About CanPermits
CanPermits brings together the public record of a property — the permits, inspections, orders, and licences a city keeps on file — into a single, readable report. The information is already public, but it's scattered across municipal systems and hard to read. We put it in one place for any address.
What we're trying to do
A property's history lives in public records — what was built, renovated, or demolished; what was inspected; what orders or violations were issued; what businesses were licensed there. That record can tell you a lot before you buy, rent, lend on, insure, or move into a place. But it's spread across separate municipal databases, each with its own format, and most people never see it. Our objective is to close that gap:
- → One report per address. Pull a property's public records together into one place, so you don't have to hunt through separate city systems to understand its history.
- → Make scattered public records usable. Bring fragmented municipal data together into one current, readable view of what's on file for a property.
- → Map records to the right address. Tie each record to the property it actually belongs to — carefully, so what you read can be trusted.
- → Earn trust. Independent of government, transparent about our public sources, and careful with personal information.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants to understand a property through its public record:
- Buyers and renters checking the history of a place before they commit.
- Owners reviewing what's on file for their own property.
- Real-estate agents, brokers, and other professionals — anyone doing due diligence on an address as part of their work.
How we work
- ✓ Built on public data. Everything starts from open data that cities publish under open-government licences — brought together and kept current. Each source and its attribution is listed on our Data Sources page.
- ✓ We map carefully, not loosely. We apply strict address matching before attaching a record to a property — we'd rather leave a record out than risk tying it to the wrong address.
- ✓ We show the record, not our opinion. A report presents what the city published. We don't grade, score, or interpret a property — you read the record and draw your own conclusions.
- ✓ Privacy-respecting. We surface public records tied to a property, not people. We don't publish private individuals' personal information, ownership, or title.
- ✓ Accurate, and honest about limits. Public data can be incomplete or delayed — for an authoritative record, always check with the issuing city.
What we are
- ✓ An independent platform built on public municipal open data
- ✓ One readable report of a property's public records
- ✓ Free to search — starting in Toronto, expanding across Canada
What we are not
- ✗ Not a government service or agency, and not affiliated with any municipality
- ✗ Not an official or certified record — check the city for that
- ✗ Not a source of ownership, title, or personal information