Who gets it and how
The City says Pennsylvania law requires the certification to sell real estate in Philadelphia, and that sellers and real estate agents for both homes and commercial property need one. On the City's sales certification page, the application is filed online through eCLIPSE or in person by appointment at the Permit and License Center at 1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd. As of October 2026 the page lists a $139 fee and five business days for processing. Check the page before you file, since fees and timelines can change.
Check the recorded use against what's being sold
The last established use is the line most worth reading closely. If a house is listed as having two apartments, the zoning record should support two units. Two kitchens and two doorbells don't establish a legal duplex. The Department of Licenses and Inspections, or L&I, says zoning permits authorize a specific use of a building or lot, so a mismatch between the record and the listing is a question to resolve before settlement, not something to guess at during a walkthrough.
You can do some of this yourself. The City's Atlas map and the L&I Property History lookup let you search an address for permits, violations, licenses and zoning history. Our guide to looking up a Philadelphia home's permit history walks through what those records show and what they leave out.
Recorded violations are not the same as condition
The certification only reflects what L&I has on record. A house can have no open violations and still need repairs, and the reverse can also be true. Treat it as one document and an independent home inspection as another, and ask the inspector what was inaccessible or outside the inspection's scope.
When a seller says a problem was fixed, ask for the invoice, the permit number if the work needed one, and any inspection sign-off. Compare those papers with the specific item rather than accepting "the house was renovated." L&I has request forms for copies of permits, licenses, certificates of occupancy and building plan files if the records you need aren't online.
It isn't a Certificate of Occupancy
A Certificate of Occupancy, or CO, answers a different question. The City's CO page says one is needed for new construction, additions, alterations that affect exits or fire ratings, and projects that change a building's use or occupancy. It also says a CO is not required for existing one- or two-family homes, or just because the owner or tenants change while the use stays the same. So a missing CO on an ordinary rowhouse sale is not automatically a problem. If a CO is needed, the City lists 20 business days to process the application, and a new CO requires an inspection.
If the certification lists an open violation
Get the actual violation notice, since it names the code section and the district office handling the case. L&I's page on resolving code violations says the owner must either fix everything listed and pay any fees, or file an appeal; otherwise the property stays in violation status. For many notices the last step is a compliance inspection requested from that district office, and for work done without a permit, the City says permit fees are doubled to legalize it. Paying a contractor doesn't clear the record on its own.
Those pages also say trade work such as electrical or plumbing needs a licensed trade contractor, and structural work or jobs over $25,000 need plans sealed by a design professional. Our guide to handling an L&I violation notice covers the steps in more detail.
Questions to settle before closing
Ask whoever is coordinating settlement who orders the certification, who reads it, and when any listed violations have to be resolved. If a buyer and seller are negotiating a repair credit, ask whether the estimate covers only the visible repair or also any permit, plans and inspection the City will require. If a violation is disputed or will stay open through closing, that is a question for a Pennsylvania real estate attorney. Our contractor checklist helps if you're lining up the repair work yourself.