You may not have to deal with your local permit office. Contractors generally handle that aspect of construction, and they are familiar with local personnel and practices. If you are working with a contractor, I recommend that you let that person handle the application for the building permit, if possible.
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In my case the county was switching to an entirely online system the same day my building permit application was filed. Neither the contractor nor the architect was familiar with the online system. I had recently retired and I was computer literate, so I said I would handle the online application, both to save them annoyance and to save me money.
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If my experience is typical, a great deal of patience will be required when working with your local permit office. These are some of the problems I encountered, which had nothing to do with being chemically sensitive. The building permit office was actually fragrance-free.
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● The initial application was for both a single family residence and a detached garage. The person reviewing the application did not notice that the garage was detached and processed it as a SFR with an attached garage. Months later, when I asked a question about the garage, I was told that a separate permit was required for a detached garage, so I had to file a second permit application.
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● When I filed the application for the garage permit I used documents that had already been approved in connection with the initial permit application, including the health department’s site plan. There was a discrepancy between that plan and the architect’s site plan, which was developed later. To an experienced eye, the problem was obvious from the moment the building permit application was first filed, but the permit office did not bring it to my attention until months later, when they cited it as the reason for denying the garage permit. There was a significant delay while I obtained a revised site plan and submitted it for approval by the health department, and as a result the first contractor walked away from my project. Had the permit reviewer mentioned that flaw when the application was first filed I would have dealt with it then, avoiding this delay.
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● One of the stormwater approvals got lost and overlooked in the county’s newly implemented document processing system, so it didn’t appear in the online system. I called persistently over the course of several weeks and spoke to more than one annoyed person who told me I just had to be patient, before finally connecting with someone who found the document, identified the logjam, and processed the weeks old approval.
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● Two months after the garage construction was completed I decided to print out a copy of the permit closure for my records. To my surprise, the permit was not closed. The final inspection was conducted by a technician because the inspector was sick that day. The technician approved the inspection, but he was not familiar with the permit closing process, so it remained open until I called two months later, asking if there was still an issue that needed to be addressed.
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In their defense, the local building permit office is understaffed, and they made several changes to the administrative process during my construction. If you have to deal with the permit process, I hope your local office is more efficient.