For insurers
Permit history to check against the homes you insure
Match North Carolina building permits to your book: reroofs, additions, new construction and jobs still open, each a municipal filing with its date, scope and stated value.
Built for
Underwriting and portfolio teams
Take a ZIP, a county or every office we read as CSV or JSON and match it to your policies by address. Each row carries the office's own permit number, so anyone can look the filing up.
Ask for a data quoteUnder the hood
How you'd wire this up
These are real calls to the TarSignal API. Get a free trial key in a minute, or take the same records as a bulk CSV export. Read the API docs
Roof work filed in a ZIP
GET /api/v1/permits?zip=28403&category=roofing&since=2023-10-01Every roofing permit filed in that ZIP, with the address, the office's description of the work, its stated value and the contractor where the office names one.
Work still open in a county
GET /api/v1/permits?county=Mecklenburg&stage=issued&since=2025-10-01Permits issued and not yet marked complete. Read the stage against the office table below: some offices rarely mark anything complete.
New homes and additions in an area
GET /api/v1/permits?zip=275&category=new_build,addition&since=2026-01-01A ZIP prefix matches every ZIP under it. New construction and added square footage, to compare against what a renewal says.
- 23 permit offices in 7 markets
- Updated at least daily
- Up to three years of history
- Bulk CSV or S3 drop
- Single address: $14.99
What changes
What this looks like in practice
Confirm a reroof or addition an applicant tells you about, with the permit number, the date it was filed and the stated value.
Flag insured properties with permitted work still open, in the offices whose records make an open permit mean something.
See new construction and major renovation in your book from the filings themselves, not a self-reported update at renewal.
Where to begin
Two checks to run first
Each is one API call, or a filter on the bulk CSV matched to your book by address. For one property at a time, the address report needs no key.
Roof and structure history
GET /api/v1/permits?zip=28403&category=roofing,addition,alteration&since=2023-10-01Reroofs, additions and alterations filed in an area, each with its address, description and stated value.
Good for: Renewal reviews, roof-age questions and checking what an applicant reports. A missing roofing permit proves nothing on its own.
Open permits
GET /api/v1/permits?zip=28403&stage=issued&since=2025-04-01Work issued and not marked complete, with the date it was issued and who pulled it.
Good for: Properties with construction under way, in offices whose records mark finished work.
Office by office
What a permit can and can't tell you about a roof
North Carolina doesn't require a permit to replace roofing on a house or commercial building when the job costs $40,000 or less (G.S. 160D-1110). Adding new roofing, and any repair to the structure under it, still needs one. So most residential reroofs never reach any office's records: a roofing permit is good evidence the work was filed, and no permit is no evidence the roof wasn't replaced.
Roof work inside a bigger job, such as a remodel, an addition or a new house, is filed under that job rather than as a roofing permit. And offices differ in whether they ever mark a permit finished, which decides what an open permit means.
| Permit office | Roofing permits, last 12 months | Records mark work finished |
|---|---|---|
| Mecklenburg County | 492 | Yes (77%) |
| Brunswick County | 256 | Rarely (0%) |
| New Hanover County | 152 | Yes (81%) |
| Raleigh | 133 | Partly (32%) |
| Greensboro | 117 | Yes (77%) |
| Durham | 100 | Yes (64%) |
| Wake County | 82 | Yes (54%) |
| Gaston County | 77 | Yes (57%) |
| Asheville | 67 | Rarely (0%) |
| High Point | 22 | Yes (76%) |
| Cary | 19 | Rarely (1%) |
| Onslow County | 15 | Yes (68%) |
| Alamance County | 8 | Rarely (0%) |
| Morrisville | 4 | Yes (68%) |
| Fuquay-Varina | 1 | Too few to tell |
| Wake Forest | 1 | Too few to tell |
| Apex | None | Too few to tell |
| Cabarrus County | None | Yes (55%) |
| Cumberland County | None | Yes (64%) |
| Garner | None | Rarely (0%) |
| Guilford County | None | Partly (28%) |
| Johnston County | None | Yes (67%) |
| Union County | None | Rarely (0%) |
Records mark work finished is the share of the office's permits filed 6 to 12 months ago that its records now show as complete: Yes is half or more, Rarely is under 5%, Partly is in between, and Too few to tell is an office with under 100 permits that old. Where an office rarely marks work finished, a permit still marked Issued there says nothing about whether the job was done; where it usually does, an older permit still open is worth a question. Both columns are rebuilt nightly from the offices' own records.
Keep reading
More on North Carolina permit data
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