There's an open permit on the house I'm buying. Now what?
September 4, 2026
It usually arrives as a phone call you were not expecting. The title company found something. Or the inspector mentioned it in passing. Or you ran the address yourself and a permit came back with a status that is not the word you wanted.
The first thing to know is that this is common, and it is usually solvable. The second is that solving it is much easier this week, while you still have leverage, than it will be the day after you close. This is what an open permit actually means and what to do about it in the time you have.
What an open permit actually is
When someone does work on a house that requires a permit, the city opens a file. Work gets done, inspectors visit at set stages, and when the last inspection passes, the city closes the file. That closed state is what people mean by a finaled permit.
An open permit is a file that never got closed. The work may have been finished perfectly and nobody bothered to book the final inspection. The contractor may have been paid and moved on. The work may have failed an inspection and never been corrected. Or the work may have stopped halfway.
From the outside, all four look identical in the records. That is the entire problem, and it is why the status alone tells you very little.
Why it matters before closing and not after
An open permit rarely stops a sale outright. What it does is introduce three parties who have opinions about it, at the point in the transaction where you have the least time.
Your title company may flag it, because an unresolved permit is a known issue attached to the property. Your lender cares if it affects the appraisal, which it can when the permit covers space contributing to the square footage. Your insurer may take a position on work that was never signed off, which tends to matter later, when you make a claim.
And when you eventually sell, the next buyer’s title company runs the same search and finds the same thing. An open permit does not expire quietly. It waits.
The asymmetry is the whole point. Before closing, an open permit is a negotiating position. After closing, it is a bill in your name.
Three questions to answer before you do anything
1. What is the permit actually for?
This is the question that determines everything else, and it is the one people skip. An open plumbing permit for a water heater swap and an open permit for a structural addition are the same word describing two completely different situations.
Look at the work description on the filing, not just the permit type. Minor trade work that was completed and never finaled is an administrative loose end. Structural, electrical or foundation work that was never inspected means nobody qualified has ever confirmed the work is safe. That is a different conversation.
2. How old is it?
A permit opened eight months ago probably relates to work the current owner remembers and can explain. One opened in 1997 relates to work that may predate them entirely, and the records to close it out may no longer exist in usable form.
Old open permits are extremely common. Cities were not always diligent about closing files, and some departments never marked completed work as closed at all. Age alone is not evidence of a problem. It does affect how hard the permit is to resolve.
3. Is it the only one?
One open permit is noise. Four open permits, or two open permits plus an expired one, is a pattern, and the pattern is what should concern you. It suggests a property where work routinely started and stopped without the inspection cycle finishing, and it raises the odds of unpermitted work that no record will ever show you.
Pull the full permit history for the address, not just the item that got flagged. You can search any address on PermitPeek to see every filing on record with its status, or check the city’s own portal directly if you have the time to read raw permit records.
Your four options
Ask the seller to close it before closing
This is the standard request and the right first ask. The seller is on the existing permit, which makes them the party the city expects to hear from. They can call for the final inspection. You, as someone who does not own the property yet, cannot.
Make the request specific. Closed out and finaled before the close date, evidenced by the city’s record, not a contractor’s assurance that it is handled.
Ask for an escrow holdback
When the timeline will not stretch far enough, money can be held back at closing and released once the permit is resolved. This keeps your close date and keeps the seller motivated. It is a common instrument and your agent will know the mechanics in your state.
Ask for a price adjustment
If the permit covers work you would rather redo anyway, or the seller cannot or will not resolve it, take the cost off the price instead. Get a contractor’s estimate for correcting and closing out the work, and negotiate against that number. A specific figure beats a vague concern every time in a negotiation.
Walk
Rarely the right call for a single old permit. Worth serious thought when you find several open permits together, when the open work is structural or electrical and was never inspected, or when there is an active code enforcement case alongside them. In that combination, you are not buying a paperwork problem. You are buying an unknown quantity of unverified construction.
What to do this week
- 01Pull the complete permit history for the address, not just the flagged item.
- 02Read the work description on every open or expired filing, and note which involve structure, electrical or foundation work.
- 03Ask the seller directly, in writing, what the open permit covers and why it was never closed.
- 04Get a contractor's estimate for closing it out, so any negotiation runs on a real number.
- 05Send your agent one of the four asks above, with your close date attached to it.
Frequently asked questions
Can an open permit stop a home sale?
It can delay one. Open permits are commonly flagged by title companies, lenders and insurers, and resolving one takes time you may not have before your close date. It is a scheduling problem more often than a deal-ending problem, but it is a real one.
Who should close out an open permit, the buyer or the seller?
Almost always the seller. The permit was pulled under their ownership, the city's file is in their name, and they can request inspections without the transfer complications a new owner faces. Once you close, the unresolved permit and its cost become yours.
How long does it take to close out an open permit?
It depends entirely on what the permit covers and whether the work passes inspection. A permit needing only a final visit can close in days. One where the work was never finished, or fails inspection, can take months and require corrective construction first.
What is the difference between an open permit and an expired permit?
An open permit is active work that has not passed final inspection. An expired permit ran out of time before that happened. Both leave the city's file unresolved, and an expired one often has to be reinstated or refiled before it can be closed.
Is an open permit worse than no permit at all?
Not worse, but more visible. Unpermitted work is invisible to a records search, so nobody flags it until an appraiser or inspector notices the space. An open permit is documented, which means title companies and lenders find it, and it has to be dealt with.
Should I walk away from a house with an open permit?
Rarely on its own. A single old open permit for minor work is common and cheap to resolve. What justifies walking is a pattern: several open permits, structural or electrical work that was never inspected, or an active code enforcement case alongside them.
Check the permit history before your next showing
Search any address across our covered cities to see every permit on file, which are still open, and what the work actually was. Our free Chrome extension shows the same thing directly on Zillow and Redfin listings.
Search a propertyThis article is general information about the building permit records process. It is not legal, financial or real estate advice, and permit rules and enforcement practices vary by city. Verify anything you plan to act on with your agent, your attorney or the local building department.
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