How to Look Up Building Permits for a House

Official Permit Datasets

• Chicago: City of Chicago Data Portal – Building Permits
• New York City: NYC Open Data – DOB NOW Approved Permits
• Los Angeles: LA Open Data – Building Permits Issued
• Austin: Austin Open Data – Issued Construction Permits
• Seattle: Seattle Open Data – Building Permits
• Orlando: Orlando Open Data – Permit Applications
• Philadelphia: OpenDataPhilly – L&I Building Permits

Searching by Address

Search the street number and name only, because cities format addresses differently (for example "W" versus "West"). Look at the issue date, the work description and the status. A final or completed status means inspections were closed out. How to Read a Building Permit Record explains each field.

Recent Permits on This Site

Each city page on this site lists the most recent permits for common projects. Start at Building Permits by City.

Step-by-Step: Looking Up a Permit History

1. Open the city's dataset or permit portal from the list above.
2. Filter by address. Use the street number and a distinctive part of the street name.
3. Sort by issue date so recent work appears first.
4. Read each record: type, description, status and dates. How to Read a Building Permit Record explains the fields.
5. Compare with the house. A new roof, HVAC system, deck or finished basement with no matching record is worth asking about.

Open Data Versus Permit Portals

Cities usually have two sources. Open data portals publish issued permits in bulk, which is ideal for searching by address and seeing history at a glance. Permit portals (where contractors apply) often show more detail such as inspections and documents, but may require you to know the permit number. If an open-data record is missing details, search the portal with the permit number from the dataset.

What to Look for Before Buying

• Big-ticket systems: roof, HVAC, water heater, electrical service.
• Additions and conversions: finished basements, garage conversions, ADUs.
• Open or expired permits: these may need to be closed before or after sale; see How Long Is a Building Permit Good For? Permit Expiration Rules.
• Legalization permits: descriptions such as "legalize unpermitted work" show past problems that were fixed.

If you find gaps, read Selling a House with Unpermitted Work: Risks and Options for how buyers and sellers usually handle them.

Checking a Contractor's Permit Record

Some datasets include the contractor's name or license number. Searching for a contractor shows how many permits they pull and for what work, which is a useful check alongside license verification. A roofer who claims years of local experience but has no permits in a city that requires them is worth questioning. See Hiring a Licensed Contractor: Permit Rules That Depend on Licensing.

Privacy and Public Records

Permits are public records, but cities differ in what they publish. On our city pages we show addresses and work descriptions as published by the city and remove owner names and phone numbers.

When the Record Does Not Match the House

Gaps between the house and its permit record are common and not always a problem. Some work is exempt (see Work That Does Not Need a Building Permit: IRC R105.2 Exemptions), some older permits were never digitized, and descriptions are sometimes vague. But a gap is a reason to ask questions:

1. Ask the owner or seller when the work was done and by whom, and whether they have the permit or invoices.
2. Search again with variations of the address, such as unit numbers, directional prefixes or a corner-lot cross street.
3. Check the permit portal as well as open data; inspections and documents may be there.
4. Call the building department to ask about archived records.

If the work truly has no permit, the options are covered in What Happens If You Build Without a Permit?.

Using Permit Data to Research a Neighborhood

Permit counts can also show how active a neighborhood is. Our city pages list the areas with the most permits for each project over the last 12 months, using the city's own data.

Building Departments in the Cities We Cover

Rules in this guide vary by jurisdiction. These are the official departments that issue residential permits in the ten cities we track, with the city's open-data source for permit records. Each city page shows the rules for roofing, HVAC, solar, fence and deck work.

Before relying on any rule, read the department's current page or call its permit desk. Model-code sections cited here (such as IRC R105) are adopted locally, often with amendments.

Frequently Asked Questions