Pick your city or tap it on the map, type your address, and get one of three tags: Has one, Expired or No published match. You also get the city's own record and your address from above, on government satellite imagery.
Managing many rentals? Paste up to 100 addresses and we check them every week for $59/month, with an email when a permit changes and reminders when a published expiry date comes within 60, 30 and 7 days.
Free check in 18 cities. Permit Audit ($4.99) in 54.
The free check searches the city's own data straight from your browser, which works in 18 cities. The Permit Audit ($4.99) runs on our servers and covers all 54, including those 18. Free in: Albuquerque, NM; Arlington, TX; Asheville, NC; Aspen, CO; Bend, OR; Coconino County, AZ; Denver, CO; Houston, TX; Huntington Beach, CA; Louisville, KY; Marin County, CA; Nashville, TN; New Orleans, LA; Norfolk, VA; Orlando, FL; Sacramento, CA; San Bernardino County, CA; Seattle, WA.
Plus a free check by our server in 10 more places whose lists a browser can't read: Chicago, IL; Cody, WY; Cook County, MN; Covington, KY; Kansas City, MO; Key West, FL; Las Vegas, NV; Little Rock, AR; North Las Vegas, NV; Scottsdale, AZ. Pick one above and check as usual.
Rules for all 54 places: the permit, fee, tax, limits and penalty sentences from each city's own page, quoted word for word, re-read every day with a dated record of every change. See the rules by city.
Agents and scripts get the same free check with no key: /api/free-check or the MCP tool civicdataforge_free_permit_check (setup).
Free check (18)
Permit Audit ($4.99) only (36)
Free check Permit Audit ($4.99) only Tap a pin to pick its city.
Paste one rental per line with its city, like 1200 Main St Unit 4, Denver. Each line is checked against that city's own published list, from this browser, and you get one table back. Up to 100 lines.
Live from the cities' own servers
The table opens with our server's last reading of each city's published permit list, with its time. Then your browser asks each city's list directly and replaces each row with what the city says right now. None of these numbers are typed in by us. Each row links to the city's own data so you can check it yourself.
Expiry already passed counts rows on the city's list whose expiry date is before today in that city. Some cities keep old permits on the list on purpose, so this is a fact about the list, not a claim about any host. A dash means that city's list has no expiry date we can count live (some cities store it as plain text). The Permit Audit ($4.99) flags these rows address by address.
Every answer comes from the city's published records. These are screenshots of those records, taken 15 Oct 2026. We blacked out the holder, license number and address.
Three prices for rental owners. Here is exactly what each covers, from our terms. Data and API plans are on pricing.
$4.99 once
$19.99 a month
$59 a month
The charges are $4.99 once, or $19.99 or $59 a month until you cancel. Stripe takes the payment.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| CivicDataForge | What the city's own data lists for each address, with a link to the source. You act on it yourself. |
| HostReady | "Daily monitoring of permit, zoning, tax and ordinance changes" |
| Avalara MyLodgeTax | Licensing and lodging tax done for you |
| The city's site, by hand | You search each city's data yourself and keep your own notes |
Bryan builds and runs CivicDataForge from Cleveland County, North Carolina, as part of Steel Lantern. Write to bryan@steellantern.com. Bryan replies within one business day.
CivicDataForge