By Brian French | Florida Authority Network | September 9, 2026
Quick Answer
Since July 1, 2026, Florida HB 803 requires local governments to exempt single-family homeowners (and their contractors) from pulling a building permit for work valued under $7,500. The exemption does not cover electrical, plumbing, mechanical, gas, or structural work, and it does not apply to properties in flood hazard areas. The Florida Building Code still applies, licensed-contractor rules still apply, and HOAs can no longer demand a permit before reviewing your plans.
Why This Matters to Florida Homeowners and Contractors
For decades, the Florida permit process treated a $600 drywall patch and a $60,000 kitchen gut with roughly the same intake paperwork. Homeowners waited weeks for approval on cosmetic jobs, contractors built permit-runner time into every bid, and building departments spent staff hours on projects that posed no life-safety risk.
House Bill 803, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in early May 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, is the most significant rewrite of Florida’s permitting framework in years. The headline provision, the $7,500 residential exemption, has generated most of the search traffic. But the bill also cut permit review deadlines in half, created a “deemed approved” penalty for slow building departments, expanded the private provider program, and changed how HOAs handle architectural review.
This article covers what the $7,500 exemption actually does, where it stops, what it means for HOA approvals and insurance claims, and how the broader permitting changes affect Florida’s home services trades.
What HB 803 Says About the $7,500 Threshold
The operative language lives in the new Section 553.79(1)(g) of Florida Statutes. Its core instruction to local governments is mandatory: a local government that issues building permits shall exempt the owner of a single-family dwelling, or the owner’s contractor, from obtaining a building permit for work valued at less than $7,500 on that property.
Three points in that sentence carry most of the weight.
“Shall exempt” is not optional. Cities and counties cannot opt out. Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Duval, and a rural Panhandle county are all bound by the same floor. Before HB 803, permit thresholds varied widely by jurisdiction, and many counties required permits for nearly everything above a few hundred dollars.
“Single-family dwelling” is the scope. The exemption is written for single-family residential property. Condominiums, multifamily buildings, and commercial structures do not benefit from the residential exemption, although they do benefit from the bill’s other timeline and private provider changes.
“Valued at less than $7,500” is the total job value. The threshold applies to the full value of the work, labor and materials combined, not just the contractor’s fee or the material invoice.
What typically qualifies
Because the bill carves out trade work and structural work, the exemption effectively covers non-structural, non-trade cosmetic and finish improvements. Examples that generally qualify when under $7,500 and outside a flood hazard area:
- Interior and exterior painting
- Drywall repair and finishing
- Flooring replacement (tile, LVP, laminate, carpet)
- Cabinet replacement that does not relocate plumbing or electrical
- Countertops without sink or cooktop relocation
- Trim, baseboards, and interior doors
- Minor siding and stucco repair
- Screen enclosure repairs (non-structural)
- Standalone backyard fences, subject to local zoning permits
What never qualifies, regardless of cost
| Category | Still requires a permit |
|---|---|
| Electrical | Yes, even a $400 outlet or recessed light job |
| Plumbing | Yes, including water heaters and fixture relocation |
| Mechanical/HVAC | Yes, including unit swaps and duct changes |
| Gas | Yes, all gas line and appliance work |
| Structural | Yes, load-bearing walls, roof framing, footings |
| Flood hazard area property | Yes, all work on the parcel |
This is the part that surprises homeowners. The “small job” most people picture, a new water heater, a bathroom sink moved two feet, a mini-split in the garage, lands squarely back inside the permit rules because it touches a regulated trade. A $900 water heater replacement still requires a permit. A $7,000 paint-and-floor refresh does not.
The Flood Zone Exclusion Erases the Benefit for Much of Coastal Florida
The exemption does not apply to any property partially or entirely located within a flood hazard area as defined by the Florida Building Code. That single clause removes the benefit for a large share of the state’s most valuable housing stock.
Large sections of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, coastal Hillsborough, Lee, Collier, and the Keys sit in FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas. For a homeowner on a canal in Cape Coral or a bayfront lot in St. Petersburg, a $300 cosmetic touch-up still technically requires a permit if the parcel is in the flood zone.
The rationale is the substantial improvement rule. FEMA-participating communities must track cumulative improvement value on flood-zone properties, because once improvements exceed 50 percent of the structure’s value, the building must be brought up to current flood elevation standards. Unpermitted work breaks that tracking. The Legislature chose not to disrupt it.
Practical advice: before assuming you are exempt, check your parcel on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center or your county property appraiser’s GIS layer. If any portion of the lot is in a mapped flood hazard area, the exemption is off the table.
Project Splitting Is Explicitly Prohibited
HB 803 anticipated the obvious workaround and closed it. The statute prohibits dividing a single project into multiple phases or invoices to bring each piece under $7,500. A $20,000 renovation invoiced as three $6,500 jobs does not become three exempt projects. Local enforcement agencies may scrutinize this, and intentional splitting creates more legal exposure than the permit process it was designed to avoid.
