California building permit offices

This directory lists 19 counties in California whose own permit page we retrieved and read. Each entry links to that official source rather than to a copy of it, and states the date it was last checked.

Which building code applies in California?

Construction in California is reviewed against the California Building Standards Code (Title 24). That gives you a common baseline statewide, which is genuinely useful: the requirements themselves do not change when you cross a county line.

What does change is the local amendment sheet. Counties commonly amend the state code for wind, seismic, snow load, floodplain and energy provisions, and those amendments are published separately from the code itself. Reading only the state code will miss them.

Separately from the code, permit fees, exemption thresholds and review times are set locally everywhere in California. We do not publish any of those figures — see our methodology for why.

Counties covered in California

Who issues building permits in California?

Counties issue permits for unincorporated territory. If a property sits inside an incorporated city or town, that municipality issues the permit and the county has no role in it. Applying to the wrong one is the most expensive routine mistake in permitting, because you do not find out until intake rejects the package.

A city mailing address is not evidence either way. Postal routes and municipal boundaries are drawn by different organisations for different reasons and frequently disagree, which is why properties on the edge of a growing California city so often turn out to be unincorporated. Look the property up in the county parcel or GIS viewer; the record names the jurisdiction.

Other agencies can hold part of the review even once the building department is settled: the health department for septic and wells, public works or the state transportation department for driveway access and right-of-way work, the fire district for access and sprinklers, and state agencies for elevators, boilers, floodplain and coastal work. Each runs on its own timeline, so start them in parallel. Our jurisdiction helper works through the indicators.

Are California permit records public?

Yes. Permit records are public records in California, and you do not need to own the property to obtain them — which is exactly how buyers and their inspectors check a house before closing.

11 of the 19 counties listed here publish a searchable record online, linked from their page. For the rest, a records request to the building department will produce the history; response times are set by state law and are usually measured in days.

Search by parcel number rather than street address wherever the option exists. Addresses are renumbered and re-suffixed over the decades; parcel numbers usually survive. And a search that returns nothing on an older property is weak evidence of unpermitted work — most jurisdictions loaded only records created in their current software, with cut-offs in the 1990s and 2000s being normal.

Permit portals used across California

Most jurisdictions do not build their own permit system, they buy one. Knowing which product you are about to use tells you more than any generic instruction: whether an account is required before you can search, how the address matching behaves, and what usually goes wrong.

Counties not listed here

This directory lists only jurisdictions whose official permit page we could retrieve and read. Where a county is missing it is because its page was unreachable, blocked automated retrieval, or carried too little detail to describe honestly — not because it does not issue permits. We would rather list nothing than list an office we have not confirmed. The standard is set out here, and you can send us a missing office.

California building permit FAQ