Where to look for Missoula permits
The City of Missoula's Community Planning, Development & Innovation (CPDI) department permits work inside the city's building jurisdiction. Lolo, Frenchtown, Bonner, Seeley Lake and the rest of Missoula County permit through Missoula County.
| Tool | Search by | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Citizen Portal building search | Permit number, permit type, street number and name, parcel number (geocode), date range | Each permit, its Processing Status and inspections |
| AddressesWithPermits_mso (City ArcGIS) | Any field | Each Accela record's type, status and address; our source |
| CPDI front desk, (406) 552-6630 | Address, permit number | Answers on a specific permit |
| Permit coordinators, (406) 552-6060, coordinators@ci.missoula.mt.us | Address, permit number | Help with the portal, 9am to 4pm |
How to look up the permits on a Missoula address
- Open the Citizen Portal and choose Search Permits under Building.
- Enter the street number and street name, or the permit number from your paperwork. Missoula numbers look like 2025-MSS-ELC-00650 (electrical) or 2026-MSS-RFG-00720 (re-roof).
- Select the record number in the results to open it.
- Choose Record Info, then Processing Status. Complete steps show a green checkbox and pending steps the hour glass icon, the City says.
- Check that the record's status reached Final or one of the other finished values below. If you cannot find it, call (406) 552-6630.
What the statuses mean
| Status in the City data | What it means | How we count it |
|---|---|---|
| Final, Inspections Complete | Final inspection passed | Finished |
| Certificate of Occupancy | Certificate issued for the building | Finished |
| Closed | Closed out by the City | Finished |
| Expired | Lapsed without a final | Expired |
| Issued and other active statuses | Issued, not yet final | Open |
Of the permits applied for October 2024 to September 2025, 83.5% had finished, 4.9% were still open and 11.5% had expired by our 19 October 2026 snapshot. An expired permit on a job you are buying or paying for is worth a call to CPDI: it means no final inspection was recorded.
What our Missoula pages add
Our Missoula page counts the City's permits, October 2024 to September 2026 (dated by application):
| Kind of work | Permits (Oct 2024–Sep 2026) | Share | Change, 2nd year vs 1st |
|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC | 2,420 | 23% | −6% |
| Electrical | 2,044 | 20% | −7% |
| Plumbing | 1,871 | 18% | −17% |
| Roofing | 1,857 | 18% | −28% |
| Solar | 815 | 8% | −27% |
| Fences and walls | 255 | 2% | +32% |
| New homes | 233 | 2% | −14% |
| Remodels and repairs | 206 | 2% | +2% |
| Demolition | 131 | 1% | +26% |
Re-roofing surged after a 2024 storm and solar peaked in autumn 2025 before the federal residential solar credit ended that December, which is why both fell in the second year. ZIP 59801 had the most permits, 3,972 (38%); see Missoula permits by ZIP code. The permit statistics page has year and month counts, and browse permits lists the rows. To check a contractor's state registration, use the Montana Department of Labor & Industry's Construction Contractor Registration.
What this does not tell you
The City's layer names no contractor and has no job value, so we have no firm lists or costs for Missoula. Permits are dated by application, so we show no time from issue to final, and long-review work such as new homes is undercounted in the last few months until it is issued.
How we know this
The search steps and Processing Status instructions are quoted from the City of Missoula's Permit Processes and Policies page, the anonymous-access wording and contacts from the Citizen Portal home page, and the search fields from its building search page, all read 24 October 2026. Our counts are the City's AddressesWithPermits_mso layer, read 19 October 2026: permits applied for October 2024 to September 2026.
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 Missoula?
Open the City's Citizen Portal (aca-prod.accela.com/MISSOULA), choose Search Permits under Building and search the street address. No account is needed to view records; the City says you can view information as an anonymous user.
- How do I check the status of a Missoula permit?
Open the record in the Citizen Portal, choose the Record Info drop-down, then Processing Status. The City says complete steps show a green checkbox and pending steps show the hour glass icon.
- What does Expired mean on a Missoula permit?
The permit lapsed without a final inspection. Of permits applied for October 2024 to September 2025, 11.5% had expired, 83.5% had finished and 4.9% were still open by our 19 October 2026 snapshot.
- How many building permits does Missoula issue?
About 5,159 a year: 10,318 permits applied for October 2024 to September 2026 and issued. HVAC led with 2,420, then electrical with 2,044.
- Does the City of Missoula permit Lolo or Frenchtown?
No. Lolo, Frenchtown, Bonner, Seeley Lake and the rest of Missoula County outside the city's building jurisdiction permit through Missoula County.
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
- Riverside County building permit search: RivCoPlus, statuses and records
- Rochester, MN building permit search: Citizen Access, permit reports and old records