Are building permits public record in Massachusetts, and how do I look one up by address?

Massachusetts defines a public record as all books, papers, maps, photographs, statistical tabulations "or other documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee" of a municipality, subject to the statute's exemptions (M.G.L. c. 4, § 7, cl. 26). A permit application and the permit issued on it are exactly that. The public records law then requires the records access officer to permit inspection or furnish a copy "at reasonable times and without unreasonable delay," and not later than ten business days after a request that reasonably describes the record, for a reasonable fee where one applies (M.G.L. c. 66, § 10). Towns say the same thing on their own pages: Hingham reminds buyers that its building department's records "are available to the public to check for legal occupancy, compliance, and for complaints against the property you propose to purchase" (Hingham Building Department), and Littleton describes its portal and property folders as public records "looked at by contractors, residents, insurance companies, real estate agents, attorneys, appraisers" (Littleton Building Department).

Start with the town's permit portal; the table below says which one each town uses and links its page on this site, where the portal button is. The public views work differently by vendor. On OpenGov (formerly ViewPoint Cloud), Needham's instructions are to log in, click "Search for Records," enter the property address and open the record number to see the application, activity, inspections and often the plot and construction plans (Needham Building Department). PermitEyes towns publish a public view: Attleboro links "all our online permits: public view," Mashpee offers a read-only public view that needs no user ID, and North Reading says to open its public view and type the address to see open and closed permits issued since September 2019 (Attleboro; Mashpee Online Permitting; North Reading). PermitLink lets you view or search all permits from the portal, as Dighton describes (Dighton). Lynnfield's PeopleGIS Simplicity portal is a MapsOnline building-permits page for the town (Lynnfield).

Two limits are worth knowing. Online history starts when the town went digital, not at the beginning of the building: Easton's database holds building permits from 2004 and trade permits from October 2014, Needham's permits issued since March 2020, Rehoboth's since September 2019, and North Reading keeps pre-2019 permits on paper at Town Hall (Easton; Needham; Rehoboth online permitting; North Reading). And a status label is not a sign-off: Barnstable cautions that a permit its software marks "completed" has not necessarily had its inspections, so confirm the inspection record (Barnstable Online Permit Center). For anything older, or for a town with no portal, ask the building department or file a public records request with the town's records access officer.

The table lists every Massachusetts municipality with an online permit portal, by vendor, from this site's building-department records (each town page carries the date its record was verified against the town website). The 74 towns without a portal take applications on paper or through their own permit page; their town pages say which.

A permit record usually shows the date, the permit type, the address, a description of the work, the applicant or contractor, and the inspections logged against it; some towns attach the plans. This site's town pages show the recent filings for the towns whose records are published as data, date, street, permit type, and note when the town's feed last updated. Names, valuations and house numbers are not shown on the public pages here; the town's own portal is the primary record.