Selling a House With Open Permits or Unpermitted Work in Miami
Open permits, expired permits and work done without a permit come up on a lot of Miami houses, often years after the work was finished. None of them stops a sale by itself. This guide covers how to check what is open on your property, what it means for a sale, and how to sell the house as it is.
How to Run a Miami-Dade Open Permit Search
For property in unincorporated Miami-Dade, the Miami-Dade County building permit search is free. It lets you look up open master permits by address and open permits by folio number. A folio that starts with 30 means the property is in unincorporated Miami-Dade and the county is the building department.
If the property is inside a city, that city keeps the permit records. The City of Miami has its own City of Miami permit search, and cities such as Hialeah and Opa-locka run their own searches.
What an Open or Expired Permit Means When You Sell
A permit stays open until the final inspection is approved. According to the county permit instructions, once a permit is issued there are 180 days to complete the work and call for inspections, and each approved inspection extends the permit another 180 days. When that time runs out with no final inspection, the permit expires, and it has to be reissued before it can be closed. Only a licensed contractor or an owner-builder can pull or take over a permit.
That is how a window, fence or gate job that was finished years ago can still show up as open. The work was done, but nobody called for the final inspection.
Are Efficiencies Illegal in Miami?
An efficiency is illegal when it adds a living unit the zoning does not allow. The Miami-Dade County page on multi-family use and efficiencies describes this as dividing a residence into separate living units beyond what the zoning district permits. Inspectors look for signs such as:
- More than one cooking area in the main house
- Living areas that are not connected to each other
- An exterior door added without a permit
- A detached building with air conditioning or a kitchen
- More than one utility meter or mailbox
The county lists fines of $510 for a first offense and $1,010 after that, and unpaid fines can become a lien. The Property Appraiser can also go back and assess taxes for up to three years once multi-family use is confirmed. These rules are for unincorporated Miami-Dade. Each city enforces its own.
Selling a House With Unpermitted Work in Miami
With an addition, a converted garage or an efficiency built without a permit, there are two ways to get the property into compliance: legalize the work with plans, permits and inspections, or demolish it. Which one makes sense depends on the house. A seller does not have to make that call before selling. When we buy a house with an efficiency, we decide whether to legalize it or take it out after we own it.
Selling a House With Open Permits As-Is
We buy houses in Miami with open and expired permits. We close on the property, pay the seller, and then deal with the city or the county ourselves to get everything into compliance. You can read more about how we buy houses.
One house we bought in unincorporated Miami-Dade had window permits that had been open for five years. They came up during the lien search. We did not make an issue of it. We closed on time for the seller and closed out the permits afterward, with a contractor we hired to do it. We have done the same on other houses with window permits, and it comes up often with fences and gates.
Sometimes the open permits belong to a remodel that stalled. Another developer opens plans and permits, runs into a tough spot, and stops. We have taken over remodels like that, finished the work, and closed the permits.
City Rules in Hialeah and Opa-locka
Some cities add their own steps before a sale. See our guides to the City of Hialeah re-occupancy certificate and to selling a house with code liens or open permits in Opa-locka. For fines that have already been recorded, see how to sell a house with code violations.
Miami-Dade County Contacts
Miami-Dade Permit Records Section: 786-315-2100. Neighborhood Regulations Division, for efficiency and zoning violations: 786-315-2552.
Sources: the Miami-Dade County building permit search, the county permit instructions and the Miami-Dade County page on multi-family use and efficiencies. Checked October 2026. Rules and fines can change, so confirm with the county or your city before you rely on them.