To look up a Norfolk, Virginia building permit, search the address in the City’s Permits and Inspections dataset on data.norfolk.gov, which lists every permit with its status, dates, fee and inspection results and is updated daily. Applications, payments and inspection requests go through the E-Permit Portal. In 2023–24 home permits, a typical Norfolk building permit was issued 21 days after the application, and 86.4% had passed a final inspection by October 2026.
We followed the 2,602 residential building permits for one- and two-family homes that applicants filed in 2023 and 2024 (cancelled, withdrawn and unfinished applications removed), using the dataset as updated October 24, 2026.
| Item | What we found |
|---|---|
| Where to search | Permits and Inspections dataset by address; E-Permit Portal to apply, pay and request inspections |
| Application to issue | Median 21 days; 23.1% within a week; 90% within 118 days |
| New homes (certificate of occupancy required) | 285 permits; median 60 days to issue and 203 days from issue to final |
| Finaled by October 2026 | 86.4%; 7.4% expired, 5.6% still issued |
| Issue to final inspection | Median 77 days; three quarters within 176 days |
| Permits with a failed inspection | 54.5% had at least one disapproved inspection |
| Median permit fee | $152 overall; $659 for a new home |
| Questions | 757-664-6565 or planreviewpermits@norfolk.gov |
How to look up a Norfolk building permit by address
- Open the Permits and Inspections dataset and filter permit_address by the street address, written the way the City writes it (for example, HENRICO STREET rather than St).
- Note the permit number in the ftpuser column. Building permits read B plus the year, such as B24-00003. Each inspection on a permit is its own row, so one permit can fill a dozen rows.
- Read permit_status (Finaled, Issued, Expired, Revoked) and the application, issue and finaled dates.
- Read the inspection rows: inspection_type (footing, framing, final and so on) and inspection_status (Approved, Approved with exceptions, Disapproved, Disapproved with penalty).
- For drawings and documents, sign in to the E-Permit Portal or call the Building Permit Team at 757-664-6565. Our Norfolk older plans guide covers records from before the portal.
The same dataset also carries 252,963 inspection rows from the City’s Neighborhood Quality group, so an address search can show those visits next to the permits. On the Permits and Inspections page, the City also posts a plan review queue with the anticipated review date for each project.
How long Norfolk home permits took in 2023–24, by type of work
| Work type in the data | Permits | Apply to issue (median) | Finaled | Expired | Issue to final (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reroof/Solar Panels | 691 | 8 days | 90.6% | 3.0% | 49 days |
| Alteration/Repair | 1,070 | 18 days | 84.8% | 9.6% | 64 days |
| New | 471 | 48 days | 89.2% | 3.2% | 187 days |
| Addition (more square footage) | 180 | 63 days | 74.4% | 17.8% | 185 days |
| Minor addition | 77 | 34 days | 80.5% | 15.6% | 86 days |
| Replacement | 70 | 35 days | 82.9% | 11.4% | 73 days |
| COE (existing-building occupancy) | 43 | 46 days | 95.3% | 2.3% | 15 days |
Roof and solar permits moved fastest: 47.8% were issued within a week of the application. The City’s permit page lists one- and two-family re-roofs among work that needs no building permit, and its solar checklist calls for an electrical final and a building final on every solar system. The data puts both under one label. Additions were slowest to issue (median 63 days) and the most likely to expire, at 17.8%.
New homes that needed a certificate of occupancy (285 of the 471 New permits) took a median 60 days to issue and another 203 days to reach a final. 94.7% were finaled. Their median reported project cost was $150,000 and their median fee $659; the other 186 New permits, filed without an occupancy requirement, had a median reported cost of $15,000.
Which Norfolk inspections fail most often
1,418 of the 2,602 permits (54.5%) had at least one disapproved inspection before October 2026. A disapproval means the work has to be corrected and inspected again. Among inspection types with at least 300 recorded results:
- Framing: 47.8% of 1,998 results disapproved.
- Building final: 38.8% of 3,716 results.
- Nailing: 33.7% of 940.
- Zoning check for the certificate of occupancy: 33.4% of 497.
- Foundation: 29.5% of 515; footing 28.8% of 1,210; insulation 28.7% of 1,085.
- Slab: 18.5% of 313.
143 inspection results in our 2023–24 sample were recorded as Disapproved with penalty. A failed final followed later by an approved final is normal; a permit whose last final is Disapproved and whose status is Expired is the one to ask about.
When a Norfolk home project needs a building permit
The City’s Permits and Inspections page requires a building permit for residential work that adds or exposes framing, including removing drywall, building or moving walls, changing the roof pitch, decks, room additions, screened or covered porches, accessory structures over 256 square feet, pools deeper than 2 feet and hot tubs. One- and two-family re-roofs, same-size replacement windows, vinyl or shake siding, cabinets, flooring, minor deck repairs, driveways and retaining walls holding back less than 2 feet of fill need no building permit. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing work uses separate trade permits. Fees follow the City’s building permit fee schedule; the portal accepts Visa and Mastercard only.
What to check on a Norfolk house before you buy
- Every building permit at the address, with its status and finaled date.
- Any permit marked Expired or still Issued, and which inspections it passed.
- For a newer house, a building final and the zoning check for the certificate of occupancy.
- Trade permits (electrical, mechanical, plumbing) for the same work, which carry their own finals.
- Neighborhood Quality inspection rows at the address.
- Older plans or permits from before the portal, through the City records request covered in our older plans guide.
About the Norfolk permit data
The Permits and Inspections dataset has one row per inspection, so we counted permits by permit number. Our sample is residential building permits for one- and two-family dwellings with an application date in 2023 or 2024; trade permits are left out. Times run from application to issue and from issue to the finaled date. For permit data from other cities, see our building permit data page, and for Virginia’s capital, our Richmond permit history guide. For violations at a Norfolk address, see our Norfolk code violation lookup, and for the city next door, our Virginia Beach building permit search.
If you plan to rent the home for fewer than 30 nights, check our Norfolk short-term rental permit guide, since the City wants decks, driveways and added bedrooms permitted first.
Norfolk permits name the contractor, and Virginia contractor licenses are public in DPOR; our Virginia contractor license lookup shows how to read the class and specialty codes.
City of Norfolk permit pages and open data checked October 25, 2026.