For a building project in Bellevue, Washington, check the permit’s required inspections and whether the permit calls for a Certificate of Occupancy. The City’s Inspections page says sign-off on the final building inspection authorizes occupancy unless a certificate is required. If the permit requires one, the certificate must be obtained before occupancy. Those two paths make a missing CO a different question from a missing final inspection.
How to check the required outcome on a permit
Start at the City’s MyBuildingPermit status route. Bellevue says it can show permit status and permit history at a property location. Match the project by permit number or address and read the inspection and conditions for that permit. A permit marked issued is still short of final approval. If there are several alterations at the same property, each project needs its own final. Our final-inspection status guide explains the stage distinction.
The MyBuildingPermit status guide gives a useful Bellevue-only search sequence. At the permit status site, select Bellevue as the jurisdiction, then use a full or partial permit number. For a location search, enter at least one of building number, street name or parcel, and compare the matching permit descriptions. A date filter first requires choosing whether it means Applied, Issued or Finaled. Results are capped at 100, so narrow an overbroad search before opening the permit hyperlink. The guide warns that some conditions may be missing online; ask the City for the complete condition record when that affects the occupancy decision.
The City’s inspection instructions make the next decision concrete:
- No CO required on the building permit: look for the final building inspection sign-off. The City identifies that sign-off as the occupancy authorization for this route.
- CO required: request or verify the issued Certificate of Occupancy as well as the final-inspection status. Bellevue names new commercial and multifamily buildings, some substantial additions, and commercial tenant improvements with a change of use among projects for which certificates are issued. Check the actual permit or ask the building inspector rather than applying that list to every property.
- Temporary Certificate of Occupancy: a TCO is conditional and comes before the final CO. The City says it may be issued with life-safety issues resolved, only incidental work remaining and the owner agreeing to listed conditions. A TCO is valid for 90 days; the conditions and CO request must be handled before its expiration.
For example, if an old project summary shows an issued permit and a later TCO, the TCO shows a conditional occupancy stage; the final CO is a later record. Compare the TCO conditions, any later final-inspection sign-off and the CO record. Conversely, if the permit required no CO, repeated searching for a separate certificate may miss the actual final sign-off that matters for that project. The City’s page advises consulting the building permit or inspector to decide which certificate is required. Our certificate-versus-permit guide explains how these document names differ.
Get the underlying record when the status view is thin
Bellevue’s Development Services Records office manages building-construction permits and plans and accepts online requests for permit records. For a missing final or certificate, provide the address, permit number if known, project type and the specific item—final building inspection sign-off, TCO with conditions, or final CO. The office lists 425-452-7914 and dsrecords@bellevuewa.gov. The City’s contact page separately lists inspection support for an inspection-status question.
A blank status result doesn’t prove that no permit was issued. Ask Development Services Records what file is held for the period and whether a different project number or address should be checked, since the records file and the search display can have different coverage. The records page routes other classes such as right-of-way, utilities or code-enforcement files through the general public-records route; choose the custodian matching the work.
City of Bellevue inspection, permitting and records pages checked September 28, 2026.