What a Permit Means for You as the Homeowner

Why this matters

A building permit can look like paperwork the contractor deals with and you pay for. For you, it is three practical things. It gets someone independent, who works for neither you nor the contractor, to look at work you mostly cannot see, such as the gas connection, the vent, the wiring in the wall. It creates a public record that the work was done and passed, which follows the house to a sale and can come up in an insurance claim. And the name on the permit decides who answers for the work if it fails inspection, which is why "you pull it, it's easier" deserves a careful answer.

This is not legal advice; the rules that decide when a permit is needed and who may pull one are set by your state and your local building department.

Who makes the rules

Permits are issued by your local building department, sometimes a city, sometimes a county. The codes they enforce are model codes, such as the International Residential Code (IRC), the National Electrical Code (NEC) and the plumbing and mechanical codes, but a model code is not law until your state or locality adopts it, often with its own changes. That is why one town wants a permit for a water heater swap and the next one over does not, and why the details below are typical rather than universal.

What commonly needs one: new or replaced gas appliances, water heaters, furnaces and air conditioners, new circuits and panel work, plumbing that moves or adds lines, structural changes, roofs in many areas, decks, fences over a set height, and additions. What commonly does not: painting, replacing a faucet or light fixture like for like, minor repairs. Your building department's website usually has a list, and a phone call settles any doubt.

What the permit actually gets you

An independent inspection. The inspector checks the work against the code your area adopted. They look for things that do not show once the job is closed up, or that you would not know to look for: whether a water heater's relief valve has a proper discharge line, whether a vent is the right material and pitched the right way, whether a new circuit has the right wire size for its breaker. The inspector is not there to judge workmanship or appearance, and passing does not make the contractor's work perfect. It means the safety items the code covers were checked by someone with no stake in the job.

A public record. A permit that is opened, inspected and closed (often called "finaled") stays in the building department's files for that address. When you sell, a buyer, their inspector, their lender or the title company may look at permit history. An open or expired permit, or obviously new work with no permit, can turn into a question at closing that you have to answer in a hurry. See related: Open Permits and Unpermitted Work in a Sale.

Something to point to after a loss. If a fire or water claim involves recently done work, the adjuster may ask whether it was permitted and inspected. A closed permit answers the question. How an insurer treats unpermitted work depends on your policy and your state, so that is a question for your agent, but a finaled permit removes it from the conversation.

Who should pull it

Usually, the licensed contractor doing the work. In most places, a contractor licensed for that trade pulls the permit in their own name. That makes them the responsible party to the building department: they schedule inspections, fix anything that fails, and their license is on the line if the work does not meet code.

An owner-builder permit puts your name there instead. Most places let a homeowner pull a permit for work on their own home. Many people do this for their own projects, and it is a reasonable thing to do when you are doing the work yourself. But understand what it means: you become the person the building department holds responsible for the work passing, whoever actually did it. Some states, California and Florida among them, require owner-builders to sign a disclosure explaining that responsibility, including that hiring unlicensed workers can make you responsible as their employer, and in substance that selling the property soon after the work, about a year in those states, can raise a presumption that you built it for sale rather than for yourself. Check the current form your own state uses.

Why a contractor asking you to pull it is a warning sign. A licensed contractor normally pulls their own permit. A contractor who asks you to pull it as an owner-builder may not hold a license for that work, may not be able to pull permits in your area, or may simply not want their name on it. Ask why, directly, before you agree. See related: Choosing a Contractor: What Actually Matters.

"We don't need a permit for this" deserves one phone call. Sometimes it is true. Call the building department, describe the job in plain words, and ask. It takes a few minutes.

What inspections look like

Rough-in, then final. Larger jobs often have more than one inspection. A rough-in inspection happens while walls, ceilings or trenches are still open, so the inspector can see pipes, wiring or framing before they are covered. A final inspection happens when the work is complete. Work covered up before a required rough-in inspection may have to be opened back up.

