Did you know you can find building permits, certificates of occupancy, site plans, past city correspondence, and even past violations for any Fort Collins property online? This is a very helpful due diligence resource for any buyer purchasing a home. By going to http://citydocs.fcgov.com/ you can simply type in the address of the property you are researching and voilà, you can see a list of documents the City of Fort Collins has online for the subject property.
Screenshot of Fort Collins’ public records search page
Here are just a few things I’ve used this website for in the past when doing due diligence as a buyer’s agent:
- Find out if a building permit was pulled for past renovations. This also helps you verify the dates that past work was done on a house. Ex: sometimes a seller will say “the furnace is ~5-10 years old”. By reviewing the permit, you can find out when it was actually done.
- Past Roofing Permits
- Furnaces
- Water heaters
- Additions
- Bathrooms
- Certificates of Occupancy – If a home is being sold as a “legal multi-family”, it is important to have a CO (certificate of occupancy) for each unit.
- Past violations – This could be occupancy violations, deferred maintenance, etc.
- Site plans – if larger additions were made to the home, sometimes these are required to be submitted to the city
- Zoning changes
The City of Loveland has a similar online portal at: https://wsinno.ci.loveland.co.
This is a screenshot of Loveland’s online portal at https://wsinno.ci.loveland.co.us/citizenaccess/