The practical test most building officials are applying: is this a single scope of work, planned and contracted together? If yes, the total value governs.
The Exemption Is Not Automatic in Many Jurisdictions
A point that has caused confusion since July 1: several cities and counties are requiring homeowners or contractors to submit a short exemption request or affidavit documenting the scope and value of the work before proceeding. Fort Lauderdale, for example, has published a formal residential exemption process and states plainly that the exemption is not automatic.
The documentation is typically minimal, a one-page form describing the work and attesting to value, but it creates a paper record. That record matters later for resale disclosures and insurance, which we cover below. Homeowners should check their local building department’s HB 803 guidance page rather than assuming they can simply start work.
Zoning Permits Are a Separate Track
HB 803 restricts building permits. It does not eliminate zoning permits, land development regulations, setback rules, or local ordinances unrelated to the building code.
Fences are the clearest example. A standalone backyard fence under $7,500 is exempt from the building permit requirement, but many municipalities have historically regulated fence height, location, and materials under zoning. Some departments that previously issued a building permit for fences have reclassified the same review as a zoning permit. The fee and the review remain; only the label changed.
The same logic applies to sheds, driveways, accessory structures, tree removal, and anything touching a right-of-way or easement. Homeowners should ask two questions, not one: “Do I need a building permit?” and “Do I need a zoning or land use approval?”
The HOA Provision Most Coverage Missed
HB 803 amended Chapter 720, Florida Statutes, to prohibit homeowners’ associations from requiring a building permit as a precondition for architectural review of a proposed improvement.
Before the change, many Florida HOAs and their architectural review committees would refuse to review an application until the owner produced a county-issued permit. That created a circular problem: the county often wanted HOA approval, the HOA wanted the permit, and the homeowner waited on both.
The new rule decouples the two. An HOA may still review the design, materials, colors, and placement of an improvement under its governing documents. It may still deny an application on aesthetic or covenant grounds. It simply cannot use the absence of a permit as the reason to refuse review.
For the roughly half of Florida homeowners living under HOA governance, this is a meaningful quality-of-life change, particularly for exempt projects where no permit will ever exist.
Unpermitted Work and Florida Home Insurance
This is where the $7,500 exemption intersects with the most expensive line item in most Florida households. The interaction is more nuanced than either “insurers don’t care” or “you’ll lose coverage.”
The exemption changes the permit requirement, not the code requirement. Every piece of exempt work must still comply with the Florida Building Code. If a later inspection, triggered by a complaint, a buyer’s home inspection, or a subsequent permit on related work, finds exempt work that is not code-compliant, the homeowner is responsible for correction.
Insurers underwrite on records. Florida property insurers and Citizens rely heavily on permit history to verify roof age, electrical updates, and prior improvements. Exempt cosmetic work (paint, floors, cabinets) rarely affects underwriting. But work that touches building envelope integrity, or that a homeowner believes is exempt but actually falls into a trade category, can create a claim dispute.
The disclosure obligation survives. Florida sellers must disclose known material defects. Unpermitted work has historically been a common disclosure flashpoint. Post-HB 803, sellers should distinguish between legally exempt work (no permit required) and unpermitted work (a permit was required but not pulled). Keeping the exemption affidavit, contractor invoice, and photos in a home file resolves most of the ambiguity at closing.
Licensing rules did not change. Florida still requires a state-certified or county-registered contractor for most residential work above $2,500. The permit exemption is not a licensing exemption. A contractor who cites HB 803 to justify unlicensed electrical or plumbing work is wrong on both counts, and hiring unlicensed in Florida carries real consequences for the homeowner, including loss of certain insurance and recovery-fund protections.
Beyond $7,500: What Else HB 803 Changed
The residential exemption is the consumer-facing headline. For Florida’s construction and home services trades, the rest of the bill may matter more.
| Provision | Before HB 803 | After July 1, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Review deadline (private provider) | 20 business days | 10 business days |
| Single-trade, 1–2 family dwelling | 20 business days | 5 business days |
| Missed deadline | No statutory penalty | Permit deemed approved by law |
| Private provider fee reduction | Local discretion | 25% (partial) / 50% (full) floor, commercial |
| Contract/invoice required for permit | Common | Prohibited |
| Inspection fees | Often value-based | Must reflect actual cost |
| Virtual inspections | Allowed | Cannot be prohibited or limited |
| Permit duration | Varied | One year or next FBC edition, whichever is later |
| HOA permit precondition | Allowed | Prohibited |
The “shot clock” now has teeth. If a building department misses its statutory review window without issuing a written deficiency notice, the permit is deemed approved as a matter of law and must be issued the next business day. For general contractors managing draw schedules and lender timelines, this converts a soft deadline into a hard one.
