Austin Code Complaints: What Gets Reported, and How Long It Takes to Close
89,125 code complaint cases loaded here. The city has closed 86,016 of them; 3,109 are still open. This is the only place tracking exactly how long that takes — the city’s own data only ever shows a case’s current status, never its history.
Data as of October 16, 2026, from the City of Austin Open Data Portal (dataset 6wtj-zbtb), updated daily by the Austin Code Department.
What’s loaded: Austin Code Department complaint cases. Not the department’s full history — see “How this works” below.
Quotable numbers, for reporters and neighbors
- 89,125 Austin Code complaint cases on record; 3,109 are open right now.
- Property Abatement is the most-reported violation type — 37,136 cases (41.7% of the total).
- Zip 78758 has more code complaints on record than any other zip — 6,894 cases.
- Repeat-offender-related cases make up 8.0% of all complaints.
Open right now, and how long they’ve been sitting
Of 89,125 complaint cases on record, 86,016 have been closed by the city. 3,109 are still open (2,965 active, 144 pending) — a small enough slice that the numbers below are readable rather than a wall.
Open now
3,109
2,965 active, 144 pending
Median days open
110 days
among cases still open
90th percentile
974 days
older than 90% of open cases
Oldest open case
8,072 days
days since it was opened
Open cases by age
- 0-30 days751
- 31-90 days680
- 91-180 days476
- 181-365 days415
- 365+ days787
Monthly case volume, and whether the backlog is growing
Over the last 12 complete months, Austin Code opened 29,858 complaint cases — up 12.8% from the 12 months before that (26,478 cases). September 2026 was the most recent complete month, with 2,484 cases opened and 2,736 closed. The busiest month in this window was June 2026, with 3,140 cases opened.
October 2026 is still in progress (data as of October 16, 2026): 1,103 cases opened and 1,302 closed so far. Left out of the totals above and the chart below because the month isn’t complete yet.
Show the 24 months behind this chart
| Month | Opened | Closed |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 2,484 | 2,736 |
| Aug 2026 | 2,982 | 2,982 |
| Jul 2026 | 2,990 | 3,030 |
| Jun 2026 | 3,140 | 3,037 |
| May 2026 | 2,948 | 2,827 |
| Apr 2026 | 2,751 | 2,374 |
| Mar 2026 | 2,270 | 2,139 |
| Feb 2026 | 2,028 | 1,934 |
| Jan 2026 | 2,072 | 2,053 |
| Dec 2025 | 1,846 | 1,994 |
| Nov 2025 | 2,048 | 1,889 |
| Oct 2025 | 2,299 | 2,462 |
| Sep 2025 | 2,601 | 2,622 |
| Aug 2025 | 2,622 | 2,586 |
| Jul 2025 | 2,830 | 2,717 |
| Jun 2025 | 2,570 | 2,437 |
| May 2025 | 2,432 | 2,248 |
| Apr 2025 | 2,371 | 2,308 |
| Mar 2025 | 2,069 | 1,923 |
| Feb 2025 | 1,936 | 1,975 |
| Jan 2025 | 2,004 | 1,947 |
| Dec 2024 | 1,481 | 1,544 |
| Nov 2024 | 1,496 | 1,565 |
| Oct 2024 | 2,066 | 2,306 |
Time to close, by violation type
Austin Code’s own portal shows a case’s status today. It has never shown how long that took, because it doesn’t keep the history — this comes from tracking every case’s status daily and recording the day it actually closed.
These figures cover Austin Code Department complaint cases, 82,856 cases as of the last sync — not the department’s full history of complaints.
| Violation type | Total cases | Open | Closed | Median days to close | Mean days to close | Repeat-offender related |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property Abatement | 37,136 | 724 | 36,412 | 5 days | 17 days | 345 |
| Structure Condition Violation(s) | 25,136 | 1,510 | 23,626 | 7 days | 40 days | 6,541 |
| Land Use Violation(s) | 23,506 | 615 | 22,891 | 3 days | 17 days | 223 |
| Work Without Permit | 3,338 | 251 | 3,087 | 4 days | 40 days | 29 |
| Unspecified | 9 | 9 | 0 | — | — | 0 |
Open vs. closed, by violation type
Advertising here is sold as run-of-site inventory only. No property, owner, violation type or zip code shown on this page can buy placement, and sponsorship has no effect on which cases, categories or numbers appear above or below this slot.
