How to look up a building permit in Bernalillo County, New Mexico

In Accela the public record search is usually reached from the tab bar rather than the home page. Search by permit number if you have it; otherwise switch the form to address search and enter the street number and street name only. Leaving off the suffix (Road, Street, Avenue) returns more results, because Accela matches the address string literally and a mismatch in the suffix returns nothing.

Using Accela Citizen Access specifically

Bernalillo County, New Mexico runs its permitting through Accela Citizen Access. Accela splits everything behind a row of tabs — typically Building, Planning, Enforcement and Licenses — and each tab has its own search form. Most Accela sites let you look up an existing permit without an account, but you must register before you can start a new application or pay a fee.

Two Accela quirks catch people out. Records created before the jurisdiction moved to Accela are often not loaded, so an older permit may return no result even though it exists on paper. And a saved-but-unsubmitted application expires from your dashboard after a set period, which is why a half-finished application sometimes disappears.

Search by parcel number where you can

Street addresses are renumbered, re-suffixed and reassigned as areas develop, and a house standing for sixty years may have had three of them. Parcel numbers usually survive all of it, so a parcel search returns the complete history where an address search returns a partial one. Where address search is the only option, enter the house number and street name without the suffix — most systems match the string literally and fail on "Rd" against "Road".

Reading what comes back

• Issued — work is authorised and inspections are outstanding.
• Finaled or closed — passed final inspection. This is what you want to see on a property you are buying.
• Open — issued but never signed off. It transfers with the property.
• Expired — the validity window lapsed without inspection activity.
• Void or withdrawn — the application never became a permit.

If nothing comes back

Before concluding that work was unpermitted, rule out the likelier explanations. Records predating Accela Citizen Access at this office are frequently not loaded. The work may sit with another agency — septic with the health department, driveways with public works, floodplain with the state. Or the property may be inside a city, in which case the municipality holds the record and Bernalillo County will show nothing at all. Ask the office to check the paper file before you draw a conclusion.

Our guide to looking up permits covers the records-request route where no online search exists.