Buffalo, NY building permit search: the open data permit file, ePermits and FOIL

Which office has your permit

The City of Buffalo permits property inside city limits. Amherst, Cheektowaga, Tonawanda and the rest of Erie County's towns and villages run their own permit offices.

How to look up the permits on a Buffalo address

1. Open the Permits dataset and choose to view or filter the data.
2. Filter Address for your house number and street name, written the way the file writes it: the number and street name in capitals with no suffix, such as 2626 MAIN.
3. Sort by Issued. Read Permit Type and Description of Work: roofing, siding and porch work is usually a REPAIR permit, and electrical, plumbing and heating work each get their own permit.
4. Note the Contractor License Number and look it up in the Licensed Contractors list to see the business name and licence status.
5. For inspections on a permit, call the Permits division at (716) 851-4290. The counter at 65 Niagara Square, Room 301, is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment (Permits & Inspections, read 24 October 2026).

What the statuses mean here

The Permits file has no status column and no final inspection date. The only date after issue is the Expiration Date, filled on about 98% of permits since 2018. A permit past its expiration date is not proof that the work failed or was never inspected; only the City's inspection record says that, so ask the Permits division.

When the record is not online

Records the open data file doesn't hold, such as plans or inspection reports, go through a Freedom of Information Law request. The City's Permit & Inspection Services page links FOIL Requests to its online request site, buffalony.nextrequest.com (Permits page, read 24 October 2026). Name the address, the permit numbers from the open data file and the years.

What our Buffalo pages add

Our Buffalo page counts the City's permits from October 2024 to September 2026:

Roofing permits fell 15% between the two years of the window (October 2024–September 2025 against October 2025–September 2026), and solar permits doubled from 76 to 154. ZIP 14215 had the most permits, 2,987. Each kind-of-work page lists the firms named on the most permits, which is volume, not quality. The permit statistics page has year, month and ZIP counts, and browse permits lists the rows. To check a licence in New York, see How to check a contractor's license in New York.

What this does not tell you

With no status or final date we show no finished share or time to final. We name a firm only where the permit's contractor licence number is on the City's licensed contractors list, and we have not checked those licences or the work, so we don't rate or rank firms. The value is the value of work written on the permit, not the final cost, and one house job can count several times, once per trade permit.