What an open permit means at sale
A permit is open from the day it is issued until an inspector passes the final inspection. If nobody books that final, the permit stays open on the property's record, often for years. Three things can happen when you sell:
| Who looks | What they see | What it can cost you |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer's agent or inspector | The permit on the city's address search, with no final | A repair or closing request in the offer |
| Lender | No proof of a final inspection | Sioux Falls warns that "many financial institutions will not finance a purchase without proof of a final inspection" |
| Title company | Not much: Jacksonville Beach notes a title search is not a lien search, and title companies can close with an open permit | The permit passes to the buyer, who may ask for a credit |
After closing, the permit is the new owner's. Needham, Massachusetts says a buyer of a property with open permits is responsible for closing them "regardless of the permit date" (Town of Needham). Before closing, only the owner or the contractor of record can arrange the inspection: Newton's inspectors "will not schedule inspections for a broker, agent or new buyers" (City of Newton). So the seller is the one who can fix it quickly.
How often permits stay open, by trade
From our study of permits still open after a year: the share of home permits a year or more old with no final, closeout or certificate of occupancy on record.
| Trade | Cities | Permits a year+ old | Usual share still open | Most left open | Fewest left open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HVAC | 43 | 161,035 | 24.0% | Chicago, IL (78.8%) | Miami, FL (4.5%) |
| Remodel | 25 | 19,211 | 22.3% | Chicago, IL (87.9%) | Bend, OR (4.0%) |
| Plumbing | 33 | 116,172 | 19.6% | Chicago, IL (73.3%) | Greensboro, NC (5.9%) |
| Electrical | 41 | 197,911 | 19.5% | Sugar Land, TX (65.7%) | Cape Coral, FL (5.1%) |
| Solar | 28 | 62,936 | 16.0% | Waco, TX (30.4%) | Bend, OR (1.8%) |
| Roofing | 21 | 47,644 | 14.8% | Tyler, TX (76.6%) | Cape Coral, FL (1.7%) |
| New home | 27 | 27,533 | 9.3% | Naperville, IL (86.0%) | Sacramento County, CA (0.0%) |
In total, 127,194 of those 632,442 permits are still open. The spread is mostly the permit office, not the contractors: some offices close permits as routine, others wait for someone to book a final. In Chicago only 21.2% of HVAC permits a year old are recorded as finished; in Cape Coral it is 98.4% of roofing permits, and in Minneapolis 75.6% of HVAC permits. Remodels and HVAC jobs are the ones most often left open, so check those first.
Open, expired, or closed
Permits do not stay open forever. Each code sets an expiry, and an expired permit is harder to close than an open one.
| Place | When a permit expires | What then |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts (780 CMR 105.5, per Andover) | 180 days if work is suspended or abandoned; plumbing, gas and electrical permits never expire | The town "cannot inspect under EXPIRED permits"; a new contractor pulls a new permit to current code |
| Jacksonville Beach, FL | No inspection within 180 days of issue or of the last approved inspection | The owner can close it for substantially complete work after fees and a safety field evaluation |
| Seattle, WA | Typically 18 months after issue | Can be re-established if expired less than a year, at 1.5 times SDCI's hourly fee |
| Austin, TX | KXAN counted 107,775 expired permits on 68,867 homes in 2021 | Generally must be cured before a related new permit is issued |
Florida has a state rule for sellers and buyers. A 2019 law (CS/CS/HB 447) lets a local government close a building permit 6 years after issue if it finds no apparent safety hazard, and bars it from penalizing or denying a permit to a later arm's-length buyer solely because a previous owner's permit was never closed (Florida Senate bill summary).
How to clear open permits before you list
- Search your address on the city's permit portal and write down every permit that is not Final, Finaled, Closed or Complete. Our building permit lookup by address lists the official search for each place we cover.
- Open each permit's inspection list. A passed final with an open status is a records error the office can fix by phone. A failed final means a correction list to finish first.
- Call the contractor who pulled it and ask them to book the final. Newton wants every electrical, plumbing and gas permit on a job closed before the final building inspection, so book the trade permits first.
- If the contractor is gone, ask the permit office whether you can book the final as the owner. Jacksonville Beach, for example, lets the owner close a permit for substantially complete work.
