PropEasyTwin Cities property record
Before you buy, or before you sell

Was the work on this house permitted?

How to check the public record — and how to read a missing permit without jumping to the wrong conclusion.

This usually comes up at the worst moment — a buyer's agent asks about the finished basement, or an appraiser will not count a bedroom. The question underneath is simple: does the city's record show this work?

What a missing permit actually means

It might mean nobody pulled one

The common case, and the one people worry about. Work was done, no permit was taken out, and there is no inspection record that it was done correctly.

It might mean none was needed

Plenty of work is genuinely exempt. Replacing like for like, cosmetic work, and minor repairs often need no permit at all.

It might mean the record does not go back that far

This is the one that gets missed. If a city's plumbing record starts in 2003, a 1994 bathroom will show nothing — and that absence is not evidence of anything.

It might be filed against another address

Corner lots, renumbered streets, units within a building. A permit can exist and not be findable if you only search one spelling of the address.

This is why we publish coverage per city and per trade. An answer of "no permit found" is only meaningful if you also know whether the record covers that year and that trade. A tool that hides its own coverage turns a gap into a false accusation.

How to check, in order of effort

Search the record

Look the address up here and read what exists for that city, with the city's own starting date stated alongside it.

Ask the city directly

The issuing city is always the authority. For anything consequential — a transaction, a dispute — confirm with them.

Look for the inspection

A permit that was pulled but never finalised is its own signal: the work started under a permit and was never signed off.

We are not the enforcement authority, and we are not trying to be. This record exists so owners and buyers can see what the public record contains about a property. Whether unpermitted work needs to be corrected, retro-permitted or disclosed is a question for the city and, if money is at stake, for a professional.