Did my contractor pull a permit? How to check in 46 cities

What a permit record shows

A permit is the city's permission to do a specific piece of work at a specific address. The record that goes with it usually shows:

• The address and the kind of work. "Replace furnace", "re-roof", "kitchen remodel", "200-amp service upgrade".
• Who pulled it. The contractor's business name, and in many cities the license number. If the permit is in the homeowner's name instead, that is worth noticing (see the questions at the end).
• The dates. When it was applied for, when it was issued, and when it expired or was finalled.
• A job value. The contractor's declared value of the work. It is not a quote and not the invoice, but it is what the city was told.
• The inspections. Each visit, what it covered, and whether it passed. The last one is the "final". A permit with a final is a job the city has signed off on. A permit without one is still open.

Why it matters

Safety and code. The inspection is the only time a person who does not work for the contractor looks at the wiring, the gas line or the framing before it is covered up.

Selling the house. Cities say it plainly. Sioux Falls' building department warns that when you sell a property with unpermitted changes "you may be subject to costly repairs" and that "many financial institutions will not finance a purchase without proof of a final inspection" (City of Sioux Falls, accessed Oct 2026). Madera, California says unpermitted work "may affect property value, insurance coverage, and future sale transactions" and that "city records are publicly accessible and may reveal unpermitted construction" (City of Madera, accessed Oct 2026).

Insurance. The same Sioux Falls page: "Property insurers may not cover work or damages caused by work done without permits and inspections."

How to check in three steps

1. Search by your address on the city's site. Every city in the table below has a public search. Type the street address (keep it simple: house number and street name, no suffixes) and you get every permit ever filed there, with status and dates. Look for one that matches your job and was issued around the time the work started. A few cities need a free account to see the details; the table says which.

2. Read the status. "Issued" means they can start. "Final", "Closed", "Completed" or "CO issued" means an inspector signed it off. "Expired" or "Void" means it lapsed without a final, which is a job the city never finished checking. Open the permit and look at the inspection list. Failed inspections are normal if they were re-inspected and passed; a last inspection that failed and nothing after it is not.

3. Check the contractor, not just the address. Search the contractor's business name on our site. Every firm page lists every permit we have for that company in that city, how many reached a final, the usual job value and whether the license matches. For scale: among Seattle heating firms with 10 or more permits, 13 of 119 finished under 70%, and the 90th-percentile firm finished 97.2%. A firm with a high finished share and one missing permit is more likely a paperwork gap than one well below its city's spread. Start at the city's A to Z list of firms (last column below).

Pick your city and see every firm on record →

The permit search for all 46 cities

The middle column is the official search, run by the city or county that issued the permits. That is the record of truth; ours is a copy. The last column is our list of every firm with a permit on record in that city.

Cities change their software every few years. If a link above lands somewhere odd, the city's building or permits page will have the new one, and tell us so we can fix it.

If there is no permit

Rule out three ordinary explanations first: the work is on your city's list of permit exemptions (on its permits page; painting and flooring usually are), the permit was filed under a parent company's or a subcontractor's name (the electrician rather than the general contractor), or it was filed after your search. Then:

1. Ask the contractor for the permit number ("What's the permit number, so I can look it up?"). If the answer is that the job did not need one, write that down and check it with step 2.
2. Call the permit office. The counter staff can search by address and by contractor name and will tell you whether the job needs a permit. Albuquerque's building division, for example, tells homeowners to call if they cannot find a permit posted at the property (City of Albuquerque, Building Safety FAQs).
3. If the work needs a permit and there is none, ask the contractor to pull it before you pay the next draw. A permit can be pulled after the work starts; the inspector may need walls that are already closed opened up, so settle in writing who pays for that.
4. If the work is done and unpermitted, you can usually apply to legalise it. Madera, like many cities, lets owners "apply for permits to legalize existing work", but the work must meet current code "regardless of when it was performed" and penalties run up to four times the standard permit fee (City of Madera).

This page is a guide to public records, not legal advice. If money or a dispute is involved, the permit office can tell you what is on file and a lawyer licensed in your state can tell you what to do about it.