Private providers gained ground. Licensed engineers, architects, and building code administrators authorized under Section 553.791 can perform plan review and inspections in place of the local department. HB 803 narrowed the department’s ability to re-review a private provider’s work and set mandatory fee reductions for commercial projects. Many building departments are extending those reductions to residential permits.
The 9th Edition Florida Building Code lands December 31, 2026. Permits pulled now run at least through that date, which matters for anyone sequencing work across the code transition.
What This Means for Florida Home Services Businesses
For painters, flooring installers, cabinet shops, drywall contractors, and fence companies, HB 803 removes friction from the most common ticket sizes. Several Florida fence and remodeling firms have already reoriented marketing around “zero-permit” projects under the threshold, often bundling HOA submittal packets as a value-add.
For electricians, plumbers, and HVAC contractors, the exemption changes nothing about permit obligations. Their competitive advantage now comes from the private provider pathway and the compressed review clocks, which can cut days off a water heater or panel job that previously sat in a queue.
For general contractors and remodelers, the bill’s prohibition on project splitting means bids should be scoped honestly, and the deemed-approval mechanism should be tracked deliberately. A complete, well-organized submission is now the single biggest factor in hitting the shorter end of the timeline.
Brian’s Take
HB 803 is a good law with a bad headline. The $7,500 figure is what people search for, but the exemption is narrower than most homeowners assume and the flood zone exclusion guts it for exactly the coastal counties where permit backlogs were worst. If you own in a mapped flood zone, nothing about your permit obligations changed on July 1.
The real story is the timeline reform. Florida building departments that routinely stretched reviews to 60 or 90 days are now on a 5-to-10-day clock with statutory consequences. That is a structural shift in leverage from government to applicant, and it will show up in contractor cash flow, lender confidence, and project sequencing long before it shows up in a homeowner’s paint job.
Two cautions. First, “no permit” does not mean “no record.” Keep the exemption form, the invoice, and dated photos. The $30 you saved on a permit fee is not worth a $30,000 insurance dispute or a stalled closing. Second, watch the zoning reclassification trend. If a municipality simply relabels its fence building permit as a zoning permit and charges the same fee, the Legislature’s intent has been sidestepped, and I expect a clarifying bill in the 2027 session.
From a market standpoint, the winners are private providers, finish trades, and homeowners in inland counties. The losers are building departments that relied on valuation-based inspection fees, and any contractor who has not updated intake procedures for the new documentation requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I still need a permit for a water heater under HB 803?
Yes. Water heaters involve plumbing and often gas or electrical, all of which remain permitted regardless of cost.
Does the $7,500 exemption apply to condos?
No. The exemption is written for single-family dwellings. Condominium and multifamily work remains subject to standard permitting.
Can my HOA still reject my project?
Yes, on design and covenant grounds. It cannot refuse to review the application because you do not have a building permit.
What if my property is only partially in a flood zone?
The exemption does not apply. The statute covers properties partially or entirely within a flood hazard area.
Can I split a $12,000 job into two $6,000 jobs?
No. HB 803 explicitly prohibits dividing a project to fall under the threshold.
Do I still need a licensed contractor for exempt work?
Yes for most work above $2,500. HB 803 changed permit requirements only, not contractor licensing.
Is the exemption automatic?
Not everywhere. Many jurisdictions require a short exemption request or affidavit. Check your local building department.
Does exempt work still have to meet the Florida Building Code?
Yes. The exemption removes the permit, not the code. Non-compliant work can be flagged later.
Sources and Further Reading
- Florida House Bill 803 (2026), Chapter 2026-63, Laws of Florida, Fla. Stat. §553.79(1)(g) and §553.791
- Adams and Reese LLP, “Florida HB 803: Beyond the $7,500 Exception” (May 2026)
- Becker & Poliakoff, “What Florida HB 803 (2026) Means for Municipalities, Counties, and Developers” (July 2026)
- GovWell, “How Florida HB 803 Changes Building Permits” (July 2026)
- OpenGov, “Florida HB 803: Permitting Compliance by July 1” (June 2026)
- City of Fort Lauderdale Development Services, “HB 803 Permitting Updates” (2026)
- Village of Palmetto Bay, “Changes to the Permit Process Take Place on July 1, 2026”
- Tew & Taylor, “Florida Private Provider Permit Timelines: 10, 5, and 20 Business Days” (June 2026)
- Pineland Engineering, “Florida HB 803 (Chapter 2026-63) Building Permit Law 2026: Complete Guide”
- FloridaContractorCheck.com, “Florida’s New $7,500 Permit Exemption: When You Can Skip a Permit” (July 2026)
- GlobalPro, “Florida HB 803: Know the Rules Before You Break Ground” (July 2026)
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center, msc.fema.gov
