How to Look Up Building Permits in New York City

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 New York City permits.

Step by step, using the city's own tools

1. Open DOB NOW Public Portal (a810-dobnow.nyc.gov/publish/Index.html) or the older Buildings Information System (a810-bisweb.nyc.gov) and search by address or BIN.
2. Each permit shows the work type, the job description, the estimated job cost, the permit status, the issue and expiration dates, and the permittee business and license number.
3. The city also publishes the same records as open data: DOB NOW: Build Approved Permits (data.cityofnewyork.us, dataset rbx6-tga4) and the historical DOB Job Application Filings (ic3t-wcy2).
4. For work before DOB NOW, use BIS: it holds job filings back to the 1980s, with the certificate of occupancy history on a separate tab.

Things that trip people up

A New York building carries permits under its BIN, not just its street address, and a corner building can appear under two addresses. Search the house number and street without the suffix, and check the borough — the same address exists in more than one borough.