Permits and licences profile

How building and other permits are described, from application through approval or denial.

Schemas: 1

Code lists: 3

Standards: schema.org, BLDS, national equivalents

Permit permit link

A permission granted by government to do something otherwise restricted: build, demolish, trade, occupy, hold an event, serve alcohol. Building permits and business licences are the highest-volume records most governments hold. schema:GovernmentPermit is a real type and supplies the grant itself - issuedBy, validFrom, validUntil, validFor, validIn - but nothing about the application that produced it, which is where most of the public interest lies. Those fields are minted here.

Standards: BLDS

Field	Type	Definition	Required
`@id`	`string`	This permit's own dereferenceable identifier.	Yes
`@type`	`"GovernmentPermit"`	Always `GovernmentPermit`, a real schema.org type.	Yes
`permitNumber`	`string`	The reference the authority uses publicly.	Yes
`name`	`string`	The permit's title, e.g. 'Building permit, 123 Main St'.	No
`description`	`string`	What is permitted. For building work, the description of works as submitted.	No
`url`	`string`	Where this permit's canonical human-readable page lives.	No
`identifier`	`Identifier[]`	Any scheme-qualified identifiers for this permit beyond its `@id`.	No
`permitType`	`string`	termCode from the PermitType code list. Deliberately generic: the same permission is a building permit, planning permission, a permis de construire or a Baugenehmigung depending on the country.	Yes
`permitStatus`	`string`	Where the application has reached. Required: a permit record without a status cannot be told apart from an application that was never decided.	Yes
`workType`	`string`	For construction permits, the nature of the works.	No
`issuedBy`	`Reference`	The GovernmentOrganization granting it. Real schema.org property.	Yes
`validIn`	`Reference`	The Jurisdiction the permit is valid in. Real schema.org property.	No
`applicationDate`	`string`	When the application was received. With decisionDate this is what makes processing time measurable, which is the question residents and developers actually ask.	No
`decisionDate`	`string`	When it was granted or refused.	No
`validFrom`	`string`	When the permit takes effect.	No
`validUntil`	`string`	When the permit expires. Absent means no fixed expiry.	No
`completionDate`	`string`	For works, when they were signed off.	No
`premises`	`object`	Where the permit applies: an address, a parcel identifier, or a reference to a `Place` - whichever the authority holds. A residential building permit ties a named applicant to a home address, so see the privacy section of the profile README before publishing applicant details alongside this.	No
`applicant`	`Reference`	Who applied, as a reference to an Organization. Optional by design: where the applicant is a private individual rather than a business, publishing their name against their home address is a disclosure decision the authority must make deliberately, not a field the schema demands.	No
`declaredValue`	`Amount`	Declared value of the works, where the authority collects it.	No
`fee`	`Amount`	Fee charged for the permit.	No
`condition`	`string[]`	Conditions attached to the grant. A permit granted subject to conditions is not the same as one granted outright, and only this field shows the difference.	No
`relatedLegislation`	`Reference`	The provision the permit is granted under - a zoning chapter, a licensing act. Joins to the code profile.	No
`sourceDataset`	`string`	The `Dataset` this record was published as part of.	No

Example

{
  "@id": "https://example-city.gov/id/permit/BLD-2025-0417",
  "@type": "GovernmentPermit",
  "permitNumber": "BLD-2025-0417",
  "name": "Ground-floor housing conversion, 118 Alder Street",
  "description": "Change of use and internal alteration to create six residential units above ground-floor retail.",
  "permitType": "building",
  "permitStatus": "issued",
  "workType": "changeOfUse",
  "issuedBy": {
    "@id": "https://example-city.gov/id/organization/public-works",
    "name": "Public Works Department"
  },
  "validIn": {
    "@id": "https://example-city.gov/id/jurisdiction/example-city",
    "name": "Example City"
  },
  "applicationDate": "2025-07-14",
  "decisionDate": "2025-09-02",
  "validFrom": "2025-09-02",
  "validUntil": "2027-09-02",
  "premises": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "streetAddress": "118 Alder Street",
      "addressLocality": "Example City",
      "addressRegion": "CA",
      "postalCode": "90210",
      "addressCountry": "US"
    },
    "geo": {
      "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
      "latitude": 34.0533,
      "longitude": -118.2418
    },
    "parcelIdentifier": {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "propertyID": "local:apn",
      "value": "5412-019-007"
    }
  },
  "applicant": {
    "@id": "https://example-city.gov/id/party/alder-street-holdings",
    "name": "Alder Street Holdings LLC"
  },
  "declaredValue": {
    "@type": "MonetaryAmount",
    "value": 1850000,
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "fee": {
    "@type": "MonetaryAmount",
    "value": 14320,
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "condition": [
    "Ground-floor retail frontage to be retained for the life of the permit.",
    "Construction hours limited to 07:00-18:00 Monday to Saturday."
  ],
  "relatedLegislation": {
    "@id": "https://example-city.gov/id/legislation/municipal-code/17.40",
    "name": "Chapter 17.40 — Commercial Zones"
  }
}

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