Let’s say that you have a big customer that you have been waiting to work with for a long time. You finally sold this customer and landed your first project. You meet with your customer to go over their plans, timeline, budget constraints, etc. and you see that all the documents appear to be acceptable to submit for permitting.

You submit permit package to City Permitting and hope for speedy plan reviews and permit approval. Then your new customer calls you requesting an update on permit; and you assure them that the plan reviews are progressing to schedule. Another week or so goes by. You notice no movement in plan review and key City Permitting departments are missing their promised dates. You get this gut feeling and know that you’re stuck. You proceed to wonder how you can excavate your permit from the jurisdiction to get your plan reviews completed quickly.

If this rings true to you and your permit is stuck in concrete, below are 5 tips to crack the jurisdiction’s permitting processing code:

• Pull from your files a copy of your permitting package that was submitted to the jurisdiction.
• Review jurisdiction plan review history. Note: one key aspect to review this information is to review the rejection comments to determine if they seem applicable based on the plans and permit package submitted and two, to identify the Plan Reviewers involved with your project. Is the Plan Reviewer new to the jurisdiction? Are they new to the department? Do they have experience in reviewing your type of projects? Are they behind in reviews and swamped with plans to review? Get it? This helps to position you for follow up with the appropriate Plan Reviewers.
• Reach out to the Plan Reviewer(s). If you find comments that are off based on building codes then by all means, contact the appropriate Plan Reviewers to schedule a meeting to go over comments.
• Escalate to Department Manager at Jurisdiction. If you were unsuccessful with Plan Reviewer(s) for what could be a myriad of reasons and show evidence that your plans meet building codes then go higher to speak and meet with the Manager of the department issuing for what you consider to be inaccurate rejection comments.
• Say, “Thank you”. Remember you are in the people business; and it pays to treat others who are helping you in a professional and respectful manner.

In Conclusion

Many of the Permitting Centers in the U.S. have hired new staff and have Plan Reviewers that are doing the best they can in tacking their heavy workload. You job is to be as helpful as possible to assist Plan Reviewers in helping you i.e. review plans in a timely manner with minimum, if any at all, rejection comments. Visit the 5 tips above if you’re stuck in permitting and desperately require approval to start construction. If you are thinking, “Helen, I do not have the time nor the wit to manage permits” then call us at 1.844.PERMIT.4.

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