American Building Code Services is a privately owned building department.
After receiving your plans from an architect or engineer, the next step is to have those plans reviewed by a Florida licensed plans examiner. There are two options at this point, one is to submit the plans to the local municipality for review or give them to a private provider plan reviewer for the exact same review service. Florida requires that all plans are to be reviewed and stamped by a licensed plans examiner for permit issuance.
Option #1 Municipality
The local jurisdiction (municipality) will review the plans for a fee that is advertised on their website or instructions for obtaining a permit. The municipality has 10 days to approve or return plans for deficiencies. The 10 days is not always calculated from the time they receive the plans but when they decide to start the clock. And that could be weeks. Then if they find a deficiency (missing page, unsigned document, etc.), they will send them back to you and start the process over and so on. Your plans could spend months in the review process. The municipalities cover these delays by claiming under-staffed, which is true by most accounts. But never-the-less, this could be a huge loss of money and or time that most people do not have.
Option #2 Private Provider
The Private Provider plans examiner will also review and stamp all plans and documents associated with the application for a fee agreed upon with the provider. (The local authority is required to lower their permit fee for not having reviewed the plans according to Fl. statutes). After reviewing and stamping all plans and documents required by the municipality, they are joined with the application and all other required documents for the application and submitted to the municipality. From the time the application is received, the municipality has (5) days to reject for deficiencies or issue the permit. This is an incredible time saver. You could have your permit far sooner than ever with the municipality.
There are some details regarding the above options, but that is the overall story of the plans review in Florida.
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