About us
About Sarasota Permits
We are a local service business with one specialty: getting building permits through Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota without the delays, resubmittals, and dropped balls that make permitting miserable.
How we work
The habits that keep permits moving
Complete the first time
Most permit delay is a rejected submittal. We build the document package against the checklist before anything gets uploaded.
Checked every day
Review queues move when someone is watching. Every active permit on our desk gets its status checked daily.
Plain-English updates
You get told what is happening in words, not portal jargon: what came back, what we did about it, what happens next.
Closed means closed
A permit is not done at approval. It is done when the final inspection passes and the record says so. We finish the job.
Sarasota Permits is a local service business with one specialty: getting building permits through Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota, from the first application to a closed file. We prepare, submit, track, and finish permits for homeowners, contractors, buyers, and sellers, and we do it in the two permitting systems this county actually runs on. That is the whole business. No construction crews, no design department, no six-county footprint. Permits, here, done properly.
Why this business exists
Permitting is one of those systems that works fine for the people who use it every day and punishes everyone else. The offices are not the villain in this story; Sarasota County's Planning and Development Services runs its process 100 percent online through the Accela Citizen Access portal, and the City of Sarasota's Building and Permitting division runs a capable system of its own. The difficulty is structural. Reviews are checklist-driven, the checklists differ by permit type and by jurisdiction, correction requests are written in the language of people who read building code for a living, and nothing in the system nags you when your file is waiting on something. The process assumes a participant who knows the sequence and watches the file. Most people are not that participant, and they should not have to be for one water heater or one remodel.
So projects stall in ways that have nothing to do with the work itself. An application bounces for a missing document and sits for two weeks before anyone notices. A correction request lands, reads like a foreign language, and quietly eats a month. A finished job never gets its final inspection, and the permit sits open until it expires under the Florida Building Code's 180-day inactivity rule, waiting years to ambush a home sale. Every one of those failures is preventable by somebody whose actual job is watching the file. We are that somebody.
Who we work for
Four kinds of people keep our phone ringing. Homeowners with a project, a water heater, a kitchen, a dock, who want the permit handled without learning a government portal for a one-time job. Contractors whose crews should be building instead of babysitting review queues, and whose back catalog of unclosed permits has become a slow drip of title-company phone calls. Sellers and their agents, who discover open or expired permits at the worst possible moment, under contract with a closing date, and need the record cleaned up fast. And buyers, who would rather know what a property's permit record says before they own its problems.
Different situations, same underlying service: someone who knows both local systems cold, tells you the truth about what your situation needs, quotes a flat fee in writing, and then actually finishes, because a permit is not done until the record says closed.
How we work
A few habits define every file on our desk. We check jurisdiction first, always, because the line between the City of Sarasota and unincorporated Sarasota County is irregular and everything downstream depends on which office reviews your permit. We submit complete the first time; the checklist is the whole game, and most permit delay is a rejected or corrected submittal that did not have to happen. We look at every active file every business day, because review queues move for the people who are watching. We translate everything into plain English, what came back, what we did about it, what happens next, because you should never need a decoder ring to know where your own permit stands. And we finish: inspections scheduled, corrections coordinated, final passed, file confirmed closed in the official record, in writing.
None of that is clever. It is discipline applied to a system that rewards discipline, which is exactly why it works.
Why only Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota
Because depth beats breadth in this work, and it is not close. These are two genuinely different permitting operations: different portals, different forms, different checklists, different review habits, different inspection rhythms. Knowing both of them cold, the way you only can when you file in them every week, is the entire value of a permit expediter. A permit runner who dabbles across ten jurisdictions is exactly as slow in each of them as you would be, and you would be paying for their learning curve.
So we drew the line on purpose. If your property is in Sarasota County, from Siesta Key to Fruitville, Palmer Ranch to Nokomis, or inside the City of Sarasota, you are in our territory and you get a specialist. If it is not, we will tell you straight and you will have lost nothing but the minute it took to ask. The list of communities we serve is on our service areas page.
