If you've never pulled a roofing permit before, you're not alone. Most homeowners don't think about permits until someone brings it up, usually mid-project or after a problem shows up. By then, it's already stressful.
A roofing permit is not a gold star that guarantees perfect work. It doesn't mean a contractor is the best. It doesn't mean nothing can go wrong. What it does provide is a basic layer of accountability that's easy to overlook until it's missing.
What a Permit Actually Does
At its core, a permit creates a public record. It ties a specific contractor to a specific property, at a specific time, for a specific scope of work. That record lives beyond the sales pitch and beyond the job itself. If there's ever a question later, there's something concrete to point back to.
What a permit usually tells you is that the contractor was willing to put their name on the work in a system that can be checked. It means the job was visible to the city and subject to at least some level of oversight. In many cases, it also means inspections were required before the project could be closed out.
What a Permit Doesn't Tell You
What a permit does not tell you is whether the crew rushed, whether corners were cut, or whether the contractor was great at communication. Plenty of permitted jobs still have issues. A permit is a floor, not a ceiling.
This is where a lot of confusion comes from. Some homeowners assume permits guarantee quality. Others assume they're meaningless paperwork. The truth sits somewhere in the middle. Permits don't replace doing your homework, but skipping them removes one of the few objective signals available in a very sales-driven industry.
The Visibility Problem
Another challenge is that permit information is hard to find. Each city handles things differently. Some data is online, some isn't. Some is searchable, some lives in PDFs. Most homeowners don't know where to look, and most contractors know that.
The result is a gap in visibility. Homeowners are forced to rely on trust and timing, while contractors who do everything by the book don't get much credit for it. That's the problem we're trying to solve.
The Bottom Line
Permits aren't everything. But pretending they don't matter at all is usually a mistake. They're one of the few things in this industry that can actually be verified — and that's why we built HomeHudl around them. Not because permit data tells you everything, but because it's a starting point that doesn't depend on anyone's sales pitch.