- If it has expired, ask how to renew or re-establish it, what it costs, and whether walls need opening for the inspector. Start early: this is the step that takes weeks.
- Save the result as a PDF and put it in the disclosure packet.
How long is normal before a permit should have closed? Compare with the usual time for that job in your city, from how long a building permit takes. A roof permit open for a year is unusual; a remodel open for six months is not.
If you are the buyer
Run the same address search before the inspection period ends. For each open permit, ask the seller to close it before closing, or to give a credit that covers the cost of re-opening, inspecting and correcting the work. Do not accept "the contractor will handle it later": after closing, Needham's rule makes it yours. If the work was never permitted at all, see how to legalize unpermitted work.
What our numbers cannot tell you
A permit open in our file may have closed since our last refresh (about monthly); the city portal is the live record. "Still open" also counts permits that expired or were voided without a final, and some offices record finals unevenly, so a high share in one city says more about the office than about its contractors. Expiry rules above are examples from the places named; your own building code may differ.
How we know this
"Still open" is the share of home permits issued at least 12 months before the end of each city's file that have no final inspection, closeout or certificate of occupancy on record, for city-and-trade cells with 200 or more such permits; "usual" is the median across cities, so a small city counts the same as a big one. The full tables and method are in our open-permit study. Expiry, sale and buyer rules are quoted from the city and state pages under Sources, read 20 to 25 October 2026.
Numbers come from City of Chicago building permits (Chicago Data Portal); City of Minneapolis construction permits (CCS); City of Cape Coral building permits (the city's open permit table starts January 2025); City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports), data through October 25, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Pick your city and see each contractor's finished share →
Questions
- Can I sell a house with an open permit?
Usually yes, but it can slow or derail the sale. Jacksonville Beach, Florida notes that title companies can close a sale with an open permit and that a title search is not a lien search; Sioux Falls warns that "many financial institutions will not finance a purchase without proof of a final inspection". Closing it before you list is the cheaper path.
- Who is responsible for an open permit after the sale?
The new owner, in most places. Needham, Massachusetts says a buyer of a property with open permits is responsible for closing them "regardless of the permit date". Before closing, only the owner or the contractor of record can arrange inspections: Newton's inspectors "will not schedule inspections for a broker, agent or new buyers".
- How common are open permits?
Common. In the usual city we track, 21.0% of home permits issued at least a year earlier have no final inspection on record, across 50 cities and 632,442 permits. It ranges from 6.2% in Cape Coral, FL to 59.5% in Chicago, mostly because of how each office closes permits.
- What is the difference between an open and an expired permit?
An open permit is still valid and waiting for its final inspection. An expired one ran out of time first (often 180 days without an inspection, or 18 months from issue in Seattle) and usually has to be renewed or re-established before anyone can inspect or close it. Austin told KXAN that expired permits generally have to be cured before a related new permit is issued.
- Does Florida let a city refuse permits to a buyer because of the seller's open permit?
No. A 2019 law (CS/CS/HB 447) bars a local government from penalizing or denying a permit to a later arm's-length buyer solely because a previous owner's permit was never closed, and lets the local government close a permit after 6 years if it finds no apparent safety hazard (Florida Senate bill summary).
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Why is my permit still open? What it means and how to close it
- How many contractor quotes should you get? Three, and how to tell if they're in range
- What does a suspended contractor license mean? The rules, and how often it shows up in permits
- How to check a contractor's license in Minnesota
For one city
- Open and Expired Permits — City of Jacksonville Beach Building Division (accessed 2026-10-20)
- City of Sioux Falls, Why Get Permits & Inspections? (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Open Building Permits — Town of Needham, MA (accessed 2026-10-21)
- How to Close Open Permits — City of Newton, MA Inspectional Services (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Open Permit Info Sheet — Town of Andover, MA Building Division (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Building Permit Renewals — Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (accessed 2026-10-20)
- They never go away: Austin homes have more than 100K expired permits (KXAN) (2021-11-05)
- Bill summary, CS/CS/HB 447 (2019), Construction Permits — The Florida Senate (accessed 2026-10-25)