Orange County
Sell your house in Orlando
Orlando issues permits for work inside the city limits through its own Permits and Inspections office, so a re-roof or a re-pipe done here lands in the city record rather than the county one. Six local historic districts cover much of the older core, from 1880s buildings downtown to the 1905 to 1925 growth in Lake Eola Heights. Parts of the city work on a different set of rules: Baldwin Park, built on the former Naval Training Center main base, runs under a 1998 planned development ordinance and a community development district.
Who holds the permit record for my Orlando house?
The city does. Permits and Inspections at City Hall takes permit applications, reviews plans, schedules inspections and answers permit status for anything inside the city limits. Orange County's Division of Building Safety covers parcels in unincorporated Orange County, which is the one that matters if your street was annexed after the work was done.
Pull the record for the roof, the windows, the electrical panel, the water heater and any addition or enclosure. An open or missing permit does not stop a sale. It costs you far less in week one than it does in a response to an inspection report.
What does a historic district designation change when I sell?
It adds a review step to exterior work, and the one sellers run into is the roof. Before certain exterior changes in Downtown, Lake Cherokee, Lake Copeland, Lake Eola Heights, Lake Lawsona or Colonialtown South, the Historic Preservation Board has to issue a Certificate of Appropriateness. Minor items go to the board's Minor Review Committee and take two to ten days. Alterations, additions, new construction, relocation and demolition require a board hearing, and the city tells owners to expect about seven weeks.
Each district writes its own exceptions. Lake Eola Heights does not require approval for landscaping, paint color, or emergency repair that leaves the exterior design alone, and it does not allow chain link in the front yard. Lake Copeland exempts structures built after January 1, 1940. If you do not know whether the parcel is inside a district, the city's address locator answers that in one lookup.
The designation cuts the other way too. Orlando adopted a ten year property tax exemption in 1994 covering the city's share of the tax increase attributable to a substantial rehabilitation of locally designated property, and that exemption stays with the property after a sale.
What should I check in a house built before 1980?
Wiring, supply lines and the roof, in that order, because those are what a buyer's insurance questions land on. Aluminum branch circuit wiring appears in houses wired between 1965 and 1973, and federal testing found a much higher rate of overheating connections in aluminum-wired homes of that era than in copper-wired ones.
The decade of construction tells you more here than the neighborhood does. A 1950s or 1960s Orlando house raises cast iron drain lines and an original panel. A house from the 1980s or the early 1990s raises polybutylene. Either way, a dated receipt or a closed permit that shows when a system was replaced settles the question faster than anyone's memory of it.
What do buyers ask about a Baldwin Park house?
Two things that are not on an ordinary Orange County tax bill. Baldwin Park sits inside the Urban Orlando Community Development District, so the annual bill carries a non-ad-valorem CDD assessment, and the property owners association bills dues separately. Have both numbers ready before the first call rather than after the first showing.
The second is design review. Development in Baldwin Park runs under the planned development ordinance the City Council adopted in July 1998, which carries residential design guidelines for each neighborhood and a Town Design Review Committee that reviews proposals against them. If a previous owner changed an elevation or added a structure, the approval paperwork belongs in the same folder as the permit.
Neighborhoods in Orlando
- Lake Eola Heights. Designated a local historic district in 1989 and listed on the National Register three years later. Roughly 570 buildings over about 38 blocks, with the district's heaviest growth between 1905 and 1925.
- Lake Cherokee. The city's second local historic district, designated in July 1981. Of its 189 buildings, 160 are contributing structures, and building around the lake started in the late 1870s.
- Lake Copeland. Designated in 1984 and almost entirely developed by the Great Depression. About 110 residences sit east of Orange Avenue and south of Gore Street.
- Lake Lawsona. Designated in 1994 and taking in the Lawsona and Fern Creek area plus Thornton Park. Its roughly 500 buildings were platted and developed between 1911 and the 1950s.
- Colonialtown South. Designated in 2000. The earliest plat in the area dates to 1883, developer Carl Dann promoted the largest one in 1913, and most of the houses went up during the 1920s land boom.
- Baldwin Park. Built on the former Naval Training Center main base under a planned development ordinance the city adopted on July 27, 1998. Parcels sit inside the Urban Orlando Community Development District.
Housing stock to check
- The city's 2023 American Community Survey summary counts 152,600 housing units. About 31 percent were built before 1980, and another 16.3 percent went up between 1980 and 1989.
- Inside the historic districts the styles run from 1880s frame vernacular through Craftsman bungalows, Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco and Minimal Traditional. Across that range an inspector still starts in the same three places: what the supply lines are made of, what the drain lines are made of, and what is in the panel.
- Branch circuit wiring installed between 1965 and 1973 may be aluminum. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that homes built before 1972 and wired with aluminum are 55 times more likely than copper-wired homes to have a connection at an outlet reach fire hazard conditions.
- Houses from the 1980s and the early 1990s fall inside the window when polybutylene supply lines were installed. Find out what the lines are made of before a buyer's inspector writes it down.
Orange County records and permits
Before you list in Orlando
- The permit record for work inside the Orlando city limits is held by the city at 400 South Orange Avenue, not by Orange County. If the parcel was unincorporated when the work was done, that record sits with the Orange County Division of Building Safety instead, so check both when you are unsure of the annexation date.
- In the six local historic districts a re-roof needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Board. The board's Minor Review Committee handles items like re-roofing and repair with matching materials in two to ten days. Lake Copeland exempts structures built after January 1, 1940.
- A Baldwin Park bill carries a non-ad-valorem assessment for the Urban Orlando Community Development District on top of the property owners association dues. Those are two separate charges, and a buyer will want both figures rather than one blended number.
Gather
Permit history for past work
Pull the permit record for the roof, the windows, the panel, the water heater, and any addition. An open or missing permit on work already done is the item most likely to surface during inspection.
Inspect
Ceilings and the roof line
Look for stains, sagging drywall, and daylight in the attic, then walk the outside and look for lifted or missing shingles and tiles. Water shows up on a ceiling long after it started somewhere else.
Resolve
Replace every burned-out bulb
Match the color temperature across a room while you are at it. A house with one dead bulb per room photographs dim and shows dimmer.
Talk to a listing agent
A licensed agent who works your area will call at the time you choose.
Nearby cities
Guides
Sources
- City of Orlando, Permits and Inspections (permits inside city limits)
- Orange County Division of Building Safety (unincorporated Orange County)
- City of Orlando, Historic Preservation Districts (designation years, building counts, growth periods, Certificate of Appropriateness review, district exceptions, tax exemption)
- City of Orlando, Baldwin Park / NTC Main Base: A Brief History (PD ordinance, design guidelines, CDD)
- Urban Orlando Community Development District (assessment on the annual tax bill)
- City of Orlando, ACS 2023 1-Year Summary Report (housing units by year built)
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Repairing Aluminum Wiring (CPSC 516)
- Orange County Property Appraiser
- Orange County Comptroller, Official Records
Last updated September 16, 2026