You can look up code violations on any property for free. It's public record. What nobody tells you is how uneven the experience is: one city hands you a clean searchable database, the next makes you call a department that transfers you three times and then says they don't keep a list. Here's how to do it in every case, whether you're an investor sizing up a lead or an owner checking your own house.
To look up code violations on a property, find the city or county code enforcement department with jurisdiction over the address, search its online permit or code portal by address, and if there's no portal, file a public records request. Check each case's type, status, and date to judge whether it's active and meaningful.
Step 1: Figure out who has jurisdiction
Code enforcement is local. A Seattle house is Seattle's; an unincorporated parcel is the county's. Get this wrong and you'll search the wrong database and conclude, incorrectly, that a property is clean.
Start with the address. If it's inside city limits, the city handles it. If it's unincorporated, the county does. When you're not sure, the county assessor's parcel lookup will tell you the taxing jurisdiction, which is usually your answer. The assessor is one of the public records every investor should know.
Step 2: Search the online portal
Most cities publish code cases through one of three things:
- An open-data site. The cleanest option. Seattle, for example, publishes code complaints and violations on its open data portal, searchable and downloadable.
- A permit and code portal. Many cities run a system like Accela or eTRAKiT where you search permits and enforcement cases by address. Look for "permit search," "code enforcement," or "code compliance" on the city's building or planning page.
- A GIS or property map. Some counties surface cases on a parcel map.
Search by street address. Pull up every case, open and closed. You're looking for the violation type, the status, and the date the case opened.
Step 3: If there's no portal, file a public records request
Plenty of cities have no searchable database, or a bad one. This is the single most common frustration I hear: you call, get transferred, and someone tells you they can't just "run a list." They're not wrong about the list, but they do have to give you the records under your state's public records law.
Submit a written public records request to the city or county for code enforcement records at the specific address. Keep it narrow (one address, a date range) and it's usually fast and free or close to it. This is also why code violations count as public record even when the website is useless.
Step 4: Read the case like an investor
Finding the case is half of it. Knowing whether it matters is the other half. Three fields do the work:
- Type. A vacant-building or emergency case is a strong distress signal; a construction or permit case usually isn't.
- Status. Open, notice issued, and past-deadline cases are live. A case marked closed or "in compliance" is history.
- Date. Recent cases are situations in progress. A closed case from a decade ago tells you little.
If you want the vocabulary for what you're reading, start here on what code violations are.
The shortcut: skip the portal roulette
Doing this one address at a time is fine when you're checking a single house. It falls apart when you want every flagged property in a market, because you'd be juggling seven different portals, three data formats, and a pile of uncategorized cases.
That's the problem FlaggedLeads exists to solve. I pull all of it, across Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Burien, Pierce County and more, normalize the messy parts, and put every case on one map. You can browse the free map without any of the portal-hopping. If you'd rather do it yourself, the steps above are the manual version of exactly that.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out if a house has code violations?
Search the code enforcement or code compliance department of the city or county where the house is located. Most publish an online portal or open-data site you can search by address. If there's no portal, file a public records request for enforcement records at that address.
Can I look up code violations for free?
Yes. Code violations are public records, so looking them up is free or close to it. Online portals are free to search, and public records requests are usually free or carry a small copying fee. You only pay when a data service compiles and enriches the records for you.
Is there a code violation search by address?
For many cities, yes. Look for a permit and code portal (often Accela or eTRAKiT) or an open-data site on the city's building or planning pages, and search by street address. Coverage and quality vary a lot by city, which is the main hassle.
Do code violations show up on a property report or title search?
Not always. A standard title search surfaces recorded liens, so a code enforcement lien can appear, but an open violation that hasn't become a lien yet often won't. That's exactly why checking the city's records directly matters before you buy.
How do I check code violations on my own house?
The same way: search your city or county's code enforcement portal by your address, or file a public records request. It's worth doing before you sell, since unresolved violations can complicate a sale or scare off a lender.