I literally run a small construction company that builds homes.

No, it doesn't.

Because: liability and bank loans.

You need to have insurance to maintain your loan. If you invite the untrained public into your job site and they hurt themselves you're Fucked. Jobsites are inherently dangerous, especially to untrained people unfamiliar with them. No one takes that risk. Sure your insurance might pay out, or they might not and your sued for the property the bank has a mortgage on, and you can't even sell the house you were building and will never finish while you're bogged down in court dealing with insurance claims.

That doesn't even begin to get into the troubles inherent in letting the customer see how the sausage is made.

Note: the situation is very different if you already own the land and hired someone to build on it. Then you're the owner and it's your prerogative.

Well, we're talking about plans being given as part of the agreement of sale.

What makes you think those would be more accurate then the permit and as built copy on file with the authority?

>Maybe in todays digital world they are available but there’s nothing for the old buildings.

Again, I literally have a print from a 100 year old factory behind my desk, which I sourced from my municipalities building department.

As I mentioned, I couldn't submit digitally for years specifically because they needed a paper copy for record.

In my experience if a permit was pulled for construction and municipality is organized they have a copy and can generally find it. Bigger cities stored it on microfilm. Of course some cities are shit shows and not organized at all. In my current jurisdiction the government responsible for planning items is the county, but for building items its the Town. One of the factories I renovated the fire department had copies of plans, the factory was old enough to predate the building department but not the fire department. Barking up the correct tree is half the battle.

I'm an architectural technician. I literally design and build homes for a living. One of my primary tasks is to submit and obtain approval for planning and permits.

Yes, the city absolutely has a copy of the plans on file. For over a decade I griped and complained about lack of digital submission of plan, physical was required specifically because the city retains copies and didn't have the digital infrastructure in place to store electronic copies long term. My city installed this infrastructure only in about 2018.

Further I have done a number of renovations of old buildings. Our primary focus is infill and intensifying neighbourhoods, usually brownfield sites like old mills and factories. I've gone to the city on a number of occasions for plans. They generally had everything post 1950, and has spotty coverage on stuff between 1910 and 1950.

I literally have a print of an old factory plan framed behind me, and I got said copy from the city.

So unless I'm a movie character and don't know it, you absolutely can get copies from city Hall in any municipality I've worked in.

Unless your home is custom built on land you already own you likely don't own the property at rough-in stage. You don't own the house until you pay for it. Which would make acquiring photos an act of trespass. Would you wander into the Ford factory to take pictures of your new car being assembled?

I kick soon-to-be home owners off our jobsites all the time. I've had two injure themselves wandering around the site after hours.

Just go to the city and request a copy....