How to Look Up Building Permits in Cincinnati

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 Cincinnati permits.

Step by step, using the city's own tools

1. Open CAGIS OPAL (cagis.hamilton-co.org/opal) and search by address or by permit number — it is the county-wide system Cincinnati files into.
2. Each permit shows the permit number, the work category, the applied and issued dates, the status, the declared project cost, and the company that pulled it.
3. The city publishes the same records as open data (Cincinnati Building Permits), refreshed regularly, with the neighborhood on every row.
4. A separate contacts dataset lists the parties on each permit by permit number if you need more than the primary company.

Things that trip people up

Cincinnati files a work category rather than a written scope, so a permit reads "Repair" or "Excavation/Fill" instead of describing the job. The permit type and the declared cost are what tell you the size. Note also that the city and Hamilton County townships are different jurisdictions, and an address in Norwood or Blue Ash is not a Cincinnati permit.