What an open permit is, and how it gets closed

An open permit is one that was issued but never signed off. The work may have been finished thirty years ago; as far as the municipality is concerned, it is still in progress. Nobody notices until somebody looks — and the person who looks is usually a buyer's attorney or a title company, three weeks before a closing.

Why it stops a deal

An open permit is an unresolved liability attached to the property, not to whoever pulled it. A title company will flag it. A lender may decline to fund against it. A buyer's attorney will, at minimum, want it addressed at closing — frequently by holding back money in escrow until it is.

What closing one actually takes

The sequence is usually: pull the file and establish what the permit covered, inspect what was actually built, reconcile the two, and file whatever the municipality needs to issue the sign-off. Where the built work matches the approved work, that can be straightforward. Where it does not — the deck grew, the layout changed, the electrical was never inspected — the gap has to be closed first.

The cases that take longer

The contractor who pulled the permit is gone and the inspection records are incomplete
The work no longer complies with current code, so it cannot simply be inspected and signed
The permit was pulled for one scope and a different scope was built
Additional unpermitted work is discovered during the inspection

What to do if you are selling

Check before you list, not after you are under contract. A property file review takes a few days and tells you what is on the record. Discovering an open permit with six weeks to closing is a very different problem from discovering it with six months.