What we are not
Clarity about boundaries is part of doing this honestly, so here is ours. We are not a contractor: we do not build, install, or repair anything, and the permit for trade work belongs on the license of the contractor performing it, or on the owner under Florida's owner-builder exemption. We are not a law firm: we do not give legal advice, and when a permit problem has grown fines, liens, or hearings, we will tell you to bring an attorney and we will work cleanly alongside them. We are not an engineering firm: when a review or an after-the-fact permit needs sealed documents, that work belongs to a licensed engineer, and we coordinate the handoff rather than pretend at it.
What we are is the party that runs the process: the research, the paperwork, the portal work, the follow-up, the scheduling, the closing of the loop. In our experience that is eighty percent of what makes permits painful, and it is one hundred percent delegable.
Owner-run, and honest on purpose
Sarasota Permits is owner-run and local. That matters less as a slogan than as an incentive structure: when the person who answers your assessment is the person whose name is on the business, you get told the truth about your situation, including the unprofitable truth. If your permit is a ten-minute fix you can do yourself, the assessment says so, free, with instructions. If removal is cheaper than legalizing an old addition, you hear that before you spend a dollar chasing the permit. If we are the wrong tool, we say so and point you at the right one.
That honesty is also why the pricing works the way it does: a flat service fee quoted in writing before we start, with government fees passed through at cost and itemized, never marked up. The structure is explained plainly on our pricing page, and the first step is always the same free look at your actual situation.
Start with the record
Everything we do starts in the same place: the official permit record for your property, read carefully, explained plainly. Whether you are mid-project, mid-crisis, or just curious what a lien search would find, send us the address through the free assessment, or contact us with the question first. A real local person reads it and replies, usually the same business day, with what your situation actually needs, whether or not that includes us. If it does, you will get a plan, a flat written fee, and a permit that ends the way permits are supposed to end: closed.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a permit expediter actually do?
- A permit expediter runs the permitting process on your behalf: we research the property, prepare the application and its documents, submit through the correct portal, watch the review queue, respond to correction requests, schedule inspections, and stay on it until the permit is closed. We do not do the construction work and we do not review plans as an engineer would. Think of us as the person who knows both local systems cold, so your project does not stall on paperwork.
- Do I need a permit for my project?
- It depends on the work and the jurisdiction, and guessing wrong is expensive in both directions. As a rule of thumb in this area, most work that is structural, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical needs a permit: water heater and A/C changeouts, window and door replacement, roofs, sheds over a certain size, remodels that move walls or plumbing, docks, and pool cages. Painting, flooring, and simple cosmetic work generally do not. The honest answer for your specific project takes a few minutes of checking, which is exactly what our free assessment does.
- How long does a permit take in Sarasota?
- It varies by permit type and how busy the review queues are, and nobody can honestly promise you a government turnaround time. Simple trade permits can be same-week; remodels and additions take longer because more reviewers touch them. What we control is everything on our side of the counter: a complete application the first time, corrections answered fast, and inspections scheduled promptly. Incomplete submittals are the single biggest source of delay, and they are entirely avoidable.
- What does permit expediting cost?
- We charge a flat service fee, quoted in writing before we start, scoped to the specific permit or problem. Government fees, the amounts Sarasota County or the City of Sarasota charge for the permit itself, are separate, passed through at cost, and itemized so you see exactly where every dollar goes. We do not publish a fee menu because a simple water heater closeout and a 2015 expired remodel permit are very different jobs, but the structure is always the same: one flat fee, no surprises.
- How do I know if my property is in the City of Sarasota or Sarasota County?
- The city limits are irregular, and plenty of properties with a Sarasota mailing address are actually in unincorporated Sarasota County. The quickest check is the property appraiser's record for your parcel, which shows the taxing district. It matters because the two jurisdictions run separate permitting operations: the county reviews through its Accela Citizen Access portal, and the City of Sarasota has its own Building and Permitting division with its own portal and checklists. Send us the address and we will tell you for free.
- What happens if I skip the permit?
- Unpermitted work does not stay secret. It surfaces when you sell the house, when an insurance claim gets investigated, when a neighbor complains, or when a later project brings an inspector to the property. The consequences range from after-the-fact permits at higher cost, to opening walls so work can be inspected, to removing the work entirely. It can also complicate insurance coverage and closings. Getting the permit up front is nearly always cheaper than legalizing work later.
