How to Find Out If a Permit Was Pulled

Three different people ask this question. A buyer wants to know whether the finished basement was permitted before closing. An owner wants to know whether the contractor who took a deposit “for the permit” ever filed one. And a neighbor wants to know whether the crew next door is working legally. The search is the same for all three, because permit records are public in every jurisdiction we cover.

Search the record yourself

79 of the 137 jurisdictions we cover publish a public permit record search that we have opened and verified, and each one has its own page on this site with the direct link, what the search accepts, and whether you need an account. 37 of those searches take a street address on its own, which is the search a buyer or a neighbor can actually run. 21 accept a parcel or folio number, which is on the property tax bill. 15 search by owner or contractor name. 33 we have confirmed need no login at all; most of the rest never say, and only one requires an account for read access.

The record you are looking for has a permit number, a type, an issue date, a status and, in most systems, a list of inspections with a result against each. Status is the field that answers the question. “Issued” means the permit was pulled. “Finaled” or “closed” with a passed final inspection means the work was signed off. “Expired” means it was pulled and never finished, which is a different problem from no permit and a much easier one to fix, because the office already has the plans.

The one thing an online search cannot tell you is that nothing was ever filed. Records can sit under the previous owner’s name, a slightly different address form, or a parent parcel. Before concluding the deck is unpermitted, search by every field the system offers, then call.

Call the office

134 of the 137 jurisdictions we cover publish a permit office phone number, and it is on every locality page here beside the address and hours. Permit clerks pull records by address all day; it is the most routine call they take. Ask for “permit history at this address”, and if the answer is nothing, ask whether there is a separate zoning, electrical or plumbing system, because in a number of jurisdictions the trades are permitted by a different office or a state agency, and their records do not appear in the building search.

For a purchase, ask for the history in writing. A permit history letter or a printed record is what a lender’s appraiser or a title company will accept; a clerk’s verbal answer is not.

When the record is missing

A missing permit is not proof the work was illegal. The work may have been below the jurisdiction’s threshold, and those thresholds are not small: sheds up to 600 square feet, decks under 30 inches, fences to 7 feet, and roof replacements under a cost or area cap, all vary by jurisdiction and are stated on each locality’s pages. The state exemption pages list what each jurisdiction we cover does not make you permit.

If the work needed a permit and has none, the situation is covered on the state penalty page: the statute, whether an after-the-fact permit exists, and what local offices charge for work started first. Sellers and buyers each have a guide here, selling with unpermitted work and buying with unpermitted work.

How to report work with no permit

Report it to the building department for the jurisdiction the property sits in, which is the office on the locality page, not the state. Most permit portals have a code enforcement or complaint entry; where there is none, the phone number works. Give the address and what you saw. You do not have to prove there is no permit; the office checks its own records.

What happens next is set by the code. Under Virginia’s statewide code, which is the model most states adopt, the building official who finds work under way without a permit can issue a written stop work order that must name the work and state the conditions for resuming it, and then a notice of violation under Section 115. The stop work order guide covers what the owner then has to do. Whether a complaint is anonymous is a local rule, not a code rule; ask the office before you assume it is.

Find your jurisdiction

Every locality page carries the office, the phone, the portal and, where we have verified one, the direct record search. Start from the jurisdiction index.