Meriden, CT Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Meriden Code § 77-16 requires every applicant for a building permit to obtain, from the office of the Tax Collector, a certification signed by the Tax Collector or a designee stating that there are no delinquent taxes, water charges, sewer charges or assessments on the property, or that the owner has entered an accepted payment plan and has already paid at least three monthly installments under it. The Building Department will not grant a permit application without that certification in hand; the requirement attaches to the property, not just the current owner.

The ordinance carves out an exception for tenants: a lessee making improvements can still get a permit even though the record owner owes delinquent taxes or water and sewer charges, provided the lessee supplies the Building Department, before the permit issues, with a copy of the lease, evidence of at least three months of paid consideration under it, and a certification that the improvements benefit the lessee at the lessee's own expense with no financial or corporate interest held in the lessor. That tenant exception does not apply if the lease itself makes the lessee responsible for paying the property taxes; in that case the lessee is treated the same as an owner and is blocked by the same delinquency.

The rule was added in 1996 and amended in 1997 and 1998, layering the lessee carve-out onto the original owner-certification requirement. Because the Building Inspector, housed in the Division of Buildings within the Department of Development and Enforcement, administers permits under § 77-1 and § 77-2, the tax-certification step sits alongside the department's general Building Code enforcement authority, meaning a stalled certification can hold up any permit review that department would otherwise process.