- Issue the requested permit, or
- Provide the applicant with a written notice of specific plan deficiencies, including the precise code chapters and sections the plans violate.
For single-trade plan reviews (e.g., electrical only, mechanical only) for single-family or two-family dwellings, the statute provides a shorter timeline:
5 business days for the local building official to either issue the permit or provide written notice of specific deficiencies.
This accelerated timeline is intended to reduce delays on simple residential submittals where a single discipline is involved.
Plans review timelines
Florida Statute 553.791 establishes enforceable timelines for plan review and permit issuance when private providers are used. It also specifies how long a local building official has to review and respond to a permit application, whether submitted directly to the jurisdiction or accompanied by a private provider plan review affidavit.
This guide breaks down:
Timelines for standard submittals
- Timelines when a private provider is involved
- Special timelines for single-trade and professional seal submittals
- Resubmission and deficiency notice deadlines
Every deadline below is clearly tied to the correct statutory subsection so you can cite them with confidence.
If the private provider performing the plan review is an engineer licensed under Chapter 471 or an architect licensed under Chapter 481, and that professional affixes their professional seal to the affidavit required under subsection (6), the local building official’s response time is further reduced:
10 business days to either:
- Issue the permit, or
- Provide a written notice of specific plan deficiencies.
The written notice must include the specific deficiencies, reasons for failure, and applicable code references. If the jurisdiction fails to provide written notice within 10 business days, the permit is deemed approved by law and must be issued on the next business day.
This shorter timeline recognizes the added statutory weight of a professional seal under the applicable engineering and architectural statutes.
- The remainder of the tolled time period, PLUS 5 business days after the date of resubmittal
- 5 business days after resubmittal to issue the permit or provide a new written deficiency notice specific to previously cited items.
It’s important to note that the strict timelines in FS 553.791 apply only when a permit application includes a private provider affidavit.
If a permit is submitted to the city without a private provider plan review affidavit, the statute does not establish enforceable deadlines for the city’s review. In those cases, traditional Florida Building Code timelines (e.g., 30 business days initial review, 15 business days for re-review) may apply under the Florida Building Code, but they lack self-executing enforcement mechanisms like deemed approval. Timelines for applications not submitted by a private provider can be found in FS 553.792
This is the most misunderstood part of the statute, and it is clarified in Florida Statute 553.792(1)(c).
FS 553.792(1)(c) – Completeness Review
The statute provides that:
The local government has 5 business days after receiving an application to determine whether it is complete and to notify the applicant of any missing information or documentation required to deem the application properly completed.
If the local government fails to provide a written notice within those 5 business days, the application is deemed complete by operation of law.
At that point:
The application is legally complete
The applicable review timeline (30, 60, 20, 12, 10, or 5 days, depending on the type and who submitted the application) begins to run
The city cannot later claim the application was incomplete to delay review
This subsection is critical because it establishes that cities do not control when the clock starts. The statute does.
Under FS 553.791(7)(a) and (10):
If the local building official fails to provide the required written notice within the applicable timeframe (20, 10, or 5 business days), the statute says the permit must be deemed approved by operation of law.
The local building official must then issue the permit on the next business day.
This statutory “deemed approval” mechanism creates a real consequence for missing a deadline. Simply ignoring a plan review is no longer an option when a private provider affidavit is included.
- Always file the private provider affidavit with the initial permit application to start the statutory timelines.
- Use private providers who are engineers or architects to accelerate the city’s response window to 10 business days.
- Track resubmission deadlines carefully.
- Provide complete and accurate affidavits to avoid tolling delays or unnecessary resubmittals.
- FS 553.791(6) – Affidavit required for private provider plan review
- FS 553.791(7)(a) – 20-day timeline for city action
- FS 553.791(7)(a) (single-trade) – 5-day timeline for single-trade residential reviews
- FS 553.791(10) – 10-day timeline when engineer/architect seal affixed
- FS 553.791(7)(b)-(d) – Resubmission and deficiency handling rules
