In the construction industry, it is a norm for many contractors to rush to and from picking up materials, signing up new customers and then juggling other tasks including obtaining building permits. The challenge with this scenario is that building permit is often an after-thought and the contractor may not dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s when submitting.

A question that we hear often from contractors is that I have submitted my plans to the City but some sheets were missing, what do I do now?

After this core question above, follows with a flurry of more questions such as:

• Will the city allow me to replace the incomplete set of plans?
• Do I wait until the City notices the missing sheets?
• Can I send the missing sheets or new set to the Plan Reviewer at the City?

The above are good questions and the answer is after submitting plans, most jurisdictions in the U.S. will not and very few jurisdictions (smaller ones) will allow to switch out plans once submitted.

The reality is once your permit application with plans, prerequisite documents, etc. are submitted into the jurisdictions’ electronic portal, they are heading straight into completeness check. Once in completeness check phase, the permit applications, plans, etc. are reviewed and if any items are missing, rejections will result from this phase.

Once a contractor receives rejections from the completeness check then the following are suggested steps to follow to address city comments.

1. Review city rejection comments one by one against the permit packaged that was originally submitted.
2. Review city rejection comments one by one against your permit package with the full plan set and note any areas that are deficient or noncompliant based on comments.
3. Make necessary revisions to plans to address city comments.
4. QA/QC full plan set to make sure all comments addressed
5. Resubmit to the city the full plan set with any other required documents, if noted missing or deficient in city comments.

Also, it is prudent to contact the City if you have any questions on city comments. This helps to save time, money plus mitigate any additional rejection comments as plans proceed into full plan review.

In Conclusion

Obtaining building permits is a stressful task for many contractors as they simply want to focus of doing what they do best and that’s construction. When contractors find themselves in a confused state with permitting then more errors, further delays and higher costs can occur. At PermitUsNow, we are committed to pulling permits for our Architect, Contractor, and Project Owner clients without delay, eliminating their frustrations with the permitting process. Plus, we make it easy for you to work with us. Simply: 1) Email us your plans, 2) Follow up on our feedback for any missing items, and 3) Let us get your permitting done for you. So, send us your plans today and we’ll free you up to focus on doing what you love – building your customers’ dreams. #BuildSafe