The paperwork nobody handed you at closing
Every public record King County and the City of Seattle will give us about one Seattle house — owners and deeds, permits back to the microfilm era, buried tanks, side-sewer cards, hazards and aerials. Every source named, every gap stated plainly, all of it in one PDF.
Start free: see what we find on your address.
No email needed. We match your address to its King County parcel and show you what we found. Ordering the dossier is a separate step.
42 records across 12 County and City sources in the published sample, 11 documents attached in full · every chapter names its source and whether we retrieved it
Sourced from official King County and City of Seattle records
Who buys one
One PDF, one address. What changes is the question you brought to it.
Real-estate agents
Order one the night a listing lands. You will know what was permitted, whether a heating-oil tank was pulled or left in the ground, and where the side sewer runs — so the conversation about the finished basement happens in your office, not in an inspection response four days before closing.
In the dossier: Permits — modernPermits — historical microfilmUtilities
Buyers
You get about a week. In it, the dossier tells you whether the added bedroom was ever permitted, what the tank permit says happened to the tank, and what hazard and cleanup layers touch the lot — the questions an inspection report and a title commitment both leave open.
In the dossier: Permits — modernEnvironmentalHazards & geology
Sellers
Washington's seller disclosure statement asks what you know about permits, the sewer and underground storage tanks. This is the paper trail behind those answers — and where a record is missing, you find that out before a buyer's inspector does.
In the dossier: Permits — historical microfilmUtilitiesEnvironmental
Homeowners & remodelers
The first question a designer asks is what is on record. The dossier hands over the modern permits and the pre-1970 microfilm sheets where SDCI holds them for your address, plus the side-sewer route and the tank permit — the three things that move a remodel budget after the drawings are done.
In the dossier: Buildings & improvementsPermits — historical microfilmUtilities
Investors
One PDF per address: what was permitted, what the assessor records as built, what is registered as a rental, what complaints and violations were filed, and whether there is a tank in the yard. Cheap enough to run on every address on the shortlist and throw most of them away.
In the dossier: Ownership & salesCompliance & registrationValue & taxes
What you get, and what it costs
The chapter list is the same for every address. Where a source has nothing on your house, the chapter says so instead of disappearing.
The honest limit: scanned records are attached in full up to 6 scanned pages per source, and the attached set as a whole stays under 3.8 MB so the PDF stays emailable. A longer document keeps its first pages and the remainder is listed in the appendix as “N of M pages embedded” with its public-record URL, so nothing disappears quietly — you can always pull the rest yourself.
Start with the one nobody mentions
For half a century Seattle houses were heated with oil from a steel tank buried in the yard. Most of those tanks were never dug out. They were pumped, filled with sand and left where they lay — and the permit that closes the file says decommissioned, which almost everyone reads as gone.
The City's residential underground-storage-tank records hold 50,143 decommissioning permits. In 11,944 of them — 24%, nearly one in four — the tank was abandoned in place: pumped out, cleaned, filled with sand or slurry, and left in the ground. Only 3,049 — 6% — record a removal with nothing put back in its place; the other 35,126 took the old tank out and installed a new one. Same word on every permit. Very different things under the lawn.
The old tank is excavated and hauled away. In 35,126 of these the permit also records a new tank going in, so something is still on the property — just not the one that was decommissioned. Only 3,049 permits record a removal with nothing put back.
The tank is pumped out, cleaned, filled with sand or slurry and left where it is. The permit is closed and the file reads decommissioned. The tank is still under the lawn.
Counted from the City of Seattle open data — Underground Storage Tank (UST) Records, Residential (Seattle Fire Department permit code 6103), 1996–2026, as of September 23, 2026. The remaining 24 permits record another outcome or no method at all. A permit is proof of what was done; the absence of one is not proof that nothing is there.
That is one record, from one chapter. Here is the rest of the shelf.
Show me the goods
Counted from the sample PDF linked on this page — not a projection. It was generated from live records for a real Seattle lot (the site owner's own house, address withheld), which is why we are willing to publish it whole. What your address turns up is a function of your address.
Three of them, from the dossier's own sample: not an illustration of a record, the scans themselves, in the state the agency keeps them.
Six rooms, two of them in the attic, a full basement, a detached garage twelve by twenty — and, on the next line, a chicken house. This is the record that answers when was it really built, and for most Seattle houses it exists only as microfilm.
