Do I Need A Permit in Austin/Central Texas?

"Do I need a permit for my residential construction project?" It really depends on your intensions as a homeowner, contractor, or 'flipper.' If you are planning to expand your building and impervious coverage, then you should absolutely follow the jurisdictional procedures for permitting in Travis county. Unless your lot is within more restrictive zoning areas like Austin, Lakeway, City of Westlake Hills, your interior remodeling endeavors can be completed with stand-alone trade permits or will not require any permitting for finishing work such as flooring, cabinets, replacing windows. Anything beyond cosmetic updates should be permitted, but there are many jobs that are easily completed without a permit.

What's a permit? Many people believe that this is a revenue generating system that "taxes" investments into improvements of the residential property. While it does generate a revenue to supplement the cost of the development services departments of the jurisdiction, the purpose of the permit is to assign an inspection service to the project. In Austin and surrounding jurisdictions, permit fees, inspection fees, re-examination fees, these are typically partially based on the scope of the proposed work. These fees do stack up quickly and can be an additional 1-2 thousand dollars and take weeks (or months) of waiting in queue for plan reviews. These delays are often unexpectedly long and create a real sense of urgency to a project before construction even begins. The stress of the permitting delays and fees can lead to people wanting to do as much work as possible without the permit.

“How do I get avoid getting a permit?” What I call the 'flipper' special is getting as much interior work done as possible without a long term dumpster or , avoiding exterior work that is visible from the street, getting the dumpster trailer in and out over a weekend, even applying for an Express Permit so that there is a reason for a dumpster and material staging and just working beyond the allowed/permitted scope of the Express Permits with uninspected trades work.

“Why would I get a permit?” Mostly, it's about exposure. I remember watching that show on Netflix, BEEF. The part about a handyman/contractor who built his family dream home himself with no permits is spot on. What a permit brings to the equation are inspections. Inspections are a critical part of a construction process aimed at protecting the homeowners, the residents, the community. Every summer I hear about a balcony collapsing from poor structural constructional, every winter a fire from a furnace or gas line rupture from home construction/improvement.

“If I use a reputable contractor, I shouldn't need inspections, right?” The general contractor hires subcontractors. Those subcontractors have their own crew of specialized building skills. Members of these crews tend to be transitory positions, cycling through assistants, laborers, and apprentices as construction work always comes in waves and troughs, seasonal and reactive to a constantly stressed housing market. I always joke that general contractors show up in trucks that cost what I paid for my house (not a joke, though). They can do that only by making a profit on the home construction projects, so fluctuations in the market for building supplies, median home sale prices, interest rates, etc. are creating a need to hire more laborers and fewer skilled workers for subcontractor work. Inspectors are there to act on your behalf as the homeowner, making sure that the way that the construction is supposed to be built is actually what you are getting. As a builder, your inspections are also making sure that your build is correct through and through, protecting your clients, helping to ensure your property/project is built to the standard that is required, even regarding trades with which you may not be proficient.

“If I am only doing work that doesn't require trades, like new windows and doors, should I get a permit?” Anything that changes the floor plan of your home, changes the exterior walls or portals of the structure, or adding to the building +/or impervious coverage totals in metropolitan jurisdictions like Austin will require a permit at some point. Most of the renovation/remodel work that gets a permit in Austin (let's say for example, adding a bathroom that will require an upgraded service meter) will typically include retroactively permitting of previously unpermitted work. Or, a Renewal by Andersen is the covid of renovations: I have more windows that need to get final inspections by a one-day window replacement than any other expired permit issue, followed immediately by shower updates that involve moving/modifying the placement of fixtures and drain pan. You see these "most jobs in one day" commercials, so you see that there is, in fact, a way to get interior construction completed without getting a permit or getting a permit and foregoing inspections. Many flippers do this bc the expired permit is assigned to the property, not the owner, so the property can sell without anyone being aware of the lack of inspections on quick (super-quick) construction that is based solely on the potential for near-immediate return on the investment. When the time comes for work that will require a permit, it's now up to the new owner/investor/builder to get the unpermitted or uninspected work retroactively permitted and inspected with the new work. This means that someone sometime eventually does have to pay for the permit and review fees, pass inspections, and get everything into compliance.

Your project is likely going to require a permit eventually. Like most everything else in this world we do, it all comes down to your intentions. If you are trying to ensure that you have a quality build that will be well designed and well built, then permit review of your plans and the inspection of the actual construction are critical to the process of improving the residence. You get what you pay for, so if you are only interested in getting work done as quickly and cheaply as possible, I have provided a lovely road map to your endeavor. Full disclosure: I didn't get a permit for the work done in my bathroom, nor was a permit pulled when I had my mother's primary suite bathroom updated with new tile, glass, toilet, flooring, etc. since there was no moving of any fixtures, no change in the floor plan. I am not standing on a soapbox denouncing all unpermitted work. I do want everyone to understand that it's a gamble to do significant construction without the permit/inspection process. This summer, when the next balcony collapses during a gathering, think about the insurance company that is going to deny any and all claims from the injured people and homeowner/resident because the deck was not properly inspected for structural integrity, think about who is going to be liable, and all the beef that will create!

According KXAN News, there are over 100K expired permits in the Austin Area. Is your property or project one of these? Probably! I mean, look at that intimidating map of existing expired permits in Austin, TX as of the recent release of the article. These expired permits are almost ALWAYS just a failure to call for the final inspection required to “close” the permit. When someone gets bathroom remodels in a day or new windows from places like renewal by Anderson who literally ADVERTISE that they will be gone in about a day, these permits eventually expire and become a permit history issue.

“Can I get a permit if I get have expired permits?” Absolutely! You can have the permit reactivated, the work brought to compliance with currently adopted building codes, and inspected as it should have been in the first place. Contact me for more information about the expired permit resolution process!