Building permit records in Georgia are public records, and the law gives you a hard deadline for getting them. Under the Georgia Open Records Act, an agency must produce responsive records within a reasonable time not to exceed three business days. Most counties and cities also publish a searchable permit portal, so start there and use the formal request only when the portal comes up short.
Key takeaways
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Building permit records held by a Georgia city or county are public records under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. 50-18-70 and following.
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An agency must produce responsive records within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receiving the request.
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If some records are available in that window and others are not, the agency must produce what it can within three business days and give you a description and a timeline for the rest.
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If it withholds anything, it must tell you the specific legal authority by Code section, subsection and paragraph, also within three business days.
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Start with your jurisdiction's online permit portal. The formal request is the backstop for older records, scanned files and anything the portal does not expose.
Are building permits public record in Georgia
Yes. Permit applications, issued permits, inspection results and certificates of occupancy held by a Georgia city or county are records of a public agency, and the Georgia Open Records Act gives the public a right of access to them.
That right is the reason you do not need to explain why you want them. You do not have to be the owner, the contractor or a party to the work. Some personal information can be redacted under specific exemptions, but the existence of a permit and its status are ordinary public information.
The three business day rule
This is the part worth knowing before you call. Under O.C.G.A. 50-18-71, an agency shall produce for inspection all records responsive to a request within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days of receipt.
The statute anticipates partial answers. Where some but not all records are available in that window, the agency must make available within that period the records it can locate and produce. Where responsive records exist but are not available within three business days, it must, within that same period, give you a description of the records and a timeline for when they will be available, and then provide them as soon as practicable.
And if it decides to withhold something, it must notify you of the specific legal authority exempting the record by Code section, subsection and paragraph, again within three business days.
So a request that goes unanswered for two weeks is not normal, and quoting the three business day standard politely usually resolves it.
Start with the portal, not the request
Most Georgia jurisdictions of any size run an online permit system, and searching it is faster than any formal process. Typical search handles are the property address, the parcel number, the permit number, and sometimes the owner or contractor name.
| What you need | Where to look first |
|---|---|
| Is there an open permit on my house | Jurisdiction's online permit portal, search by address |
| Permit history before the portal existed | Open Records Act request to the building department |
| Inspection results and dates | Portal, or the permit file via records request |
| Certificate of occupancy | Building department, often a separate record |
| Approved plans | Records request, and expect fees and possible copyright limits |
A caution specific to Georgia: your mailing city is not always the jurisdiction that permitted the property. An address with an Atlanta or Marietta mailing address can sit in unincorporated county, and searching the wrong portal returns nothing while the records exist elsewhere. Confirm the authority first.
How to make the request so it works
Requests fail on vagueness more than on refusal. A request that names the property and the record types is answered quickly. One that asks for "everything about my house" takes weeks.
- Address the request to the building or development department, and use the agency's designated open records contact if it publishes one.
- Identify the property by full street address and parcel number, since departments file by parcel more often than by address.
- Name the record types you want: permit applications, issued permits, inspection records, certificates of occupancy, code enforcement cases.
- Give a date range if you have one, such as since purchase or since a known renovation.
- State that you are requesting under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. 50-18-70 and following.
- Ask for electronic copies where available, which is usually cheaper and faster than paper.
What the records will and will not tell you
A permit record tells you what was applied for, what was approved, which inspections passed, and whether the permit was finaled. That answers the question most people actually have.
What it will not tell you is whether unpermitted work exists. Absence of a permit is not proof that nothing was built, which is why a records search is a starting point for a home purchase rather than a conclusion.
Our take: search the portal first, and only escalate to a formal request when the portal is thin or the records predate it. When you do escalate, cite the three business day standard in the request itself. It is not adversarial, it just signals that you know the timeline and it consistently produces faster answers.
If a permit turns up open or missing
An open permit is one that was issued but never finaled, usually because a final inspection never happened. A missing permit means work appears to have been done without one. Both are fixable and both are better addressed early.
Contact the building department, ask what closing the permit requires, and ask about their after-the-fact process if no permit exists. Some jurisdictions charge a higher fee for after-the-fact permits, and some require exposing concealed work so it can be inspected.
What to do next
- Identify the exact jurisdiction that permits your address, using the Georgia coverage page or your county's site.
- Search that jurisdiction's permit portal by address and by parcel number.
- If the portal is incomplete, send an Open Records Act request naming the specific record types.
- If you find an open or missing permit, ask the department directly what closing it requires.
- Run your project through the free permit checker if you are about to start work rather than researching past work.
Related reading: the Georgia permit overview covers what needs a permit, and the Georgia shed guide explains why the state sets no permit thresholds of its own. For the department contact, documents and inspections for your specific address, there is the Permit Prep Pack.