What permit records mean

Submitted

The application is in, and the office hasn't started reviewing it. Most offices record this stage only for permits applied for online.

In Review

The office is reviewing the plans, or is waiting on the applicant for corrections or missing documents. Time spent here counts toward the wait for a permit.

Approved

The review is done and the permit is ready to issue, usually once the fees are paid. No work is allowed until it's issued.

Issued

The permit is issued and the work may start. This group also holds work under inspection, and buildings occupied on a temporary or conditional certificate while the last items are finished.

Completed

The work passed its final inspection, the certificate of compliance or occupancy was issued, or the office closed the permit as complete.

Withdrawn / Rejected / Expired / On Hold

The permit won't go ahead as filed, or is stopped for now: withdrawn by the applicant, voided or rejected by the office, expired, put on hold, or under a stop work order.

Other

Words whose meaning isn't clear from the records, like a bare Closed, and the outcomes of permits that aren't building permits, like zoning, fire and septic permits.

$40,000 exemption

Work costing $40,000 or less on a single-family home, farm building or commercial building needs no building permit, unless it involves load-bearing structure, added or redesigned plumbing, HVAC or electrical work, added roofing, or anything the Fire Code covers. The same $40,000 line decides when a general contractor license is required.

G.S. 160D-1110(c) · Do I need a permit?

Accessory dwelling unit (ADU)

A second, smaller home on the same lot as a house: a garage apartment, a backyard cottage or a basement unit. Offices permit it as its own building or as part of the house's permit.

Also named on the record

A company the office's record names for a permit's work besides the contractor of record. On Mecklenburg County commercial permits it's the name in parentheses at the end of the county's project name, usually the trade contractor working under the general contractor: on a data hall's mechanical permit, the mechanical contractor, where the contractor of record is the general contractor. TarSignal shows it as the county wrote it, and a contractor search in Permit Search finds it. Once the name is matched to a business (automatically when it's the business's own name, after a review otherwise), those permits show on that contractor's page, apart from the permits it pulled itself. Records that repeat the contractor of record, or hold a note rather than a company, show none.

Application date (filed date)

The day the permit application was submitted. Not every office records it; where it's missing, TarSignal dates the permit by its issue date instead.

Permit wait times

At-risk permit

For commercial and multifamily projects with sealed plans, a permit to start the foundation, and then the structure, before every approval is in, at the applicant's own risk. Available to applicants who held a pre-submittal meeting.

G.S. 160D-1110.1(h)

Building permit

Written permission from the local inspections department to build, alter, repair, move or demolish a building, required before the work starts. Doing permitted work without one is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

G.S. 160D-1110(a), (i)

Certificate of occupancy (CO) / certificate of compliance

Issued after the final inspection, when the work complies with the code and the permit. The statute calls it a certificate of compliance; most offices and people say CO. A new or altered building can't be occupied without it, or a temporary one.

G.S. 160D-1116 · Certificates of occupancy in NC

Change in work (revision)

Once a permit is issued, the work must follow the approved plans. Any change the State Building Code doesn't clearly allow needs the inspection department's written approval first, often filed as a permit revision.

G.S. 160D-1112

Conditional CO

Durham's name for a temporary certificate of occupancy, recorded as Cond. CO Issued.

Temporary vs. final CO

Contractor of record

The contractor named on the permit, responsible for the permitted work. On a trade permit it's the electrician, plumber or HVAC contractor doing that work, not the general contractor. Some offices publish no contractor at all, and a homeowner's own permit names none.

Contractors by permits pulled

Declared value (valuation)

The cost of the work as the applicant wrote it on the permit. It's the applicant's estimate, not an invoice, and leaves out land. Some offices compute a new home's value from a fixed rate per square foot, so there it measures size rather than price.

Expiration

A building permit expires six months after it's issued if work hasn't started (or sooner by local ordinance), and if work stops for 12 months. Work can't continue under an expired permit.

G.S. 160D-1111

Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ)

An area outside a city's limits where the city applies its development regulations: up to one mile out, or two or three miles for larger cities with the county's approval. In Wake County, the planning jurisdiction on iMAPS tells you whose permit you need.

G.S. 160D-202 · Triangle permit offices compared

Final inspection (finaled)

The last inspection under a permit, when the work is complete. Passing it is what offices mean by finaled, and it leads to the certificate of compliance. Mecklenburg records Building Finaled and All Finaled; Greensboro, Final Inspection Made.

G.S. 160D-1116(a)

Homeowner permit (owner-builder)

A permit pulled by an owner doing their own work on a home they own and live in, without a contractor's license. The owner does the trade work personally and, for an owner-built project, must be present for inspections unless an architect sealed the plans.

G.S. 87-1(b)(2), 160D-1113 · Can a homeowner pull a permit?

Issue date

The day the office issued the permit and work could legally start. The days between the application date and the issue date are the wait for a permit.

Lien agent

The agent the owner designates for mechanics' lien notices. For work costing $40,000 or more, the permit must list the lien agent, except on improvements to an owner-occupied single-family home and its accessory buildings.

G.S. 160D-1110(g)

Plan review

The office's check of the plans against the code before a permit is issued. Where an office reviews plans for homes under the Residential Code, the first review is due within 15 business days; for commercial and multifamily projects with sealed plans, the permit decision is due within 45 days unless the office and applicant agree otherwise.

G.S. 160D-1110(b), 160D-1110.1 · How long a permit takes

Qualifier

The person who passed the licensing board's exam for a contractor's license; the license is held through them. If the qualifier leaves, a general contractor's license stays in effect for 90 days.

G.S. 87-10 · NC general contractor license requirements

Stop work order

An inspector's order to halt work that violates the code or the permit. It can be appealed in writing to the State Fire Marshal within five days, and no work that violates it may continue while the appeal is pending.

G.S. 160D-1114

Temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO)

Permission to occupy all or part of a building for a stated period before it's finished, when the inspector finds it can be occupied safely. The final inspection and certificate are still required.

G.S. 160D-1116(b) · Temporary vs. final CO

Third-party plan review

For commercial and multifamily projects with sealed plans, if the office misses its review deadline the applicant may hire a certified engineer or architect to review the plans; the office then has three business days to issue the permit and must refund or waive the review and permit fees.

G.S. 160D-1110.1(e)

Trade permit

A separate electrical, plumbing or mechanical permit, pulled by the licensed trade contractor (or the homeowner) doing that work. Some offices fold the trade work into the building permit instead: Raleigh's residential alteration permit includes it.

Triangle permit offices compared

Upfit (tenant upfit)

Finishing or refitting the inside of a commercial space for a tenant: walls, ceilings, lighting, plumbing and HVAC in an existing building.

Commercial upfit permits