Building Permit Leads with Contractor License Status

Know who's building before you call. Every new building permit comes with the contractor's license status from official state records: license number, active or not, license expiry and insurance expiry, plus a normalized trade so you can go straight to the jobs that matter to you.

Coverage today: Tacoma, WA (City of Tacoma permit data, refreshed daily by the City). More Pacific Northwest cities will be added as permission is granted.

Who it is for

• Subcontractors and installers (roofing, solar, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire protection) looking for jobs in progress.
• Material suppliers and equipment rental who want to reach active, properly licensed builders.
• Insurers, bonding agents and lenders watching for projects by contractors whose license or insurance is lapsing.
• AI agents and automations that need a daily permit-lead feed (it works as an MCP tool).

What you get for each permit

Field	What it is
permit_id, permit_type, permit_subtype	As published by the City
trade	Our normalized trade: new_construction, addition_alteration, roofing, solar, hvac_mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire_protection, demolition, sign, site, right_of_way, utility, other. trade_confidence is high when it comes from the City's permit category, low when it is read from the description.
status, status_detail	in_review, issued, finaled, expired, cancelled, plus the City's own wording
applied_date, issued_date
valuation_usd, housing_units	The declared project value and new units
site_address, zip, lat, lon, parcel_number	Where the work is
description	The work description as filed
source_url	The permit's official record
contractor	The matched contractor license, or null (see below)
attribution, terms_url	The City's required disclaimer and its source page

Contractor license status

• What's included. For a business license: license_number, business_name, license_type, specialties, license_status (for example ACTIVE, EXPIRED, SUSPENDED), license_expires and insurance_expires, with match_method and match_confidence.
• Individual license holders. When the license belongs to an individual (a sole proprietor), only the license number and the status, expiry and insurance dates are shown. No name.
• How matching works. Tacoma's permit data doesn't include a license number, so permits are matched by exact business name (ignoring punctuation and LLC/Inc-style suffixes) against Washington L&I contractor licenses:
  • medium confidence means exactly one active business license has that name.
  • low means a weaker match (an individual, an inactive license, or several candidates of which only one is active). Low matches are hidden unless you set min_match_confidence to low.
  • If two different licenses could fit, we show no match rather than guess.
  • When a city publishes license numbers on its permits, those matches are exact (high).
• Turn on require_contractor_match to receive only permits with a matched license.

Input

Field	Default	What it does
cities	all available	Today: tacoma
trades	all	e.g. ["roofing", "solar"]
since, until	the last 7 days	Dates (YYYY-MM-DD), up to a year back
date_field	issued_date	Or applied_date, for permits still in review
statuses	["issued"]	Any of in_review, issued, finaled, expired, cancelled
min_valuation_usd, max_valuation_usd	none	Project value range
require_contractor_match	false	Only permits with a matched license
min_match_confidence	medium	high, medium or low
max_permits	100	At most 2,000 per run

Example: roofing and solar jobs worth $20,000 or more, issued since October 1, 2026.

{ "trades": ["roofing", "solar"], "min_valuation_usd": 20000, "since": "2026-10-01" }

For a daily feed, schedule the Actor every morning with since set to yesterday.

Output example

A real item from a run on 2026-10-22 (the attribution text is shortened here):

{
  "permit_id": "FIREC26-0209",
  "permit_type": "Building",
  "permit_subtype": "Commercial",
  "trade": "fire_protection",
  "trade_confidence": "high",
  "status": "issued",
  "status_detail": "Permit Issued",
  "applied_date": "2026-09-23",
  "issued_date": "2026-10-16",
  "valuation_usd": 60768,
  "housing_units": 0,
  "site_address": "602 N SPRAGUE AVE, TACOMA,WA 98403",
  "zip": "98403",
  "lat": 47.2563,
  "lon": -122.4645,
  "parcel_number": "0320061056",
  "description": "Modification to existing fire alarm system for tenant improvements in Commercial Bldg. at Hilltop Heritage. Installation of (49) new devices and (1) new panel.",
  "source_url": "https://aca-prod.accela.com/TACOMA/urlrouting.ashx?type=1000&Module=Permits&capID1=DUB26&capID2=00000&capID3=00KAP&agencyCode=TACOMA",
  "source": "tacoma",
  "jurisdiction": "Tacoma, WA",
  "state": "WA",
  "contractor": {
    "license_state": "WA",
    "license_number": "JOHNSC*272OS",
    "entity_type": "business",
    "license_status": "ACTIVE",
    "license_expires": "2028-10-28",
    "insurance_expires": "2027-10-01",
    "bond_expires": null,
    "match_method": "name",
    "match_confidence": "medium",
    "business_name": "JOHNSON CONTROLS INC",
    "license_type": "CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR",
    "specialties": [
      "GENERAL"
    ]
  },
  "attribution": "The information and data made available here has been modified for use from its original source,… (the full required disclaimer)",
  "terms_url": "https://data.tacoma.gov/pages/disclaimer"
}

Pricing

$0.025 per permit delivered (pay per event). You pay only for permits written to your dataset; permits filtered out, or skipped for lack of a contractor match when you require one, are free. Apify platform usage is included, and Apify adds its standard run-start fee of $0.00005. Use max_permits and Apify's per-run spending limit to cap a run; the Actor stops cleanly at your limit.

Limitations (please read)

• Coverage. Tacoma, WA only for now. More Pacific Northwest cities will be added only as their data owners grant permission.
• Matching. Matches come from business names, so a contractor filed under a different name, or a homeowner pulling their own permit, shows contractor: null. Confidence levels tell you how sure the match is; check the license on the state's site before relying on it.
• License data. Washington records are business-level only. Bond status isn't included for Washington, because the state's bond dataset doesn't state a reuse license. Insurance comes from L&I's published insurance data.
• No personal names. Permit applicant, property owner, and license principal names are never delivered, and individuals' license records are shown without a name. Phone numbers and mailing addresses from license records aren't included.
• City data can change or stop. The City publishes and updates the permit data and may withdraw it. If a source withdraws permission, it's removed from this Actor.
• No code-enforcement data from any source.

Required disclaimer (City of Tacoma)

The information and data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the City of Tacoma. The City of Tacoma makes no claims as to the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of any information and data contained in this application; makes no representation of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranty of the accuracy or fitness for a particular use; nor are any such warranties to be implied or inferred with respect to the information or data furnished herein. The information and data is subject to change without notice. It is understood that the information and data contained in the web site is being used at user’s own risk.

Source terms: https://data.tacoma.gov/pages/disclaimer. Every dataset item also carries this text in attribution.

Use it from an AI agent (MCP)

This Actor runs with Apify's default limited permissions, so it is available through Apify's MCP server:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=vanakenj45/permit-leads-license-status

An agent can call it with input like {"trades": ["roofing"], "require_contractor_match": true} and read the results with get-dataset-items.

Data sources and licenses

• Permits: City of Tacoma, Accela permit data on the City's open data portal (ArcGIS item a12d6fbf58e4434b8ff5070c09646f19), used under the City's open data terms with the disclaimer above.
• Washington contractor licenses: Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, "L&I Contractor License Data - General" (data.wa.gov m8qx-ubtq, Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License) and "L&I Contractor License Data - Insurance" (ciwg-agsx, public domain).