Which addresses this covers
The City of Charleston Department of Permitting & Inspections issues permits inside the city only: the Peninsula, West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Daniel Island and Cainhoy parts of the city. North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Summerville and unincorporated Charleston County run their own permit offices, so a Charleston mailing address is not enough to know which office has the record.
| Tool | Search by | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Self Service | Address, TMS parcel number | Each case with fees, reviews, inspections, attachments, contacts and sub-records; results export to CSV |
| Permit Viewer Map | Map location | "An interactive map with permits" |
| Permits All Issued layer | Any field: address, permit number, parcel | Permit type, work class, status, issue and finaled dates, valuation; our source |
The city's guide does not describe a search by permit number or contractor in CSS, and the public GIS layer has no contractor field.
How to look up the permits on a Charleston address
- Confirm the property is inside City of Charleston limits; if not, the city has no record of it.
- Open Customer Self Service and choose Search Public Records.
- Search the street address, or the TMS number with a C (Charleston County) or B (Berkeley County) prefix.
- Filter the results to Permits and click each case number.
- Read the status, then the Inspections tab: a passed final inspection is the line that matters.
- Ask the contractor for their South Carolina licence number and check it at the SC LLR license lookup.
What the statuses mean
| Status in the city's file | What it means | Finished in our data? |
|---|---|---|
| Completed | The city closed the permit | Yes |
| Issued | Permit issued; work may be under way or already passed final | Yes if a final date or passed final is recorded, otherwise open |
| Expired | Lapsed before completion | No |
| Void (By City) | Cancelled by the city | Not counted |
| Applied | Not yet issued | Not counted |
Many Charleston permits stay marked Issued after the work passed its final inspection, so read the inspections, not just the status. Of permits issued October 2024 to September 2025, 55% had finished by our count.
When the record you want is not online
Use a South Carolina Freedom of Information Act request. The city's FOIA page lists "building permits" among the records it covers. The city sends a formal acknowledgement within 10 business days for records under two years old, or 20 days for older ones, and makes the records available within 30 calendar days of that (35 for records over two years old). Black-and-white copies are $0.10 a page, and staff search time is charged at the hourly salary of the lowest-paid employee able to do it (read 24 October 2026).
What our Charleston pages add
Our Charleston page counts the city's issued-permit file by kind of work, October 2024 to September 2026. Days to final are for permits issued October 2024 to September 2025 that reached a final.
| Kind of work | Permits (Oct 2024–Sep 2026) | Last 12 months (Oct 2025–Sep 2026) | Usual days to final (Oct 2024–Sep 2025 permits) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remodels and repairs | 2,722 | 1,397 | 212 |
| New homes | 1,142 | 634 | 208 |
| Additions | 591 | 308 | 256 |
| Demolition | 479 | 241 | – |
| Garages, sheds and shade structures | 391 | 186 | – |
| Roofing | 260 | 162 | – |
67% of the 7,775 permits were for homes. The permit statistics page has counts by year and month, how long permits take has the middle-half ranges, and browse permits lists the rows. Whether your job needs a permit at all is in Do I need a permit?
What this does not tell you
The city's public layer names no contractor, so we cannot say who did the work or rank firms. It holds building permits only: the city's separate electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are not published, so our trade counts are far below the real number of trade jobs. The valuation is the figure on the application, which sets the fee, not the final cost.
How we know this
The search steps are from the City of Charleston's CSS public records guide and Permit Viewer Map page, and the FOIA terms from its FOIA page, all read 24 October 2026. Our counts are the city's Permits All Issued layer, read 19 October 2026: building permits issued October 2024 to September 2026, City of Charleston only.
Numbers come from public permit records in 57 cities, data through October 19, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- How do I find out if a permit was pulled on my house in Charleston, SC?
If the house is inside City of Charleston limits, open the city's Customer Self Service portal, choose the Search Public Records tile and search the street address or the TMS parcel number. Filter the results to Permits and open each case number.
- How do I search Charleston permits by TMS number?
Type the TMS number with a prefix: C for a Charleston County parcel or B for a Berkeley County parcel, as the city's CSS guide explains. Parts of Daniel Island and Cainhoy are in Berkeley County.
- My address says Charleston but the city has no permits for it. Why?
North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Summerville and unincorporated Charleston County run their own permit offices. Many homes with a Charleston mailing address are in one of those, so their permits are not in the City of Charleston's system.
- How do I get an old Charleston building permit or plans?
File a South Carolina FOIA request with the City; its FOIA page lists building permits among the records it covers. The City acknowledges within 10 business days for records under two years old and 20 for older ones, and copies are $0.10 a page.
- How long does a Charleston permit take to reach final?
For permits issued October 2024 to September 2025 that reached a final, the usual permit took 202 days from issue to the city's final inspection: 208 days for a new home, 212 for a remodel and 256 for an addition.
Build your own list
Pick your city and the kind of work. Every firm with a permit on record, sorted by what you value.
Related guides
- Adams County, CO building permit search: the e-Permit Center, statuses and CORA
- Alachua County building permit search: Citizenserve, statuses and old records
- Anaheim building permit search: Anaheim NEXT and the Building Permit Report
- Arlington, VA building permit search: Permit Arlington lookups and FOIA requests
- Deschutes County building permit search: ePermitting, DIAL and old permit files
- Detroit building permit search: BSEED's Accela site and the open permit files
- Permit Viewer Map — City of Charleston (2026-10-24)
- Customer Self Service (CSS) public records search guide — City of Charleston (2026-10-24)
- Customer Self Service portal — City of Charleston (2026-10-24)
- Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) — City of Charleston (2026-10-24)
- Permits All Issued (Dashboard View), layer 1134 — City of Charleston GIS (2026-10-19)