Open the full-size scan
The same address file, half a century on, in the applicant's handwriting: relocate the garage, demolish the shed, haul the debris to an approved site, subject to field inspection. A permit is a short story about what somebody was allowed to do here — and, by omission, what they were not.
Open the full-size scan
Red ink over surveyed lot lines: the as-built route of the private sewer line from the house to the main, with pipe sizes and distances — six-inch PVC out of the house, the eight-inch main in the street, a two-inch force line pumping from a lot behind. Nobody gives you this at closing, and it is the drawing you want before anyone digs.
Open the full-size scanThese come from the sample dossier's house — the site owner's own, whose address is withheld everywhere on this site. That is why the address block on each scan is blacked out; nothing else has been touched. The dossier you order carries your records, unredacted.
What people actually look for
Most people come here out of curiosity and stay for the diligence. Both get the same PDF.
Every recorded sale the Assessor holds, with the instrument type, the price, and the recorded deed image itself where the Recorder returns it.
The building record with the year built and finished area, the assessor's own footprint sketch, and the permit history that shows what was added to it and when.
Every modern SDCI permit with its status and value, plus the scanned pre-1970 microfilm permits that predate the digital record — where SDCI holds them for your address, they are often the only evidence an old addition was ever legal.
Heating-oil and underground storage tanks with their decommissioning permits — including whether the tank was pulled out or abandoned in place — plus cleanup sites, wells and septic records: the things that turn up after closing.
The City's scanned side-sewer cards: the as-built route from the house to the main, the connection point, and the depths and materials on the older cards.
Historical aerials, the zoning history with the ordinance behind each change, landmark and overlay status, and the hazard and geology layers under the lot.
Not ready to order?
The Seattle DADU & property guide covers the rules, the records, and the agencies that hold them — a free PDF, no payment and no subscription. If you would rather ask a person, write to us and you will hear back within one business day.
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Questions, answered
Ownership is a public record. Every sale King County has recorded for the parcel is on the Assessor's detail page, and the deed itself is held by the Recorder under its recording number. The dossier pulls the sale list, matches each sale to its recording number, and attaches the recorded deed image where the Recorder returns it — so you get the chain of owners and the documents behind it, not just names.
The King County Assessor's building record carries the year built, the finished area, the room count and the construction grade, and the dossier prints it next to the assessor's own footprint sketch and photo. Where the year built and the permit record disagree — a common thing on older Seattle houses that were remodelled — you will see both, which is the point.
Yes, and there are two separate records. Modern permits are in SDCI's open data, with status, issue date, value and description. Permits from roughly 1894 to 1970 exist only as scanned microfilm in SDCI's Permit & Site History tool. The dossier pulls both, and attaches the microfilm scans as pages where SDCI holds them for your address — when it does, that is usually the only way to see whether a pre-war addition was ever permitted.
Probably. The City's residential underground-storage-tank records hold 50,143 decommissioning permits, and 11,944 of them — 24%, nearly one in four — record an abandonment in place: the tank was pumped out, cleaned, filled with sand or slurry and left in the ground. Another 35,126 took the old tank out and put a new one in, and only 3,049 record a removal with nothing put back. The permit says which one happened at your address, and the dossier prints it with its permit number, date, tank size and decommissioning method. If no permit was ever pulled, there is no record either way — which is worth knowing before you dig.
No, and it is not a substitute for one. It is every public record we can pull programmatically, organized and sourced. It is not a title search, a title insurance commitment, a legal opinion or a physical inspection, and it will not find a lien, claim or easement that is not in the records we query. Confirm anything you will rely on with the issuing agency or a title company.
The dossier never leaves a chapter blank. The last chapter lists every source we could not retrieve, with the deep link, the department to request it from, and the exact record numbers to cite, so you can pull it yourself in minutes. Three are known handoffs: approved architectural plan sets (a written request to SDCI), the live tax balance (captcha-gated) and septic records (a records request).
No. These are public records for a Seattle address, so buyers doing due diligence before an offer, sellers preparing disclosures, and people who are simply curious about their own street can all order one. You will not be asked to prove anything, and we do not contact the owner.
$13.99, one time. You confirm the parcel we matched before you pay, and the dossier is emailed to you when every source has been checked.
Get every record on your house — $13.99This dossier is assembled automatically from publicly available King County and City of Seattle records. It is not a title report, a title insurance commitment, a legal opinion, or a physical inspection, and we do not guarantee that a source is complete or current. Confirm anything you will rely on with the issuing agency before you act on it.