Scheduling and access. The contractor usually requests the inspection, and the department gives a day and often a time window. Someone has to let the inspector in and get them to the work: the attic hatch, the panel, the water heater closet. Ask the contractor whether they will be there and whether you need to be.

The visit itself. Often 10 to 30 minutes for a simple job. The inspector looks at the work, may ask the contractor to remove a cover or run the equipment, and records a result. Many departments leave a signed card, a sticker or a stamp on site, and many post the result online the same day.

Pass, or a correction notice. A pass on the final closes out the permit. A failure comes with a written correction list. The responsible party, the contractor on a contractor's permit or you on an owner-builder permit, fixes those items and requests a reinspection.

Keep the permit card posted where the department asks, often in a front window or near the work, until the final passes.

Permits expire. Under the IRC's administrative section on permit expiration (R105.5 in the 2021 edition, as your jurisdiction has adopted it), a permit becomes invalid in substance if work does not start within 180 days of issue, or stops for 180 days after it starts. Many departments use that or a similar rule. An expired permit with no final is the most common open item that surfaces when a house is sold.

Worked example: one water heater, two answers

The setup. A homeowner's 13-year-old gas water heater is leaking at the base. They get two proposals for a like-for-like replacement. Their city requires a permit for water heater replacement.

Contractor A includes the permit in the written proposal: "Permit and inspection included. We pull the permit and schedule the final inspection."

Contractor B says the permit is optional, and if the homeowner wants one, the homeowner can pull it as an owner-builder to save time.

Choosing. The homeowner calls the building department, confirms a permit is required, and asks whether owner-builder permits are allowed for work done by someone else. The clerk says the homeowner can pull one but would be the responsible party for the inspection. The homeowner chooses Contractor A.

How it went, by day.

DAY 1   Contractor A applies; permit issued same day
DAY 3   Old heater out, new heater in; permit card
        taped to the water heater closet door
DAY 9   Final inspection, 15 minutes
        Inspector checks: relief valve discharge line,
        vent connection and pitch, gas connection
        and shutoff, sediment trap, clearances
        Result: correction - vent connector missing
        one screw at a joint
DAY 10  Contractor A fixes it, requests reinspection
DAY 14  Reinspection passes; permit shows FINAL online

From permit to final took 13 days, 14 counting the day it was issued. The homeowner was home for both inspections because the closet was behind a locked door, and they did not pay anything extra for the correction because it was the contractor's work and the contractor's permit.

What they filed. The permit number, a screenshot of the online record showing the final, the inspector's sticker photographed on the closet door, and the installer's invoice with the new heater's model and serial number. See related: Your House Records File and What Goes In It.

Four years later. They sell the house. The buyer's agent pulls permit history and sees the water heater permit, finaled. Nothing to explain.

What would have changed if they had taken Contractor B's offer. On an owner-builder permit, that missing screw on the vent connector would have been the homeowner's correction to get fixed, and if Contractor B was unlicensed for the work, the homeowner would have been chasing someone with no license to lose. With no permit at all, the vent problem, the kind of defect that can let exhaust into a house, would likely not have been caught by anyone. And four years later, a brand-new water heater with no permit on record is the kind of thing a buyer's inspector notices.

Checking the status of a permit yourself

• Ask for the permit number at the start of the job and write it down.
• Look it up. Many building departments have an online search by address or permit number; others answer by phone.
• Look for "final," "finaled," "closed" or "complete." "Issued," "active" or "expired" without a final means the permit is still open.
• Before final payment, confirm the final passed, or that the contract says what happens to the last payment until it does. See related: How to Walk Through a Finished Job Before Final Payment.

References

• See related: Explaining Permits to Customers Reference
• See related: Open Permits and Unpermitted Work in a Sale
• International Residential Code, Section R105.5 (permit expiration), as adopted and amended by your jurisdiction
• Your local building department, which sets permit requirements, inspections and owner-builder rules for your address
• See related: Choosing a Contractor: What Actually Matters