Who Pulls the Permit? Why "You Don't Need One" Is the Most Expensive Sentence in HOA Construction
Your contractor just told you the project doesn't need a permit. That one sentence has cost more HOAs more money than almost anything else I see — and the bill always shows up later, at the worst possible time.
Last time I wrote about who draws the plans — when your project needs a design professional and when it doesn't. This is what happens to those drawings next. Between design and construction sits a regulatory layer boards routinely skip past, usually because a contractor told them to. Let's fix that.
1. Who's Actually Responsible for the Permit
Here's the part that surprises boards: the property owner is legally responsible for permitted work — and on a common-area project, the property owner is the HOA. Not the contractor. If work is done without a required permit, the fines, the stop-work order, and the cost to make it right land on the association.
That said, you generally want the contractor to be the one who physically pulls the permit. When they do, the permit is tied to their license and their liability. When a contractor asks the board to pull an "owner-builder" permit instead, treat it as a red flag — it usually means they aren't licensed for that work in that jurisdiction, or they don't want their name on the inspection. Let the people doing the work put their license behind it.
2. "You Don't Need a Permit for This" — Verify It in Ten Minutes
Sometimes it's true. Often it isn't. And you don't have to take the contractor's word either way. Every building department has a public counter, a phone number, and usually a website that lists what requires a permit. Reroofs, decks, siding, structural work, and water heaters vary by jurisdiction — so check yours.
The ten-minute phone call is worth it for a second reason. If the city says a permit is required and your contractor insisted it wasn't, you've just learned something far more valuable than the permit fee: something about how that contractor operates.
3. What a City Inspection Is — and Isn't
Boards lean on a comforting assumption: "the city inspected it, so it must be built right." It doesn't work that way. A municipal inspection is a code-minimum snapshot at a few fixed moments — a rough-in check, a final. It confirms the work meets the baseline code at that instant. It does not verify that the contractor built your full scope, used the quantities you paid for, or did quality work.
In other words, the inspection protects public safety. It does not protect your investment. That's still your job — which is exactly why I keep coming back to dedicated project oversight.
4. The Bill for Unpermitted Work Always Arrives Later
Skipping a permit feels free right up until it isn't. Where it surfaces:
A unit sale stalls. Unpermitted common-area work turns up in due diligence, and a lender or buyer walks.
An insurance claim gets denied. After a loss, the carrier discovers the work was never permitted and declines to pay.
The city catches it. A retroactive permit can mean opening finished walls for inspection, plus fines and a stop-work order mid-project.
Every one of these hits at the worst possible moment, and every one costs multiples of the permit you skipped.
5. Build Permits Into the RFP and the Schedule
Two simple habits keep permits from becoming a surprise. First, put them in your bid documents: require every bidder to state who pulls the permit and to include permit costs in their number. That keeps proposals apples-to-apples instead of one bidder quietly leaving the fee out to look cheaper. Second, put permit lead time in the schedule up front. "Waiting on the city" is a real duration — build it in, and it stops being the reason your project is suddenly three weeks late.
The Bigger Point
A permit isn't red tape you're trying to dodge. It's a paper trail that says the work was done to code, verified by someone who doesn't work for the contractor — and it's the document that protects the association long after the crew is gone. The cheapest permit you'll ever buy is the one you pulled on time. The most expensive is the one you find out you needed after a loss, a sale, or a stop-work order.
If you'd like a one-page "Permit Questions to Ask Every Bidder" checklist, comment below or send me a DM and I'll share it.
And tell me: has your board ever inherited unpermitted work? How did you find out?
Sean Davis, PMP | Civil Engineer | Current HOA Board Member (12 years) | DHA Construction Management | Broomfield, CO
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