Volume and resolution speed, by zip code
This dataset does not carry a council district field, and zip codes don’t nest cleanly inside districts — several districts split a single zip — so this is by zip only, not by district.
Zip 78758 has more code complaint cases on record than any other zip shown here — 6,894 cases. Resolution speed varies widely by area: 78712 closes cases in a median of 1 day, versus 27 days in 78612.
| Zip | Total cases | Open | Closed | Median days to close | Repeat-offender related |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78758 | 6,894 | 130 | 6,764 | 4 days | 971 |
| 78741 | 6,170 | 366 | 5,804 | 8 days | 2,101 |
| 78745 | 5,542 | 166 | 5,376 | 5 days | 231 |
| 78704 | 5,341 | 193 | 5,148 | 4 days | 353 |
| 78702 | 5,021 | 200 | 4,821 | 4 days | 199 |
| 78753 | 4,831 | 218 | 4,613 | 7 days | 946 |
| 78744 | 4,667 | 179 | 4,488 | 3 days | 506 |
| 78723 | 4,061 | 135 | 3,926 | 5 days | 460 |
| 78705 | 3,479 | 194 | 3,285 | 5 days | 52 |
| 78752 | 2,658 | 96 | 2,562 | 6 days | 476 |
| 78724 | 2,555 | 69 | 2,486 | 10 days | 25 |
| 78757 | 2,432 | 80 | 2,352 | 5 days | 97 |
| 78721 | 2,296 | 127 | 2,169 | 3 days | 84 |
| 78748 | 2,233 | 46 | 2,187 | 5 days | 37 |
| 78751 | 2,109 | 81 | 2,028 | 6 days | 21 |
| 78759 | 1,780 | 75 | 1,705 | 4 days | 151 |
| 78731 | 1,518 | 54 | 1,464 | 4 days | 13 |
| 78701 | 1,319 | 105 | 1,214 | 7 days | 0 |
| 78703 | 1,286 | 68 | 1,218 | 6 days | 2 |
| 78727 | 1,203 | 50 | 1,153 | 6 days | 0 |
| 78750 | 1,186 | 57 | 1,129 | 5 days | 125 |
| 78729 | 1,185 | 40 | 1,145 | 6 days | 76 |
| 78749 | 1,040 | 30 | 1,010 | 5 days | 0 |
| 78722 | 987 | 32 | 955 | 3 days | 128 |
| 78756 | 904 | 31 | 873 | 5 days | 3 |
| 78754 | 785 | 27 | 758 | 6 days | 60 |
| 78617 | 507 | 16 | 491 | 8 days | 0 |
| 78747 | 482 | 12 | 470 | 5 days | 0 |
| 78746 | 461 | 12 | 449 | 5 days | 18 |
| 78736 | 446 | 16 | 430 | 6 days | 0 |
| 78725 | 423 | 15 | 408 | 3 days | 0 |
| 78735 | 337 | 11 | 326 | 6 days | 0 |
| 78717 | 317 | 10 | 307 | 6 days | 0 |
| 78660 | 306 | 13 | 293 | 7 days | 0 |
| 78726 | 240 | 10 | 230 | 3 days | 0 |
| 78730 | 171 | 5 | 166 | 4 days | 0 |
| 78732 | 156 | 11 | 145 | 11 days | 0 |
| 78739 | 146 | 3 | 143 | 5 days | 0 |
| 78742 | 118 | 11 | 107 | 11 days | 0 |
| 78613 | 60 | 4 | 56 | 25 days | 0 |
| 78652 | 44 | 1 | 43 | 9 days | 0 |
| 78734 | 43 | 2 | 41 | 8 days | 0 |
| 78653 | 34 | 1 | 33 | 15 days | 0 |
| 78719 | 29 | 2 | 27 | 6 days | 0 |
| 78728 | 26 | 1 | 25 | 9 days | 0 |
| 78733 | 25 | 4 | 21 | 4 days | 0 |
| 78737 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 3 days | 0 |
| 78610 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 22 days | 0 |
| 78612 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 27 days | 0 |
| 78712 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 day | 0 |
Top 15 zips by volume, colored by resolution speed
Which violation type is climbing
The last 90 days of newly opened cases against the 90 days before that, by violation type. There are only four real categories in this dataset, so this is a short table, not a leaderboard — but it’s the only place to see one actually accelerating or slowing.
