Was your San Antonio job permitted? Here is how to check.
Start with the address, not the contractor. Which office issued the permit — or whether one exists at all — depends on where the house sits.
Inside San Antonio city limits
The City of San Antonio keeps two permit systems, split by date. Search the one that matches when the work was done, look for the permit's status, and whether a final inspection was recorded.
City of San Antonio building permits issued on or after November 30, 2020 are in BuildSA, the city's online permit portal.
Older San Antonio permits — issued April 2003 through November 2020, plus a limited batch from 1998–2003 — are held in the city's Legacy Permit Data Portal.
When we checked on 2026-09-11, the Legacy Permit Data Portal application itself returned an error page; the City's page describing it is the link above.
Outside the city, in unincorporated Bexar County
There may be nothing to look up — and that is not a red flag.
Bexar County does not require a county building permit for single-family homes (including duplexes and triplexes) in unincorporated areas; county permits cover floodplain development, on-site sewage (septic) systems, right-of-way and driveway work, and storm-water quality.
A Bexar County Floodplain Development Permit is required for any property in, or within 100 feet of, a FEMA-designated 1% (100-year) floodplain.
Other cities we serve
Alamo Heights, New Braunfels, Seguin and the other cities around San Antonio issue their own permits through their own building offices. Ask that city directly; this page names only the records we have checked ourselves.
Why the permit matters
CPS Energy requires a City permit number on every HVAC rebate application for a project completed inside San Antonio city limits.
San Antonio's residential code (2024 IRC Section M1401.3, adopted unamended by City Code Sec. 10-36) requires heating and cooling equipment to be sized per ACCA Manual S from building loads calculated per ACCA Manual J or another approved method.
A miss is not a verdict
If you cannot find a permit, that is not proof none exists. Records before 1998 are not online, addresses are typed differently from one system to the next, and a permit can sit under the contractor's name rather than the owner's. The honest reading of an empty search is "no permit found in the records we could search" — nothing more.
What to ask any contractor, including us
Before the work starts: "Which office issues the permit for this address, and will I get the permit number in writing?" When it ends: "When was the final inspection, and where can I see it?" A straight answer to both is worth more than any brochure.
Want a second set of eyes on a past job?
We will look at the record with you. No pitch attached.