- The title company found an open permit on my closing. What now?
- This is one of the most common calls we get, and it is fixable. An open permit means work was permitted but the file was never closed with a passing final inspection. What it needs depends on the permit: sometimes just a final inspection, sometimes an affidavit or sign-off from a contractor, sometimes a renewal because the permit expired. We research exactly what each open item needs, lay out the path, and drive it to closed status. The earlier you start before the closing date, the more options you have.
- What is an expired permit?
- Under the Florida Building Code, a permit expires when the work stops for 180 days without an approved inspection. The project may even be finished, but if nobody called in the final inspection, the permit sat, timed out, and became an expired open item on the property's record. Expired permits show up in municipal lien searches during sales and have to be resolved: typically reactivating or reapplying, then passing the inspections the original permit needed.
- What is a Notice of Commencement, in plain English?
- A Notice of Commencement, or NOC, is a document recorded with the county clerk that publicly says construction is starting on your property. Florida law (Statute 713.13) requires one for most improvements over $5,000, and it must be recorded before the first inspection. It exists to protect lien rights in the construction chain. Miss it and your first inspection fails on a technicality. It is a small step that trips up a surprising number of projects, and it is part of what we handle.
- What is an owner-builder permit?
- Florida lets a property owner pull their own permit without hiring a licensed contractor, under the owner-builder exemption in Statute 489.103. It comes with real obligations: the property must be for your own use or occupancy, generally cannot be sold or leased within a year of completion, and you personally take on the responsibilities a contractor would normally carry, including supervising the work and its safety. For the right person and project it is a legitimate path, and we help owner-builders get the paperwork and process right.
- Can you guarantee my permit gets approved?
- No, and you should walk away from anyone who says yes. Approval decisions belong to the county and city reviewers, period. What we control, and what actually determines how smoothly a permit moves, is the quality and completeness of the submittal, the speed of correction responses, and whether inspections get scheduled and passed. Our job is to make sure the only thing between you and an approved permit is the government's own review, not a missing document.
- Do you do the construction work too?
- No. We are not a contractor, an engineering firm, or a law office, and we are careful about that line. We run the permitting process: research, preparation, submittal, tracking, corrections, and inspections coordination. When a project needs a licensed professional, like an engineer's letter for after-the-fact work or a contractor to correct something an inspector flagged, we coordinate with yours or help you find one. Everyone stays in their lane, which is exactly how permitting is supposed to work.
- What is in a permit history report?
- A permit history report is a plain-English rundown of every permit on record for a property: what was permitted, when, by whom, and the current status of each one, including anything open, expired, or conspicuously missing, like a replaced roof with no roof permit on file. Buyers use it before an offer to avoid inheriting someone else's paperwork problem. Sellers and agents use it before listing so nothing ambushes the closing. It is research we do in the same county and city systems we work in every day.
- What areas do you serve?
- Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota, on purpose. Those are two different permitting operations with different portals, checklists, and review habits, and knowing both of them cold is the entire value of this service. We deliberately do not spread across half of Florida, because a permit runner who dabbles in ten jurisdictions is exactly as slow as you would be in one. If your property is anywhere in Sarasota County, including Siesta Key, Palmer Ranch, Gulf Gate, Fruitville, Osprey, or Nokomis, you are in our territory.
- I started a permit application myself and it is stuck. Can you take it over?
- Yes, and it is common. Usually the application is sitting in a correction cycle: the reviewer asked for something, the request reads like it is written in a foreign language, and the clock is quietly running. We pick up the existing application, translate what the reviewer actually needs, fix the submittal, and carry it the rest of the way. You do not lose the fees you already paid, and you stop losing evenings to the portal.
- How do I get started?
- Request a free assessment with the property address and a sentence about the project or the problem. We look up the property record and permit history, confirm which jurisdiction it falls under, and come back with a plain-English rundown of what the situation needs and a flat written fee, usually the same business day. If it turns out to be something you can easily do yourself, we will tell you that too, for free. No pressure either way.
Start here
Tell us about your permit
A real local person reads every request and replies with a clear next step, usually the same business day. No cost, no obligation.