West Palm Beach tells you
which code a rule comes from
— and that changes the answer.

It depends what you live in, and the City is explicit about it: "Replacing flooring in an apartment or condo does require a permit. For a house, replacing flooring and painting does not require a permit." Same work, opposite answer, decided by the building type. If you are in a condominium, your association's approval is separate from and additional to the City's.

It can remove an exemption outright. The City excludes from the HB 803 minor-work exemption "any work on a property located partially or entirely within a flood hazard area" — and "partially" is doing real work in that sentence. Confirm the designation for the address before assuming any exemption applies.

There may well be. The City publishes a full procedure for closing old and expired permits, which tells you how often it comes up. An application that was never issued becomes Abandoned after 180 consecutive days of inactivity, and an issued permit becomes Expired after 180 days from issue without a passed or partially passed inspection. Both stay attached to the property.

Minor residential work on a single-family dwelling valued under $7,500, effective 1 July 2026 — but with significant published limits. Structural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and gas work still need permits regardless of cost, as do fences, fence pool barriers and driveways, and anything on a property partially or entirely within a flood hazard area. There is also a second exemption for temporary flood and hurricane protection barriers, with five conditions.

Because of where the requirement comes from, and West Palm Beach is the only city on our matrix that explains this. In the City's own words, HB 803 "relates to the building code, as it amends FSS Chapter 553" — but the City's fence and driveway permits are "required based exclusively on the City's Zoning code", which governs fence height and type, setbacks and driveway location, material and square footage. Since the statute does not alter the zoning code, those permits survive it.

No, and this is the part most owners miss. The City states that the property owner or the owner's contractor must submit a written request for exemption, with a copy of the contract or other documentation showing the nature and value of the work. It is filed as a "Permit Exemption" application in the Civic Access portal with a Permit Exemption Affidavit. If approved, the City issues an Exemption Certificate; if denied, a permit is required and applied for separately.

No. The City gives this its own heading: "A construction project may not be divided into two or more smaller projects for the purpose of staying under the $7,500 threshold to qualify for the exemption." Phasing for occupancy or budget is ordinary; phasing to reach a threshold is the thing that sentence exists to stop.

In practice, yes. A kitchen or bathroom remodel involves at least electrical or plumbing, and the City lists both as requiring a permit regardless of cost. The $7,500 exemption is aimed at genuinely isolated minor work, and it cannot be reached by dividing a larger project into parts.

The City publishes a figure, which is rare: a residential remodel permit can be issued in approximately three weeks and a commercial remodel in approximately five — provided the submitted documents are code-compliant. If they are not, plan review comments are posted and the timeline then depends on how quickly they are answered and resubmitted.

Registration is by email to the Development Services address with the state or county licence, a valid local business tax receipt for the business's home jurisdiction, and certificates of insurance for general liability and workers' compensation naming the City of West Palm Beach as certificate holder at 401 Clematis St. The City asks for one to two business days to process it.

Yes, under the Owner-Builder exemption, if the property is not titled through a company and you are not renting it, and provided you do not sell or rent it for at least a year after the work is complete. Florida Statutes require you to appear in person before the permit is issued, at City Hall, 401 Clematis St, to sign the application and the Owner-Builder affidavit. If you are not doing the work yourself you must still hire appropriately licensed contractors.

In the Civic Access portal, under the Reviews tab of your permit record. The City states that the reviewer's name, phone and email should always be left in the comments themselves, so the person who wrote a comment can be asked about it directly. That is usually the fastest way to close one.

The City publishes a Fee Estimator in the Civic Access portal, and separately publishes its minimums: a combined plan review and permit fee of $105 for a project value up to $1,000, $130 up to $2,500, and $580 at a project value of $20,000 — excluding Fire and Zoning fees, which do not apply to every project. Those are the City's figures. Whatever it comes to appears itemised on your proposal.

Because for a remodel the same square footage can differ several-fold depending on what is behind the wall, which disciplines are involved and what the record already says about the property. A published rate would be a guess. You get an itemised figure in writing after a site visit, and it says what happens if something is found during demolition.

The City is specific. You will be required to get a permit to remove the work, or to pay a penalty fee of four times the regular permit fee to permit it. An unpermitted work case is opened and goes to Special Magistrate hearing if you do not apply for and obtain the permit. The Magistrate can assess fines that accrue daily, the fine can be recorded as a lien, and the City warns the case may make the property difficult to sell or refinance.

We stop and tell you, before it is covered up. It is more common than people expect in South Florida, and in this City the published consequences — four times the fee, a Special Magistrate, daily fines, a possible lien — make covering it a genuinely expensive decision. It is also at its cheapest to resolve while the wall is already open.

Often yes, and it changes the programme rather than the price alone. Containment, protection and phasing all cost days. The honest version of this conversation happens at the site visit, where we can look at where the work is relative to where you sleep and cook.

From 7:30 a.m. the Civic Access portal has a "Today's Inspections" view listing the primary inspector and their phone number against each inspection. The City states you can call your inspector directly for a two-hour time frame. Telephones at the department answer from 8:00 a.m.

No — the City publishes that it has neither a roofing affidavit nor a roof package. What it publishes instead is a workaround: once the roofing permit is approved and before starting, book a Building Miscellaneous inspection and meet the inspector to agree what will be required, or speak to the Building Chief Inspector. Take photographs throughout, call the inspections in as soon as you can, and be ready to show them. The City is explicit that it remains at the inspector's discretion.

A CO, TCO or CC is requested by email to Development Services with the request type in the subject line and the master permit number, address and contact details in the body. The City asks for one to two business days for a response.

The City requires a signed letter from either the current property owner or the qualifier of the contractor of record, giving the address, the permit number, the reason for the request and — the question everything turns on — whether the scope of work was completed or not. It then evaluates which of five published scenarios applies. There is a dedicated mailbox for it.

It depends on the scenario. If the work was completed and the permit was issued less than six years ago, the City requires a $75 renewal fee and the remaining inspections must be scheduled and passed. If the contractor of record is no longer involved, a Change of Contractor request carries a separate $100 fee and a new notice of commencement has to be recorded.

Where a permit was issued more than six years ago and the work was completed but the permit was never closed, the City sends an inspector to confirm there is no apparent safety hazard associated with the work, and then cancels the permit per Section 553.79(16)(c), Florida Statutes. It is the one case where waiting genuinely produced a cheaper route — but only where the work really was completed and really was that long ago.

Yes — across Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, 104 municipalities in total. The filing routes differ genuinely between them: West Palm Beach runs EPL through Civic Access and publishes a three-week residential review, its neighbours publish neither, and those differences are a working detail for us rather than a surprise.