The Philadelphia Department of Licenses & Inspections (L&I) maintains a public database of every building permit ever filed in the city. It's free, it's searchable by address, and it contains decades of history on any permitted structure in Philadelphia.
The catch: most people who look at it have no idea what they're seeing. Permit types, statuses, contractor codes, scope of work descriptions. It's a technical dataset designed for inspectors and contractors, not buyers or investors trying to do due diligence.
This guide explains how to pull Philadelphia permit records, what each field means, and, most importantly, how to interpret what you find before you make a property decision.
There are two places to pull Philadelphia permit records. Use both; they show slightly different data.
Go to li.phila.gov and search by address. Click the "Permits" tab. This shows every permit application filed at that address, the full history including completed, expired, and currently active permits.
Each record shows:
For investors checking multiple properties or doing neighborhood-level research, OpenDataPhilly hosts the city's permit dataset for download or API access. The CARTO SQL endpoint at phl.carto.com/api/v2/sql is one way services like Flagstone pull data programmatically. (Note: this is the OpenDataPhilly CARTO API; the endpoint URL may change over time; check opendataphilly.org for the current API reference.)
Rather than navigating the L&I UI, you can try querying directly: https://li.phila.gov/permit-history/#/address/[ADDRESS]. Replace [ADDRESS] with a URL-encoded Philadelphia address. (URL format may vary. Search directly at li.phila.gov if this link doesn't work.) The API response from Carto is faster for repeated lookups.
Philadelphia uses a tiered system of permit types. Knowing what each type covers tells you immediately what kind of work was done at a property.
| Permit Type | What It Covers | Risk Level if Expired/Open |
|---|---|---|
| Building (BP) | New construction, additions, structural alterations, demolition | High |
| Electrical (EP) | Electrical panel upgrades, wiring, new circuits | High |
| Plumbing (PP) | Plumbing system changes, new fixtures, water heater replacement | Medium |
| HVAC / Mechanical (MP) | HVAC systems, duct work, boiler replacement | Medium |
| Zoning (ZP) | Change of use, additions requiring zoning variance | High |
| Certificate of Occupancy (CO) | Formal approval that a building is safe and legal for its intended use | High |
| Sprinkler / Fire Suppression | Fire sprinkler installation or modification | Medium |
| Sign | Commercial signage | Low |
| Solar | PV panel installation | Low |
Building, electrical, and zoning permits carry the highest risk if they were never completed or inspected; they typically involve structural or safety-critical work that becomes your liability as the new owner.
The status field is the most important thing to check on each permit record. Here's what each status means in practice:
A permit has been issued and work is authorized to proceed. "Active" doesn't mean work is happening; it means the permit is currently valid. Active permits on a property you're considering buying aren't necessarily a problem, but you want to understand what work is underway and verify it will be closed out before or after closing.
The permit was issued, the work was done, and L&I inspected and approved it. This is the ideal outcome. A property with many completed permits on record has had its work properly inspected and signed off. That's a positive signal.
A permit was issued but was never completed and inspected within the allowed timeframe (typically 1–2 years). The permit has lapsed. This is a significant flag: it means work may have been done but was never formally approved, or work was started but never finished.
When you buy a property with expired permits, L&I's position is that the permitted work was never properly completed or inspected. If you later pull a new permit for any work, L&I may require you to address the expired permit first, which can mean opening walls, doing work twice, or paying for inspections on what the previous owner built.
The permit was issued but cancelled before work began, or voided for administrative reasons. Less common. Not typically problematic; it means the planned work didn't happen.
Work was done and the contractor has requested final inspection, but L&I hasn't completed it yet. Better than expired, but you'd want to verify this gets closed out.
The aggregate permit history of a property tells a story about how it's been maintained and improved over time. Here's how to read the full picture:
This is a good sign. Work has been done through proper channels, inspected by the city, and signed off. You know what's been modified and that it was done to code at the time. For a house built in the 1920s, this is exactly what you want to see.
On a pre-1960 rowhouse with zero permit history, nothing has ever been pulled. That means either:
A building inspector can often tell which is the case. But from a records standpoint, zero permits on an old building means you have no city-verified record of any of the work that's been done inside it.
Flips and investor resales often show a cluster of permits filed in a short window (building, electrical, plumbing), all filed by an LLC that acquired the property 6–12 months before listing. This isn't inherently problematic, but you want to verify that all those permits were completed and inspected, not just pulled.
A common pattern: investor acquires distressed property, pulls permits, does renovations, lists for sale quickly. The permits are still open or pending inspection at listing. The buyer closes without noticing. The buyer is now responsible for getting those permits closed out, which may require additional inspections, corrections, or re-work if the work didn't meet code.
In Philadelphia, homeowners can pull owner-builder permits for certain work on their primary residence. If you see major work (electrical panel replacement, structural) with no licensed contractor on record, that work was done by the owner themselves (or someone they hired informally). This doesn't mean the work is bad, but it wasn't done by a licensed trade, which affects quality expectations and may affect insurance.
These are the patterns that consistently signal risk in Philadelphia permit records:
If you find expired permits on a property you're considering buying, here's the practical path:
Call 215-686-2463 or use the L&I online portal to understand exactly what's outstanding. Some expired permits can be reinstated or administratively closed if the work was actually completed. Others require a new permit application and fresh inspection.
For an expired electrical permit where the panel was replaced, L&I will typically require an electrical inspection to verify the work meets current code. If it does, the permit can be closed. If not, corrections are required before close-out.
If the seller pulls the permit to close it out before closing: get confirmation from L&I in writing. If you're accepting the property as-is with open permits: factor the resolution cost into your price and put the credit or reduction in the agreement of sale.
For complex permit situations (multiple expired permits, disputed scopes, CO issues), a Philadelphia permit expediter can navigate the L&I system more efficiently than you can alone. Expect to pay $500–2,000 for this service, but they often save that in time and prevent costly mistakes.
Permits and violations are related but distinct in Philadelphia's system:
You can have both, either, or neither. The most common dangerous pattern is: permit pulled but expired (from the permits side) plus violation opened for the same issue (from the violations side). That means L&I is actively aware the work wasn't completed to code, has formally cited the property, and is tracking compliance.
Always check both tabs (permits and violations) and look for correlations. A property with 3 expired building permits and 2 open violations is a very different situation from a property with 3 expired permits and no violations (one suggests the city is actively pursuing enforcement; the other suggests the work may have been completed informally without a formal inspection).
When you see an expired permit, search the violations tab for cases filed around the same time or after. If L&I opened a violation for the same type of work, they know about it. If there's no corresponding violation, it may have slipped through inspection without being flagged. Still a problem, but a lower-urgency one.
Flagstone pulls permit history, violations, 311 complaints, and OPA data together into one plain-English report so you can understand what you're looking at without spending hours in the L&I interface. Delivered in under a minute. Always free.
Get your free reportPhiladelphia's permit records are one of the most useful, and most underused, tools available to anyone making a property decision. The data is free. The interface is public. The information is authoritative.
The skill is knowing what to look for: completed vs. expired, permit type vs. risk, permit history vs. listing claims. A property with 20 completed permits is a well-maintained, properly documented asset. A property with 5 expired permits and no violations is ambiguous. A property with expired permits and active violations is a clear flag that needs resolution before you commit.
Pull the records. Read the statuses. Cross-reference with violations. And don't close without understanding what the city knows about the work that's been done inside that building.
Data sources: Philadelphia L&I (li.phila.gov), OpenDataPhilly permits dataset. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed professional before making any property decisions.