with Open project beside it; clear the chip to see every project. Changing the building, client, project or tab adds a step to the browser's history, so Back returns to the previous view. A new search starts from the first page. ?doc=<id> flashes that document's row.
• Bulk actions: tick rows, then Share with client or Stop sharing. Documents that cannot be shared (no owning client, voided, a proposal or invoice, or company-level) are skipped, and the count says how many.

Needs action lists current documents that are waiting on a person: a draft waiting for its signature, a signed document waiting for its notary, or a final report, filing, affidavit or lab result that has not been shared with its client yet.

Click a row to open the document drawer. It shows the status, an Open PDF button, and:

Section	What it does
Share with client / Stop sharing	Makes the document visible to, or hides it from, the portal
Sign	For types that need a signature, record the signer's name
Notarize	For types that need a notary, once signed, record the notary's name
Details	Filed under, client, category, what it needs, the file name, size and dates
Versions	Every version, each with Open
Orders covered	Which HPD orders this document answers (project documents only)
Activity	When it was filed, signed, notarized, shared or voided
Replace or void	Upload a new version, or Void with a reason

Upload a document

Upload document (on the Documents page, and on a project's Documents & filing tab) opens a dialog:

1. Filed under: choose the level, then search for what it belongs to (a project, building, client, unit or person).
2. Document type: only the types that level allows and that you may write are offered.
3. Optionally a title (shown instead of the type name) and the orders it covers.
4. Choose the PDF file and upload. A document that needs a signature starts as a Draft; one that does not (a report, a lab result) starts as Issued.

Status

Status	Meaning
Draft	Waiting for a signature (HPD forms, affidavits, proposals)
Issued	Final and waiting for nobody: reports, lab results, invoices
Signed	The signer's name and time are recorded
Notarized	The notary's name and time are recorded

A Filed status also exists in the catalog; the app has no action that sets it. From Issued onward a document is a record: you cannot edit it, only void it or replace it with a new version.

Share with the client

Sharing is per document, and only people with the manage-documents permission can do it. Use Share with client in the drawer or the bulk action. A client sees a document in the portal only when all of these hold:

• it is shared with that client;
• it is past Draft;
• it is not voided;
• it is not a proposal or an invoice. The one exception is an invoice you have marked sent, which the client sees through the portal's Invoices page.

The client is fixed at the moment you share: it is the building's client then. If the building later moves to another client, the old client keeps what was shared with them, and the new client sees nothing until you share again.

Correct a document

• New version. In the drawer, Upload a new version. The old version stays in the record as an old version, the orders it covered move to the new one, and the new one is shared if the old one was. A superseded version that was shared can still be opened by the client from its old link; Stop sharing it if it must go.
• Void. Void…, then give the reason. A voided document stays in the list (with include old versions and voided), fills no checklist slot and disappears from the portal. A void cannot be undone.
• Delete. A document is never deleted; only an upload that failed is removed.
• A license file's version is replaced from Settings → Licenses, not from the Documents page.

A project's Documents & filing tab

The Documents & filing tab of a project (/projects/:id?tab=documents) is one Documents panel: the compliance checklist, where documents are made and slotted, then Other files, the project's documents no checklist row shows. Add document, on the panel's heading, uploads anything else the project needs (a custom document opens as "Other document" with a title of your choosing; any other type is one pick away). Open in Documents, beside it, opens the Documents page on this project's documents alone (/documents?project=<id>). Licence files are company documents, so they are not in that list.

A checklist row's name opens its document's drawer (versions, linked violations, sharing), and each order badge opens that violation.

Compliance checklist

The checklist is read off the project's plan, violation by violation, so an open 616 and an overdue 616 are never mixed. It is grouped by track, one per kind of field work (say "Abate + dust-wipe clearance"); the heading names its orders, the earliest due date and whether any is overdue.

• Shared for this track lists, once, what one document covers for the whole track: the XRF report, and the EPA licence rows.
• Then one box per HPD form, listing exactly the violations filed on it, each with its order, its due date ("Was due" once overdue) and Postponed when HPD granted more time; violations with the same order, due date and standing show once with a count ("617 ×4"). Its rows are the documents those violations need, starting with The form itself. A row is Filled only when its document covers every violation in the box; otherwise it says Not all covered (and which orders still need it), Which violation? (an older document linked to the order only, when the project has two violations with that order) or Form changed (a form made before the violation's situation changed, say a CERT-H before it went overdue: make the new one). The dust-wipe lab results and the sampler, XRF and paint-chip affidavits are one row per box: HPD's affidavits name the premises, apartment and date, not violation numbers, and one lab report covers all of a clearance's samples. Only the paint-chip lab results, which describe each violation's own room and component, have one row per violation in the box.
• Needs a decision lists the track's violations with no decision yet, with Go to Decide. A saved decision that is no longer allowed (a cure on a violation that has since gone overdue) says No longer allowed. Decide again.
• Below the tracks, With HPD or closed lists violations already certified and awaiting HPD, or closed: nothing more is asked of them.

