For title agents, settlement companies, and closing attorneys
What could hold up closing, found the day the file opens
Open permits, code cases, and tax delinquency, gathered from each city’s own systems and joined to the property, so a problem shows up while there is still time to clear it, well before the title search comes back.
The work today
Finding out late
It is ordered, paid for, and returned days later, often in the final week, when an open permit or a code case is hardest to clear.
The building department, code enforcement, and the tax office keep their own records, and each one is asked on its own.
A violation opened after the search and before the closing date surfaces at the table, or after it.
Questions title teams ask
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In Philadelphia, how many properties that sold in the last 12 months had a code violation still open on the day they sold?
1,694 properties, out of 31,086 sales between October 2025 and September 2026, sold with at least one code violation opened before the sale and still unresolved on the day it closed.
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In Miami, how many homes sold this year had a building permit issued in the year before the sale that was never finaled?
721 homes, on 894 sales since January, carried a permit issued in the year before the sale with no final inspection on record. Counting commercial buildings, 887 properties.
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In Cleveland, how many properties sold this year had a code violation opened in the year before the sale, and how many of those were still open at the sale?
745 properties sold this year had a code violation opened in the year before the sale, and nearly all of those violations were still open on the day it sold.
Real questions, asked in DeltaVisor on the dates shown. Answers shortened.
The records behind the answers
- Permits: issued, finaled, expired, and stopped, with the status each city publishes
- Code enforcement: violations opened and resolved, condemnations, and vacancy
- Tax delinquency, from each market’s own delinquent-tax roll or tax sale filings
- Sales and deeds, with the sale price
- Owner name and mailing address from the assessment roll