Inside city limits, code cases belong to the City of Tampa’s Division of Neighborhood Enhancement, the former Code Enforcement and Clean City divisions, which enforces Chapters 19 and 27 of the City Code: overgrown lots, inoperative vehicles, structure maintenance, zoning and similar problems. Permits come from the city’s Construction Services, and anyone can look up a property’s permit history in the city’s Accela portal without an account. Plenty of homes with a Tampa mailing address are outside the city, though, and for those the county’s code enforcement and its Development Services permit office apply instead.
The city sells its lien searches through Conduits, a service run by Net Assets Corporation, for a $25 non-refundable fee, with results within seven business days; a payoff letter, if one is needed, is good for 45 days. The city also warns that the owner of record has to resolve any active code action, and that a violation left open can become a lien against the property after it changes hands. That is why our title company orders the search when the contract is signed rather than the week of closing.