Methodology · Last reviewed August 2026
How the permit cost estimator works
Every fee the tool calculates, the code section or adopted fee schedule behind it, and the date that source was last amended. Including what the tool refuses to calculate and why.
What the tool does
The permit estimator takes a city, a project type, a floor area and a construction valuation, and returns the itemised permit and plan check fees that jurisdiction publishes for that project.
It calculates published fee schedules. It is not a quote, and it is not a substitute for the fees your building department actually assesses when it sees your drawings. Scope-dependent items that no form can know about are excluded and named rather than folded silently into a total.
City of Los Angeles
How the LADBS calculation is built
Los Angeles derives almost every fee from one base figure, so the order of operations matters more than it does elsewhere.
| Fee | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Building permit | Table 1-A, applied to total valuation | LAMC 91.113, incorporated by 91.107.2.1. Ord. 185,587, effective 16 Jul 2018 |
| Energy code increase | 10% of the permit fee, and part of the plan check base | Table 1-A footnote |
| Plan check | 90% of the permit fee including the energy increase | LAMC 91.107.3.1.1 |
| Electrical / plumbing / mechanical | 26% / 26% / 13% of the building permit | Table 1-A.1 combined permit |
| Plan maintenance | 2% of the permit fee, floor $10, cap $300 | LAMC 91.107.4.3 |
| Fire hydrant fee | 0.22% of valuation, only at $50,000 and above | LAMC 91.107, amended 12 May 2009 |
| Systems development surcharge | 6% of the covered fees | LAMC 98.0416 |
| City planning surcharge | 6% of the permit fee plus $5 | LAMC 98.0418 |
| General plan maintenance | 7% of the permit fee plus $5 | LAMC 98.0418 |
| Green building surcharge | 10% of permit and plan check | LAMC 99.01.107 |
| Strong motion instrumentation | 0.00013 of valuation, minimum $0.50. Excluded from the plan check base | Public Resources Code 2705; CGS fee schedule |
| State building standards | $1 per $25,000 of valuation or fraction | DGS / BSC |
| Permit issuing fee | $27 | LAMC 98.0415, last amended 8 Aug 2011 |
Three things that are easy to get wrong
Table 1-A applies its rate to the total valuation. Not to the portion above the bracket floor, which is how nearly every other fee table in the state works. This is checkable rather than a matter of opinion: under the total valuation reading every bracket boundary in the table meets exactly, and under the ordinary reading none of them do. We test this automatically whenever the fee data changes.
"Each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof" means round up. A project one dollar into a bracket pays the full increment. Treating it as simple division understates every fee, and it also hides the genuine steps that exist in some cities' schedules. We had this wrong in an early draft and corrected it against the adopted documents.
Plan check is 90 per cent, not 80. Secondary sources routinely cite 80 per cent for building plan check and attribute it to a section that says nothing of the kind. The 80 per cent figure is the electrical plan check rate under LAMC 93.0233(b), which is a different fee on a different base. Building and structural plan check is 90 per cent under LAMC 91.107.3.1.1.
Where the valuation figure comes from
The tool asks you for your construction cost because that is how the permit application works. LADBS application forms contain a project valuation field that the applicant completes, and the department describes that figure as the total cost of construction.
The department also reserves the right to revise it. Its own forms warn that an owner's valuation "may be increased by the Department in accordance with the Department's current valuation schedule". So the fee you see here is the fee for the number you entered. If the city considers that number understated, it can raise it, and the fees rise with it.
What we will not tell you, because no primary source documents it, is that the city mechanically takes whichever of the two figures is higher.
The school fee threshold
Education Code section 17620(c) permits a school developer fee on "other residential construction" only where the resulting increase in assessable space exceeds 500 square feet. Below that, none applies. Above it, the fee attaches to the whole increase rather than the excess.
The current LAUSD residential rate is $5.38 per square foot, effective 11 August 2026, raised from $5.17 by the State Allocation Board. Sources still quoting $5.17 are out of date.
A new dwelling unit is a separate statutory category, so the 500 square foot exemption is not applied to ADUs. Instead the tool applies the state impact fee exemption for accessory dwelling units under 750 square feet.
What the tool will not tell you
Some of these are gaps in the public record rather than gaps in our research, and we would rather show you a blank than a plausible invention.
- Regular plan check turnaround. There is no current published figure. The department's own page says "weeks" and dates from 2014.
- How many correction rounds to expect. No official source exists. The number that circulates in the industry is not sourced to any agency.
- Whether electronic submittal is faster. Widely asserted, never measured in anything published.
- Sewer facility charges. The rates are published, but they depend on occupancy sewage-generation factors and credits for existing use, which a form cannot determine.
- Site-specific reviews. Grading, geology, hillside review, methane zones, fire sprinklers and planning clearances are all excluded and named in the result rather than folded into a total.
- Two cities' current schedules. Both have revised recently. The tool declines to quote them rather than publish a figure we cannot verify against the adopted document.
Sources
What we relied on
Fee schedules change. Los Angeles adjusts its code fees every 1 July by local CPI, and most cities adopt new schedules with their annual budget. This page carries a review date for that reason.
- Los Angeles Municipal Code section 91.113, Table 1-A. The building permit fee table, incorporated for building permits by section 91.107.2.1. Amended by Ordinance 185,587, effective 16 July 2018.
- Los Angeles Municipal Code section 91.107. Plan check at 90 per cent, plan maintenance, the fire hydrant fee, and the annual CPI adjustment requirement.
- LADBS fee schedules. The department's own index of current fee documents.
- California Education Code section 17620. The school developer fee, and the 500 square foot threshold for additions.
- LAUSD Impact Fee Program Office. The current residential rate of $5.38 per square foot, effective 11 August 2026.
- California Geological Survey, Strong Motion Instrumentation Program. The residential surcharge rate, under Public Resources Code section 2705.
- California Government Code section 66317. The ADU completeness determination, the 60 day decision deadline and deemed approval.
- City of Pasadena FY2027 General Fee Schedule, adopted 8 June 2026. Permit and plan check tables and the ADU discounts.
- City of Glendale Citywide Fee Schedule, last amended 23 June 2026. Single-family permit table and the 115 per cent residential plan review.
- City of Beverly Hills FY2026-27 fees and charges, effective 1 July 2026.
- City of Burbank FY2026-27 adopted fee schedule, adopted 2 June 2026. Residential additions priced by floor area.
- City of Thousand Oaks Master Fee Schedule, FY2025-26 and FY2026-27. Floor area bands, and Ventura County rather than Los Angeles County pass-throughs.
Found a problem?
Tell us and we will fix it
If a fee here is out of date, a schedule has been superseded, or you have been invoiced something materially different by a building department, we would like to know. We would rather hear it from you than keep publishing something wrong.
Call (626) 726-3989 or email [email protected].
If what you want is a real number for your house, that is the estimate conversation instead, or go back to the permit estimator.