| Violation type | Last 90 days | Prior 90 days | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structure Condition Violation(s) | 2,654 | 2,668 | -0.5% |
| Work Without Permit | 245 | 249 | -1.6% |
| Land Use Violation(s) | 1,964 | 2,154 | -8.8% |
| Property Abatement | 3,070 | 3,844 | -20.1% |
| Unspecified | 8 | 0 | new category |
Repeat-offender-related cases
Austin Code flags some cases as tied to a property or owner with a history of repeat violations. Here is how that slice of the data behaves, in aggregate — no property or owner is named on this page. For the registry of specific repeat offenders, see the repeat-offender registry.
Repeat-offender related
7,138
8.0% of all cases
Still open
526
of the repeat-related cases
Median days to close
25 days
repeat-offender related
Median days to close
4 days
every other case
Frequently asked questions
Does a code complaint mean a property violated the law?
No. A complaint is the start of a case, not a finding. The city investigates and the case may be closed with no violation found, resolved after the property owner fixes something, or closed for other reasons. This page reports complaint volume and how long cases take, not the outcome of any individual case.
How long does an Austin code complaint take to close?
It varies a great deal by violation type — see the median-days-to-close table on this page. That figure is measured from our own daily tracking of when each case actually flipped to closed, not estimated from a single snapshot, because the city's own portal only ever shows current status.
Can I look up code complaints at a specific address?
Not on this page, by design. Complaint data at individual-address resolution reads as an accusation about a specific property, and a small number of complaints against an owner-occupied home is a very different thing from a pattern at a large rental property. This page reports aggregates only — by violation type, by zip code, and over time.
What does "repeat offender related" mean?
The city flags some cases as related to a property or owner with a history of repeat violations. This page reports how those cases behave in aggregate — their share of the total and how long they take to close — without naming any property or owner. A related registry of specific repeat offenders is published separately.
How often is this data updated?
The Austin Code Department publishes this dataset daily, and our sync runs on the same cadence. See the freshness note at the top of this page for exactly when it last succeeded.
Is Austin code complaint volume going up or down?
Over the last 12 complete months, Austin Code opened 29,858 complaint cases — up 12.8% from the 12 months before that (26,478 cases). September 2026 was the most recent complete month, with 2,484 cases opened and 2,736 closed. The busiest month in this window was June 2026, with 3,140 cases opened.
Which Austin zip code has the most code complaints?
Zip 78758 has more code complaint cases on record than any other zip shown on this page — 6,894 cases, out of the 50 zips tracked here. See the by-zip table and chart on this page for the full ranking and each zip's median days to close.
How this page works, and what it deliberately leaves out
This page does not load the department’s full archive. What’s loaded is Austin Code Department complaint cases — 82,856 cases as of the last sync. Austin Code’s own dataset goes back further than that; every count and every median on this page is computed only over what’s described here, not the department’s complete history.
A complaint is an allegation, not a finding. Opening a case means someone reported something to the city; it does not mean a violation was confirmed. This page never presents complaint volume as proof of wrongdoing at any property.
No address-level lookup exists on this page. Every number here is an aggregate — by violation type, by zip code, or over time. An owner-occupied home with a couple of neighbor complaints and a large rental property with a documented pattern are very different situations, and a page that shows “N complaints at this address” collapses that distinction. If that distinction matters to you specifically, the city’s own case lookup is the appropriate tool, not this site.
Resolution time is measured by us, not published by the city. The Austin Code portal shows a case’s status as of today and overwrites it in place — it has no history endpoint. Every day since this tracker started, we’ve recorded each case’s status, so the day a case flips to closed is captured the day it happens. Days-to-close figures only cover cases closed since we started watching; a case that closed before we began isn’t backdated or estimated.
No council-district breakdown. The dataset carries a zip code and nothing that identifies a council district, and zip boundaries don’t nest inside council districts cleanly enough to approximate one honestly — several districts split a single zip. Rather than guess, this page reports by zip only.
The inspector field is not published, or stored. The source data pairs each case with a named city employee and that employee’s direct phone number. Neither is collected by our sync — not the phone number, not even the name.
Data last refreshed October 16, 2026, sourced from the City of Austin Open Data Portal (dataset 6wtj-zbtb), published by the Austin Code Department. The city updates this dataset daily.