Do I need a permit?
designed by freepik
Time and time again I see that question asked in facebook groups, forums, and subreddits. Rest assured what follows when someone asks that question is a flood of comments and replies that all weigh in on this and that and what you should do and what you should not do. But what I find so funny about most of them is that they do not take a moment to ask a very important question, that is, where does the person live?
Permitting is…… complicated
It can change depending on where you live. That means that your neighbor across the street could potentially be dealing with a whole different set of processes and rules. They all depend on how your local building department (or more specifically the building official) interprets the building code and how they run things. For example, one city near me requires a permit for any drywall replacement above 10 sq ft…… 10….. SQUARE…… FEET. Barely a patch. Whereas the next city over doesn’t require a permit for regular drywall….. at all. So when someone offers advice on this question, without having the knowledge of where you live, their input is nearly worthless unless its super obvious (e.g. “Can I build a home without a permit?”)
To know for sure what will be required you’re going to have to talk to someone local. That could be a LICENSED contractor, the building department, or a permitting specialist like yours truly.
What happens if you don’t permit a project?
Some hold the belief that permitting is just a scam made up by the local government to siphon hard earned money from hard working people. I get it. It’s expensive and the value of what you get out of the building department sometimes is completely outweighed by the costs. However, the way you feel about the building department is somewhat irrelevant. What DOES matter if that the consequences for not permitting a project are STEEP. I’m not talking a smack on the wrist and a “now now, don’t do that again“. We are talking hundreds if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in fees. One city nearby charged a client 500 dollars a day until they got their permit application in. That’s probably not a gamble that you want to make. If a contractor or some friend is trying to convince you that the project you want to do doesn’t need a permit, but you’re not 100% sure, it’s better to look deeper into the matter. Nobody can stop you from just not pulling a permit. But the consequences are quite convincing.
Even if you don’t need to pull a permit, you may still want one
Against popular consensus, sometimes permits are actually a great thing to have, even if they aren’t necessarily required for your project. For example, if you are a homeowner, you may just want eyes on what you did to make sure it was done correctly. Some permits are as cheap as around $100. And to have someone come out to look at your progress and tell you that you are doing great, in some cases it may be something that saves you at least the stress of not being confident in your own workmanship.
If you happen to be a contractor it could also be a safeguard against claims that you did an improper job. Like if years from now there is some kind of issue that looks like it could be related to the job that you did. It’s really hard for a client or an insurance carrier to pin you as liable if you have a completed permit with an inspectors sign off of approval. No denying that!
Even if you need a permit,
Yes, they can be costly, yes they take time, and yes there is a lot involved. That’s part of why I made the Permits 101 course. If you plan well and know what you are doing, or are even at least familiar, you can cut down on all of those and make the process much cheaper, quicker, and less confusing.
