Responsible Outreach

PermitWire gives you public-record signals — who just filed or received a building permit — and the property owner's mailing address from county records. What you do with that is outreach, and outreach has rules. This page summarizes the ones that matter most. It is educational guidance, not legal advice; consult your own counsel for your specific situation.

Our stance: mail first

PermitWire is built around direct mail as the primary outreach channel. Postal mail to an address on public record is a long-established, low-intrusion, legally straightforward channel — and it is the only channel our Concierge service will operate. PermitWire deliberately includes no bulk-email tooling: we provide owner mailing addresses, not owner email addresses.

Direct-mail norms

• Say who you are. Your business name, license number, and real return address on every piece. Washington requires contractors to include their registration number in advertising (RCW 18.27.100).
• No fake officialdom. Never style a mailer to look like a government notice, invoice, or permit document. Reference the permit honestly ("we saw a permit was filed at…") without implying affiliation with the city or county.
• No manufactured urgency or fear. Sell your work, not anxiety about their project.
• Honor "stop" requests immediately. Keep a do-not-mail list. Concierge subscribers get suppression handling built in — recipients who opt out are excluded from all future drops automatically.
• Mind fair-housing rules. Do not target or exclude recipients based on protected characteristics.

Email: CAN-SPAM (federal)

If you choose to email prospects yourself, the federal CAN-SPAM Act applies to every commercial message. In brief:

• No false or misleading header information — your From, Reply-To, and domain must identify your business.
• No deceptive subject lines.
• Identify the message as an ad if the recipient hasn't opted in.
• Include your valid physical postal address in every message.
• Provide a clear unsubscribe mechanism and honor it within 10 business days — and don't charge for it or require a login.
• You are responsible even if a vendor sends on your behalf.

Penalties run to tens of thousands of dollars per email, so this is not a checklist to approximate.

Email: Washington CEMA (state)

Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act (RCW 19.190) adds state-level liability for commercial email sent to Washington residents or from Washington: no false or misleading subject lines, and no misrepresented sender or transmission path. CEMA allows recipients and the state to sue, with statutory damages per message. Washington courts have applied CEMA aggressively — treat any deception in commercial email to Washington addresses as radioactive.

Phone and text

Cold calls and especially cold texts implicate the federal TCPA and state telemarketing rules, including the national Do Not Call Registry. Text-message solicitation without prior express written consent is a frequent class-action target. We recommend against cold calls/texts to permit owners; if you do call, scrub against the Do Not Call Registry and follow time-of-day rules.

About the data itself

Permit records are published by the City of Seattle; parcel and taxpayer records by King County. Both are public records. PermitWire redistributes them with matching and hygiene applied, and suppresses records on request from property owners. To request suppression of your property from PermitWire deliveries, contact us via the address in the footer.