Pricing
Flat fees, in writing, before we start
Our service fee is quoted flat and up front, scoped to the permit in question. Government fees (the county or city charges for the permit itself) are always separate, always passed through at cost, and always shown to you.
What moves the number
Four things drive a permit fee
The permit type
A water-heater changeout and a full remodel are different animals: different documents, different reviews, different inspection counts.
The jurisdiction
County and City run different portals, checklists, and queues. Some projects also touch zoning or historic review, which adds steps.
The paper trail
A clean new application is the simple case. An expired permit from 2014 or unpermitted work needs research and legwork first.
The clock
A closing date in three weeks changes how we work a file. Rush handling is available and priced honestly when you actually need it.
HOW OUR PRICING WORKS
One flat service fee, quoted in writing, before anything starts.
Every engagement with us prices the same way. You tell us the property and the situation. We do the research a real quote requires: the jurisdiction, the permit type or the problem, the state of the paper trail. Then you get a single flat service fee, in writing, for the defined scope of work. That number does not drift, it does not sprout line items mid-file, and it does not change because the review took longer than anyone hoped. If the scope itself genuinely changes, say the research uncovers a second expired permit nobody knew about, you get a new written quote for the new item and the choice of whether to proceed. Nothing is ever added without your explicit go-ahead.
We price this way because permitting already has enough uncertainty in it. The review queue is not ours to control, and we will never pretend otherwise. The fee is the one part of the process that can be completely predictable, so we make it completely predictable.
THE TWO-PART REALITY
Our fee and the government's fees are different things, and you see both.
Every permit involves two kinds of cost, and mixing them together is how people get confused and overcharged. The first is our service fee: what you pay us to prepare, submit, track, correct, and close the permit. The second is the government's own charges: the permit fees, plan review fees, and inspection-related charges that Sarasota County or the City of Sarasota assess for the permit itself. Those government fees exist whether or not you hire anyone, and they go to the government, not to us.
On our invoices the two are visibly separate. Government fees are passed through at exact cost and itemized, so you can see precisely what the county or city charged and match it against their own records if you like. We add no markup, no handling percentage, and no convenience charge on government money. A permit service that buries government fees inside its own number is charging you a markup you cannot see; we would rather you see everything.
WHAT MOVES OUR FEE
Four things drive the number, and they are all about scope.
The first driver is the permit type. A single-trade changeout permit and a full remodel are different amounts of work: different document checklists, different review tracks, different inspection counts. The fee scales with the actual process, not with the value of your project or your home. We do not price ad valorem; a straightforward permit on an expensive house is still a straightforward permit.
The second is jurisdiction and review path. Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota run separate systems, and some projects touch extra layers, zoning review, historic district review inside the city, floodplain considerations on the barrier islands, that add real steps. The quote reflects the path your specific property actually takes.
The third is the condition of the paper trail. A clean new application is the simple case. An expired permit from years ago, a vanished contractor, or unpermitted work that needs legalizing all require research and legwork before the ordinary process even begins, and that work is quoted honestly rather than discovered later as surprise charges.
The fourth is the clock. If you have a closing in three weeks, your file gets worked with that date on the wall, and genuine rush handling is available and priced as what it is. What we will not do is invent urgency to sell you a rush fee; most permits do not need one, and we will tell you when yours does not.
WHY THERE IS NO PRICE LIST ON THIS PAGE
Because publishing one number for wildly different jobs would mislead you.
We know unpriced services pages are annoying, and we almost published a menu anyway. Here is why we did not: the same words describe jobs of completely different sizes. Close an open permit covers a file that needs one twenty-minute inspection and a file from 2012 with a dissolved contractor, an expired status, and a review office that wants engineering documentation. Publishing one number for both either overcharges the easy case or lies about the hard one. Our answer is speed instead: send the address through the free assessment and you will usually have your exact flat number the same business day. A real quote in hours beats a fake range on a webpage.
What we can promise about the numbers themselves: they are proportionate to the work, they are the same for everyone in the same situation, and they are built to make sense next to what is at stake, a stalled project, a threatened closing, or a crew losing billable hours to a portal.
WHAT A WRITTEN QUOTE FROM US CONTAINS
The scope, the fee, the fees that are not ours, and what happens next.
Every quote we send has the same anatomy. It names the property and the exact scope: which permit or problem, in which jurisdiction, resolved to what finish line, which for us always means a closed file, not merely an approval. It states our flat service fee for that scope. It lists the government fees we already know about at exact expected cost, marked clearly as pass-through, with a note about any that cannot be known until the office calculates them. And it spells out the process: what we do first, what we will need from you, and how you will hear from us along the way.
Read it next to any competing quote and one difference should jump out: you can tell exactly what you are buying. If anything in it is unclear, that is a defect in the quote, not in you, and we will fix the quote. Questions about a quote, or about whether your situation even needs us, go to the contact page or straight into the free assessment.
WHEN WE TELL YOU NOT TO HIRE US
Some permits are an hour of your time. We say so, free.
A meaningful share of assessments end with us talking ourselves out of a job, on purpose. A single recent permit that needs one final inspection, with a responsive contractor still in the picture, is a phone call you can make yourself, and the assessment reply will say exactly that, with the steps. A simple owner project in a jurisdiction whose portal you are willing to learn once is genuinely doable solo, and we will point you at the right checklist. We would rather earn your trust on the honest no and get the call when something actually tangled shows up, an open permit at closing, a legalization project, a contractor backlog, because tangled is where a flat fee from a specialist is obviously worth it.
That is the whole pricing philosophy: flat, written, scoped, itemized, and honest enough to include the option of not paying us at all. The free assessment is where every number starts. See what the fee buys on each specific problem on our services pages, and where we work on the service areas page.
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.
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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.