Orlando building permit search: how to look up permits on an address

Where Orlando permits live

Only permits the City of Orlando issued are in either place. An address outside the city limits, in unincorporated Orange County or a neighbouring city, will not show up, and is not in our Orlando file either.

The Permit Lookup site blocks automated reading, so we could not check its search fields ourselves; what is quoted here is from the City's Get a Permit page. The City's pages do not describe a search by contractor name. To see one contractor's Orlando permits together, open the firm on our compare pages, which group every permit by the firm that pulled it.

How to look up the permits on an Orlando address

1. Open Get a Permit and follow the "Look up Permit" or "Check Permit Status" link to the Permit Lookup tool.
2. Search for the property. If the address finds nothing, use the permit number from the contractor's paperwork or the permit card on site.
3. Open each permit on the address and check the status. The City's own instruction is to "ensure that the status is final".
4. Open any related permits the tool lists for the job; trade work can be filed separately from the building permit.
5. If a permit is open, look at the dates. The City says a permit that is open for six months without an inspection will expire.

How to read Orlando permit statuses

The City puts it plainly: "Once you complete and pass your inspections the permit will be final." In the City's open data file, the labels we read are these:

We use the City's final date to measure how long each firm's permits take to reach final. We do not show a completion rate for Orlando: almost every permit here is eventually closed, so it did not separate contractors in our tests (see the Orlando about page and methodology).

When the permit you want is not online

For a permit file that is not in the lookup, use the City Clerk's Request a Public Record page. It lists "Permitting documents" among the records the City keeps. Requests go through the City's online form, by email to records@orlando.gov or on 407.246.2148. The City sends a confirmation with a request number and any fee within two business days; if the estimate is over $100 it wants payment before work starts (read 23 October 2026).

What our Orlando file adds

The Permit Lookup answers "what was permitted at this address". Our pages answer "what does this firm's Orlando record look like".

5,030 firms pulled the 42,936 permits. A typical Orlando re-roof permit reached final in 27 days; a new home took 203.

The Orlando permit statistics page has the same file by trade, year and month; the firm lists are on the roofing, HVAC and remodel compare pages. To check the licence behind a name on a permit, use the Orlando contractor license lookup; to check whether your job needs a permit at all, see Do I need a permit?.

See every Orlando roofer by days to final →

What this does not tell you

We hold permits for one- and two-family homes issued from October 2023 to September 2026; commercial work and older permits are not in our pages. A permit on file shows the work was declared and inspected, not that it was done well.