Building Office Frequent Questions

In order to qualify to be a licensed contractor, you must show proof of experience in the particular trade you are interested in being licensed. You must first register through the State of Florida, Department of Business and Professional Regulations at www.myfloridalicense.com. 

To add a professional license to your Osceola County permit account:

1. Go to https://permits.osceola.org
2. Login to your account and click the Account Management link.
3. Scroll to the License Information section & click Add a License.
4. Enter the License Type and License Number you want to associate with your account.
5. Click Connect.
6.  Our Building Office staff will validate your account. Once validated, your license status will change to Approved, and you'll be able to use that license to pull permits.

Learn more on our Licensing page.

Osceola County enforces the Florida Building Code.

Pursuant to Florida Statute 489.103(7) an owner/occupant of a property may be issued a permit to do contracting work on their own property. A Statement of Fact must be signed establishing the owner builder exemption. An owner/builder may only hire licensed subcontractors in those trades that carry a contractor’s license.

The limitation is as follows:

1. Residential structure - Owners of property when acting as their own contractor and providing direct onsite supervision themselves of all work not performed by licensed contractors, when building or improving farm outbuildings on one family or two family residences for occupancy or use of such owners and not offered for sale or lease
2. Commercial structure - Building or improving commercial buildings at a cost not to exceed 25,000, on such property for the occupancy or use of such owners and not offered for sale or lease.

To file a complaint against a licensee or report unlicensed activity, file a complaint through the Florida DBPR.

For information concerning the investigation of a complaint, you may contact our office at 407-742-0200

No, these are two different types of licenses.

• An occupational license, also known as Business Tax Receipt is issued from the Tax Collector's office to operate a business whether the scope of the work requires a state license or not.
• A state license is issued from the Department of Business and Professional Regulations. State licenses (registrations) are only issued to those who have taken a state exam for a particular trade that requires a state license. This basically includes, but is not limited to the following: All structural work, roofing, aluminum, electrical, plumbing or mechanical.

If you have any questions as to whether the type of the work being done requires a state license or just an occupational license, please contact our office and we will be happy to assist you.

Yes, you may request an after-hours inspection online through our Permit Center. View instructions here(PDF, 484KB) 

You must pay the minimum fee of $160.00 before the inspection request is approved. If additional fees are incurred, payment is due upon receipt of invoice and no further inspections will be performed and/or a Certificate of Occupancy will not be issued until the fee is paid.

As of April 2025, we offer Saturday building inspections for certain permits. About Saturday inspections.

One to two days after the power call is processed.

Any owner, licensed contractor or authorized agent may bring in the permit application or pick up the permit, but only the applicant (licensed contractor or owner) may sign the permit application. If the applicant (licensed contractor or owner) does not submit the permit application in person, his/her signature must be notarized on the application form. Permit applications by a licensed contractor must be signed by the license holder; no one else may accept responsibility for the work being permitted.

A building permit protects the public by ensuring standard methods and materials are used in construction, that qualified people perform the work, and that the work is verified through inspections at various stages through completion. Permit records, including approved plans and inspections are maintained by the Building Office for the life of the building.

Before the permit expires, you must submit a Permit Extension Request (for permits that are already issued) or a Permit Application Extension Request (for permits that are still pending). You must include specific details as to why an extension is necessary.

Find more details on our page Permit Extensions and Cancellations.

Fees for permits are per the current adopted County Fee Schedule.

• Residential Impact and Mobility Fees
• Commercial Impact and Mobility Fees

Yes, to change a contractor on your permit, complete and submit a Change of Contractor form, available from our Permit Applications page. The Change of Contractor form must be submitted along with the application signed by the new contractor.

If you have an approximate address (the block range, i.e., 1200-1300 Block XYZ Street) it is possible for our Planning Office to research projects currently under review or recently approved for that location. Once building construction has begun, our Building Office can provide more detailed information about residential and commercial permits, including the contractor(s) and owner of the property, size of the structure, etc.

Yes, if we have it on file. Please complete a Permit Research Request Application(PDF, 164KB) found on our Permit Applications page and submit it to our office.

In keeping with Florida’s records retention schedule, we do not retain records on residential structures more than ten years after the house was built.

It costs $5 to initialize the request and this covers the first 15 minutes of research time. Any additional time spent searching for records incurs a $20 fee per extra hour.

Before sending a request, please check if your property is within City of Kissimmee or City of St. Cloud jurisdiction. If your property falls within their bounds, you must contact their Building & Permitting offices.

It normally takes 3 to 5 days to review and process a set of residential plans if they meet the minimum code requirements. If the drawings or documents we receive have deficiencies, the reviewers will place the project on hold and request corrections to be made. Only after the corrections have been made and re-reviewed by the necessary departments will the house plans be approved.

The Osceola County Building Office enforces the Florida Building Code 2023 (8th Edition) which includes the following volumes: Building, Mechanical, Plumbing, Gas, Residential and Existing Buildings. It also enforces the National Electrical Code 2020 and the Florida Fire Prevention Code 2023.

No, Osceola County Building Office does not enforce any local ordinance that could change the Florida Building Code 2023. There are other Building Office ordinances as well as county ordinances that are enforced by other departments.

Master filing is a service that provides customers with an option of submitting for plan review construction plans of a typical building or structure that could be built multiple times in multiple locations. Builders and contractors may use this option before completing documents for permitting.

Preliminary review is a service that provides customers with the ability to submit a set of construction drawings without having to complete all the requirements of a building permit application, specifically is not required to have a contractor. This is a tool that owners, representatives and design professionals may utilize to save time during the process of completing documents for permitting.

It normally takes between 2 to 4 weeks to review and process a set of commercial plans. Commercial plan review includes building, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire. Typically a commercial review will generate plan review comments at this stage.

You can schedule a building permit inspection online, by text, or over the phone by calling 407-742-0200. Please have your permit number ready when scheduling.

Schedule an inspection online or by text.

You can re-schedule or cancel an inspection online through permits.osceola.org, or by calling 407-742-0200. Please have your permit number ready when calling.

Cancel or reschedule an inspection online or by text.

Yes, you can leave comments for inspectors when you schedule your inspection online. See instructions here.

You will need to have the following items on site and available for the inspector to view:

• Permit Card
• Notice of Commencement (NOC)
• Stamped plans: “Reviewed for Code Compliance”
• Florida Product Approval sheets and Manufacture’s Installation Instructions

You may call an inspection in for the next day as long as you put in the request before 3:00 p.m the previous day. If the inspection is called in after 3:00 p.m. it will automatically be added on the calendar two days out. For example, if you call an inspection after 3:00 p.m. on Monday, the inspection will not be scheduled until Wednesday. Please keep in mind that weekends and governmental holidays are not considered work days.

As of April 2025, we offer Saturday building inspections. Saturday inspections must be scheduled by 3:00 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the inspection date. About Saturday inspections.