How to Look Up Building Permits in Chicago
Every building permit filed in Chicago, IL is public record, maintained by the Department of Buildings. Here's how to pull the full history for any address — and the shortcut when you'd rather not do it by hand.
Why you'd want the permit history
- Buying a home: confirm that additions, remodels, and major repairs were permitted and finaled.
- Selling or refinancing: unpermitted work surfaces in inspections and appraisals — know before the buyer does.
- Insurance and disputes: a dated permit record is the evidence that work was done to code.
- Finding the contractor: the licensed contractor is named on most Chicago permits.
Step by step, using the city's own tools
- Open the Chicago Data Portal's Building Permits dataset (data.cityofchicago.org, dataset ydr8-5enu) and use the filter on Street Number, Street Direction, and Street Name.
- Each row is one permit: type, work description, reported cost, application and issue dates, and up to 15 named contacts (general contractor, electrical, plumbing, owner, expediter).
- For older or in-progress permits, the Department of Buildings' online permit lookup mirrors the same records with inspection history.
- Records are updated nightly; contractor phone numbers were removed from the public dataset in 2019, but names and roles remain.
Things that trip people up
Chicago addresses need the direction (N, S, E, W) to match — "2200 N Clark St" is a different record set from "2200 S Clark St." Two-flat and multi-unit buildings often carry permits under the building's primary address rather than the unit.
The shortcut
PingPermit pulls the same city records live and puts them on one page: a free preview (permit count, years active, declared work value, most recent filings), and the full report — every permit with description, value, status and dates, and the contractor and owner named on the permits that record one — for $29, one time, delivered instantly.