Certificate of occupancy in North Carolina: how to get one, how long it takes, and how to look it up

In North Carolina, the document most people call a certificate of occupancy, or CO, is in the statute a certificate of compliance. G.S. 160D-1116 says that when the work under a building permit is finished, the inspector makes a final inspection and, if the work complies with state and local law and the terms of the permit, issues the certificate. Until then, the building can't legally be occupied. This guide covers what the law requires, how long new homes in North Carolina actually take to reach a final, what a temporary certificate is, and how to look up whether a building has one, office by office.

What North Carolina law says

The rule is in G.S. 160D-1116, the same for every city and county. Subsection (a): when the work under a permit is complete, the inspector makes a final inspection, and if the work complies with state and local law and the permit, issues a certificate of compliance. No new building or part of one, no addition or enlargement, and no existing building that was altered or moved may be occupied until the inspection department issues it.

Subsection (b) allows a temporary certificate, and subsection (c) sets the penalty: anyone who owns, leases or controls a building and occupies it, or lets someone else occupy it, before a certificate is issued commits a Class 1 misdemeanor.

When you need a certificate of occupancy

• A new house, townhome, apartment building or commercial building.
• An addition or enlargement of an existing building.
• An existing building that was altered under a building permit, or moved to a new site.
• A change of use: offices also use certificates to let an existing building take on a new use, such as an office becoming a restaurant, as the UNC School of Government describes.

Work that doesn't need a building permit doesn't produce a certificate either. Most repairs and replacements costing $40,000 or less on a house are exempt from permits unless they touch structure, plumbing, electrical or HVAC equipment (G.S. 160D-1110(c)); our free permit checker walks through a job.

Certificate of compliance or certificate of occupancy?

Both terms appear on North Carolina permits. The statute says certificate of compliance. Under the State Building Code's administrative rules, as the UNC School of Government explains them, offices can also issue certificates of compliance for a single trade or code volume, such as electrical, which on their own don't let anyone move in, and one overall certificate that does. Cabarrus County's records show both: CO Issued on new homes, and CC Issued on many trade permits.

How long it takes to get a CO on a new house

The certificate follows the final inspection, so the real question is how long the house takes. TarSignal's records show it. In the 11 offices that record a final in their public data, here is the share of new-home permits that now show a final or CO, by the month they were filed:

About half of the houses filed in March 2026 had a final seven months later, about three-quarters of those filed in November and December 2025 did after 10 to 11 months, and close to 90% of those filed in late 2024 and early 2025 did. The remainder are a mix of houses still being built, permits that lapsed, and records an office hasn't updated.

Speed varies by office. Of the new homes filed between October 2024 and October 2025, 97% in Wilmington and New Hanover County, 95% in Onslow County and 90% in Durham, Mecklenburg and Johnston County now show a final; Raleigh shows 74%. Our permit wait-time tool covers the other end: how long each office takes to issue a permit in the first place.

Temporary certificates of occupancy

If the inspector finds a building can be occupied safely before it's finished, they can issue a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) for a stated period, for the whole building or part of it, when the permit holder asks and the State Building Code's conditions are met. How long one lasts is set locally; Mecklenburg County, for example, prints the expiration date on a placard posted at the building and charges $55 per open permit to renew. Builders use them when a house is livable but something outside, like final grading or landscaping, is waiting on the weather, and commercial projects use them to open finished floors while others are still under construction.

A few offices record them as a status of their own. In TarSignal's records, 176 permits in Mecklenburg show TCO Issued, 131 in Durham show Cond. CO Issued (a conditional CO), and 2 in Morrisville show TCO Issued.

How to look up a certificate of occupancy in NC

• Find the building permit for the address: in the local office's own permit search, or in TarSignal's free Permit Search, which covers 23 North Carolina offices in one place.
• Check the permit's status. A finished permit shows a final or CO status (the table below has each office's wording); one still showing Issued hasn't been finaled, or the office hasn't updated it.
• For the certificate itself, ask the inspections department: it's a public record, and many offices attach it to the permit online.
• If you're buying a newly built house, check the permit shows final before closing, and look at the trade permits at the same address too.

Brunswick and Union counties publish their permits but not a completion status, so every permit stays Issued in their public records; for a certificate there, ask the inspections office. Each office's own page on TarSignal has its permit portal, how to search it and its busiest ZIP codes.

Why contractors watch completion dates

A certificate of occupancy means someone is about to move in. For the trades that come after the builder, like window treatments, security systems, landscaping, fencing, pools and home services, a finished permit is the moment a homeowner starts buying. For the trades before it, the new-home permits that haven't reached a final yet are the work still open. TarSignal's alerts follow permits by stage in the ZIP codes you cover, and the upcoming projects pages list the biggest jobs still under way.

How these numbers were counted

New-home permits (TarSignal's new-construction category) in the offices TarSignal reads, by the date each was filed, or issued where an office records only an issue date (Johnston County, Durham and Greensboro). A permit counts as final when its status is the office's completion status: Complete, Closed - Complete, CO Issued or Cond. CO Issued, Final Inspection Made, Certificate of Occupancy (CO) Issued, or Closed in Alamance County. The chart uses the 11 offices that record one: Durham, Mecklenburg, Johnston, Wake and Cabarrus counties, Raleigh, Gaston and Onslow counties, Greensboro, Wilmington and New Hanover County, and Alamance County. Statuses as of October 23, 2026. A status reflects when an office updated its record, which can lag the inspection.