To find and download a City of Raleigh Certificate of Occupancy (CO), open the relevant building permit in the Permit and Development Portal and look under Attachments. If you do not know the permit number, start with the street address or the map’s parcel search. Raleigh’s 2025 records guide, page 14, describes both paths; use the document’s address, suite and project details to confirm that you have the certificate you need.
Find the document through either route
The City’s guide describes two useful starting points:
- Known permit or street address: Choose Search Public Records, enter the identifier, open the relevant case, then look for downloadable documents under Attachments. Its address example uses an abbreviated suffix such as Rd or St.
- Location first: Select Map, use Address & Parcel Search, and choose the matching location. Open the parcel/owner result itself, then the relevant case number. The guide warns that the checkbox/apply option leads toward an application instead. COs may appear with building permits or separately by address.
The City’s guide describes general records back to 2000, without guaranteeing every certificate attachment. If the portal or attachment is unavailable, use the Development Records contact below.
If the address format fails, Raleigh’s current portal Help Center recommends street number and street name without a suffix. Try that simpler form as an alternative to the records guide’s abbreviated-suffix example, recording which search screen you used. A parcel identifier belongs with the map/location search; do not assume every permit search box accepts an APN. Keep the permit number if you find one so that later document requests are tied to a case.
The Help Center says public-record searches do not require registration. It also distinguishes the City portal from Wake County’s separately configured system. Confirm that Raleigh Planning and Development is the issuing office for the record you need; a Raleigh mailing address alone is not a reason to treat a County file as a City certificate.
Compare the certificate, not the number of search hits
The City’s guide explains that the same CO can appear under a building permit and separately by address. Two access paths do not mean two certificates were issued. Open each document and compare four things:
- Identity: its certificate or permit identifier, where shown.
- Timing: the issue date on the document.
- Coverage: the address, suite, and space or use described.
- Document type: CO, CC, partial certificate or temporary certificate.
This is a comparison method, not a claim that every PDF has an identical layout. Record where you found each copy so you can return to it.
Hypothetical example: One search opens a CO from the building permit; another opens a CO for the address. If both lead to the same document, record one certificate with two access paths. If the documents have different dates or cover different suites, retain both until you can explain the difference. A shared address is too weak a basis either to merge them or to call them duplicate approvals.
Read the document type carefully. Raleigh’s CO service page distinguishes a CO from a Certificate of Completion (CC) for alterations or repairs and places the downloadable document in the building permit’s attachments. It also describes partial and temporary COs; a temporary CO expires 30 days after issuance. An old temporary document is not evidence of a later final CO. Look for the subsequent certificate or ask the City which record resolves its status.
A permit’s issuance, an inspection result and the certificate are different stages. If the attachment is absent, a passed inspection should not be relabeled as the missing CO. Our final inspection status guide explains how to preserve that distinction.
Request an older or missing certificate precisely
Raleigh’s Development Records page says download availability varies by project date and type. For a pre-2000 file, inaccessible attachment or unresolved document mismatch, ask Planning and Development Records at PlanDevRecords@raleighnc.gov or 919-996-2599 for help locating the record. The same page links the City’s online records-request form for building plans and related documents. Records already available in the portal are supplied through that self-service route.
Include the address and suite, approximate year, known permit number, and the particular CO, CC or temporary certificate you need. Explain whether you found no case, found a case with no attachment, or found two apparently different documents. Those are different research problems. For a historical development-plan file instead, use our separate Raleigh pre-2020 plan-record guide.
An empty online result leaves the certificate question unresolved; it does not establish unpermitted work, unlawful occupancy or an unsafe building. Ask the record custodian for the missing evidence before drawing a conclusion.
Other North Carolina offices route the same questions differently. Durham’s city and county permits share one portal, covered in how to search Durham permits and inspections in LDO, while inside Wilmington the county issues building permits; see where to find a Wilmington building permit.
Official sources checked September 29, 2026.