To check a house’s permit history, search your local building or planning department’s online permit portal by the property address or parcel number. Most cities and counties post this information for free, and the record will show every permit filed for the property, its current status, the inspections tied to it, and the contractor on file. The lookup itself takes minutes. Reading the results well is where the value is.
Start With the Building Department’s Online Portal
Your city or county building department is the primary source. Most jurisdictions maintain an online portal where you can search by street address or by the Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN). Some combine permits with zoning data and code enforcement history in a broader property information system.
Pull up the property and look at what comes back. You should see permit applications, issue dates, work descriptions, fees, contractor information, and inspection results. Save or print the list so you can compare it against what you see at the house.
One caveat: the depth of online records varies. Larger cities often have decades of digitized permits. Smaller towns may only show records back to whenever they went electronic. If a home built in 1985 shows nothing online, that isn’t proof no permits were ever pulled. The older paper files may simply not be scanned.
When the Online Record Is Thin or Missing
Go in person. The building department usually sits inside city hall or the county administrative building. Bring the property address and the parcel number if you have it. Staff can pull physical files that sometimes contain the original applications, plan sets, and inspection cards that never made it into the digital system.
If counter service isn’t available or the department is slow to respond, file a public records request under your state’s public records law. These requests are typically free or carry only a small copying fee, and the agency has to respond within a set number of days based on state law. It’s slower than a counter visit but creates a paper trail.
What Each Permit Record Shows
Every permit tells a small story. Expect to see a unique permit number, the application date, and the issue date. The work description ranges from specific (“remove bearing wall between kitchen and dining room, install LVL beam”) to vague (“general remodel”). The licensed contractor’s name and license number are usually listed, or a note that the homeowner pulled the permit themselves.
Fees appear too, and they correlate loosely with project scope. More useful are the inspection entries attached to each permit. Those show which inspections were requested, whether they passed or failed, and any notes the inspector left. Failed inspections followed by eventual passes means the job hit bumps but was signed off. A permit with no final inspection on record is a different animal.
How to Read the Permit Status
The status field is what tells you where things actually stand. Five terms cover most jurisdictions:
- Issued: The application was approved and the holder was authorized to begin work. It doesn’t confirm that work started.
- Open or Active: Work is supposedly in progress. The permit was issued, but no final inspection has been signed off. This is the status that causes the most trouble during home sales.
- Closed or Finaled: All required inspections passed and the department confirmed the work meets code. This is what you want on every permit.
- Expired: The holder didn’t complete the work or request final inspection in the allowed time. Most jurisdictions allow between six and twelve months before expiration, with extensions often available. Expired permits are a red flag.
- Voided or Cancelled: The permit was withdrawn before work began or invalidated for noncompliance. Usually the least concerning, since the project often stopped at planning.
Pay closest attention to open and expired permits. Both mean work may have happened without a final inspection, so no one from the building department has confirmed it’s safe and to code.
Spot the Permits That Should Be There and Aren’t
The permit history is only half the picture. The other half is comparing it to what you can see. The International Building Code, which most jurisdictions adopt with local modifications, requires a permit for any work that constructs, enlarges, alters, or demolishes a structure, or installs or modifies electrical, gas, mechanical, or plumbing systems.
Work that generally requires a permit:
- Structural changes: removing or adding walls, room additions, decks and porches, garage conversions
- Electrical work: new circuits, panel upgrades, generator installation
- Plumbing: adding or relocating fixtures, water heater replacement, drain line changes
- HVAC: furnace replacement, central air installation, new ductwork
- Roofing: a full reroof (not minor patching)
- Major exterior work: new siding, windows or doors that involve structural changes, solar panels, swimming pools
Work that typically doesn’t need a permit includes painting, flooring, cabinet and countertop replacement, minor cosmetic repairs, swapping a window or door in an existing opening without structural changes, and small detached storage sheds (commonly under 120 to 200 square feet, depending on the jurisdiction). Fences under a certain height, often six or seven feet, are also exempt in most areas.
