The past few months have thrown many Contractors into a frenzy figuring out how to submit plan electronically. While some contractors plowed on through and wasted time figuring out how to submit, others attempted to go the jurisdiction only to be told to submit online and then there were those contractors so frustrated and proceeded to start construction without a permit.

When the latter scenario happens, realize the City Inspector like a magical Genie knows there was no permit pulled; and your job may be shut down or you are handed a violation with your shutdown. Either way, not pulling a permit will cost you money and time to resolve.

To assist those realizing the online submitting plans world for permitting is here to stay, below is the list of the top 10 mistakes that contractors make when submitting for a building permit online. This is data collected from hearing some stress-filled stories from contractors about their electronic plans submissions.

• Mistake 1: Placed all files in one folder; most of the time called “my docs” type folder. The Reviewer will not take the time to hunt and search for your files. If files are not in the correct folder will cause a rejection; if it even gets assigned.
• Mistake 2: Missing cover sheet with plan set
• Mistake 3: Failed to properly label files correctly
• Mistake 4: Not separating sheets and uploaded one complete plan set. Jurisdictions will not do your work for you and sheets are to be separated for departmental reviews. Visit jurisdiction’s web site for guidance.

• Mistake 5: Plans attempting to submit are not signed.
• Mistake 6: Plans stamped review only and not for construction. We hear about this one often and this becomes an automatic rejection from the jurisdiction.
• Mistake 7: Missing prerequisite documents
• Mistake 8: Uploading not sure what to do with files in the “misc” folder online
• Mistake 9: Did not use correct forms based on type of project to be constructed
• Mistake 10: Files not uploaded. Important to confirm that files were uploaded and simply hitting the submit button without seeing validation will cause you to believe that you have submitted for permitting; and in the real world, you have not.

The above is a short list of mistakes that we see contractors make. To minimize challenges in submitting for your building permit online, consider visiting the jurisdiction’s web site or reach out to a permit expediter that has intimate knowledge of online system and perspective jurisdiction.

In Conclusion

From you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, to bellyaching about not being able to submit manually to questioning why a 1-day permit in person process now takes up to 5 days are understandable admissions. The best way to move forward in the electronic plan submission world is to devise a game plan and execute using the 10 mistakes about as a checklist of what to avoid. You can also give PermitUsNow a call a 1.844.PERMIT.4 to walk you through online plan submission as we have trained other contractors of the do’s and don’ts or you can engage our services to permit your project to achieve savings and alleviate permitting stress.
#BuildSafe.