Each row carries its own action:

• Generate is on the box's form row (the certification, contestation, AF-5, dismissal request or postponement the decision calls for), and on the form filed beside it (the DR beside an AF-5). It builds one document covering exactly the box's violations, and the document is added as a draft to sign. It names the apartment exactly as HPD wrote it on those orders (APT1C, say), not the app's standard "Apt 1C", so the filing matches the city's record. The certifications, CERT-H (616/617/624) and CERT-T (621/622/623/625), are HPD's own forms, just the agency copy (CERT-H page 1, CERT-T pages 1–2), with the address, every violation number, the certifier and the client's phone and email filled in from the records; whatever the records don't know, and the signature and notary block, are completed by hand. The certifier is the managing agent on the building's latest HPD registration, else a corporate officer, else the owner; cross it out if someone else signs. The contestation (CONTEST) is one HPD L-06 form per contested order (616, 621, 622, 623, 624, 625), each with only that order's violation numbers and its decided ground marked; where the form splits a ground further than the decision does (621/623 XRF: 4a or 4b; 625: b.1 or b.2), that sub-box is ticked by hand. The Affidavit of Compliance (AF5) is one AF-5 for the project's apartment, since HPD's AF-5 covers a single apartment. The dismissal request (DR, for an overdue 616/617/624 only) is HPD's DR-1 (Rev. June 2026) with the building, its registration number, the listed violations and the requestor (managing agent, else owner) filled in, left editable; on an overdue 616/617/624 the DR row offers Generate beside the AF-5 it is filed with. It goes to HPD's Central Violations Administration Unit, 345 Adams Street, 10th Floor, Brooklyn. The fee is a separate certified check or money order (DR-1 instructions: $300 for a multiple dwelling with up to 300 open violations, $250 for a one- or two-family home). An overdue turnover order (621, 622, 623, 625) has no dismissal request: it files the same CERT-T as a timely one, with the chosen option's documents, to the Lead-Based Paint Unit, with no fee (HPD's DR-1 instructions; the client confirmed a DR is only for overdue hazards). A Postpone decision generates HPD's 1st postponement request (POST1, form L-01) on the POST1 row, with the violation numbers, building, certifier and contact details filled in. The NOV ID, the reasons for the postponement and the notary block are left to complete: the form keeps HPD's fillable fields, so they can be typed in any PDF reader before printing. Once a POST1 is on file for the order, a POST2 row appears under it with its own Generate: HPD's L-02, for when the first postponement was granted and more time is needed. HPD wants it no later than five days before the correction date the first postponement set. Both requests must be notarized, so a signed copy of either is final once it is uploaded as Notarized. Regenerate appears on the form row when a newer decision was recorded after the document was generated, or when the box's violations changed since. When the form it would replace is already signed, notarized or filed, Generate asks first (Replace it); the old one stays in the project's history. Violations still needing a decision offer no Generate. Records orders (618, 619, 620) generate CERT-RPO, the affidavits from HPD's 618-619-620 packet (all seven for 618 and 620; the annual notice, annual investigation and no-access affidavits for 619), plus for 618 and 620 the XRF compliance affidavit HPD requires for all of them, each with the signer and the building filled in. Several are only for some buildings (no access, no work, no turnover work; the previous-owner affidavit, which says so at its top, only for an owner who bought during the audit period): sign the ones that apply and attach the records each one lists. Overdue, they file the same CERT-RPO: records orders never get a dismissal request, open or overdue. Local Law 31 (626) generates CERT-LL31, the agency copy of HPD's 626 certification, filled like CERT-H, whether the order is current or overdue; its checklist also asks for the inspector's XRF affidavit (XRF-AFF) unless the project's XRF test was on or before Aug 9, 2020 (HPD asks for it only after that date). Every form lists its violation numbers in HPD's own blank: when they don't fit (down to 8 pt), the document holds several copies of the form, each with the same details and the next numbers. CERT-T's blank holds about three, so a long CERT-T runs to several copies.
• A generated form or affidavit is a Draft until its signed copy is in: print it, have it signed (and notarized, for a type that needs it), then Upload signed copy on its row. The scan becomes the document's new version and is final at once (Signed, or Notarized for a notarized type); the row then shows Filled. The same holds for Upload version in the document drawer and for uploading an HPD form or affidavit through Fill slot.
• Fill slot opens a popover:
  • Attach an existing document of that type to the row's violations. Blocked appears, with the reason on hover, when the document's reuse rule does not allow it (some documents may cover several orders, some must be fresh for every filing, some are never reused).
  • Upload a new one, which is linked to those violations in one step.

Affidavit slots (ABAT-AFF, SAMP-AFF) are generated like the HPD forms. Generate (people who manage documents, on the owning firm's own projects, once the job is complete) asks the form's questions, prefilled from the job's records and editable for this affidavit only (Settings, licences and the crew list are not changed). Its Generate button saves HPD's official PDF, with the details typed on and the signature and notary lines blank, as a draft awaiting signature linked to the orders the job covers, and the row shows Filled with Open PDF. When a project has more than one visit of that service, choose which visit the affidavit is for. Print it, have it signed before a notary, and upload the signed scan with Upload signed copy on its row. Regenerate on a filled row reopens the questions and replaces the affidavit as a new version.

EPA certification slots (INSP-EPA, SAMP-EPA, ABAT-EPA) work differently. They show as filled when each person who did the work, and the firm, holds a current license with a file. Their Credential button opens those files; to replace one, upload it under Settings → Licenses. A slot missing a license says which person is missing it.

The checklist ignores voided and superseded documents. If it says a slot is missing but the document is on the project, check that it is current, not voided, linked to those violations, and that its reuse rule allows it.

Nothing in the app assembles a filing package: open each document in the checklist and mail or upload it to HPD yourself.

The XRF, paint-chip and dust-wipe reports link what they save to the orders whose checklist asks for it (the XRF report, among the orders its visit tested), so those rows fill on their own.

Other files

The Documents page's table, locked to this project, listing the current documents that no checklist row shows: custom documents, letters, photos, a second copy. Show every file lists all of them instead, old versions and voided included. Rows open the same drawer.

Under the hood

Documents architecture · Permissions · HPD rulebook