Walk the house with the permit list in hand. If there’s a finished basement, a sunroom, a converted garage, or a detached structure being used as living space, there should be a corresponding permit closed out. If not, you have a question to ask.
Why the Answers Matter
An unpermitted addition or an open permit isn’t just paperwork. The downstream consequences are real.
Safety
Permits and inspections exist to make sure construction meets safety standards. Unpermitted electrical work is a leading cause of house fires. Unpermitted structural changes can compromise the building. The work might be fine, but without inspections, you’re relying on the previous owner’s word.
Insurance
If damage traces back to unpermitted work, an electrical fire in an unpermitted addition or a burst pipe from unpermitted plumbing, insurers may deny the claim because the work wasn’t inspected or to code. Some insurers won’t write a policy at all if underwriting turns up significant unpermitted modifications.
Fines
Local building departments can levy civil penalties for work done without a permit. The formula varies, but a common approach is a multiple of the permit fee that should have been paid: some cities double or triple it, others go higher. The penalty applies whether you did the work or inherited it, though some jurisdictions offer relief for buyers who can show they bought without knowledge of the violation.
Value and Financing
Unpermitted additions almost always drag down a sale price. Appraisers may be instructed by the lender to exclude unpermitted square footage from the valuation, which can push the appraisal below the asking price and sink the financing. Some lenders won’t fund a loan at all when significant unpermitted work is present, particularly on government-backed loans where lender overlays run stricter than the agency’s minimum guidelines.
Open Permits During a Sale
Open permits are one of the most common surprises that stall real estate closings. A municipal lien search often turns them up, and when a buyer’s lender or title company flags one, the seller usually has to resolve it before closing. That can mean hiring a contractor to finish the work and get it inspected, paying to close out an old permit, or negotiating a credit.
Not every title company checks for open permits as part of its standard search. Some do, some don’t. If you’re buying, ask directly whether the title company’s search covers permits, and consider ordering a separate municipal lien search if it doesn’t. The cost is modest compared with the problem it prevents.
What to Do About What You Find
If the record is clean and every permit reads closed or finaled, you’re in good shape. If it isn’t, you have options.
For open or expired permits on finished work, closing them out is often just a matter of scheduling the final inspection. If the work has issues, better to know now.
For unpermitted work, the path forward is a retroactive permit, sometimes called an after-the-fact or legalization permit. The steps generally look like this:
- Contact the building department. Many jurisdictions offer a preliminary or courtesy inspection where an inspector reviews the work and tells you what’s needed to bring it into compliance.
- Prepare plans showing the work as it exists and any modifications needed to meet code.
- Apply for the retroactive permit and pay the fee, which typically runs two to three times the normal cost. Some jurisdictions add a flat penalty.
- Open walls, flooring, or exterior cladding as needed so inspectors can verify hidden electrical, plumbing, structural, and insulation work.
- Correct any code violations the inspection surfaces before the permit can be finalized.
Cost depends entirely on the quality of what’s behind the drywall. Solid, code-compliant work means the permit fee plus the cost of opening and repairing walls. Substandard work can mean significant reconstruction. A licensed contractor’s estimate before you commit is worth the consultation fee.
Using the Permit History When Buying
Do this early in your due diligence, ideally before or alongside the home inspection. Pull the permit history, walk the property against it, and share the list with your home inspector. A good inspector can flag work that looks unpermitted based on quality, materials, and how well it matches the original construction, and can check whether permitted work appears to have been completed correctly.
Use what you find. Unpermitted work is a legitimate basis for a price reduction, a seller-obtained retroactive permit before closing, or a repair credit. For something serious, like a structurally suspect unpermitted addition, it may be reason enough to walk. Whatever your inspection contingency allows, spend it getting answers to permit questions before you’re contractually locked in. If you’re planning to legalize the work yourself, get contractor estimates before finalizing the offer so those costs are baked into what you’re willing to pay.