Building Permits for a New Home or Renovation in Miami-Dade and Broward

Florida delegates building permitting to local governments. If your property is inside a city or town, that municipality’s building department reviews your plans, issues the permit and performs the inspections. If your property is in an unincorporated area, the county does. Both Miami-Dade and Broward contain many municipalities, each with its own staff, submittal requirements and, often, its own online portal.

That is why advice from a neighbor in another city may not apply to you. Two homes a few miles apart can face different submittal checklists, different review sequences and different local design standards. The first practical step is to confirm your jurisdiction and to read its current requirements for your project type.

Some work needs approvals beyond the building permit. Waterfront work such as seawalls and docks can involve county and state environmental agencies, and some neighborhoods have a homeowners association or architectural review board whose approval is needed before you apply.

In practice, plans for a new custom home or a major addition are prepared and sealed by a Florida-licensed architect and structural engineer, with supporting drawings for mechanical, electrical and plumbing as the project requires. A land survey is the starting point, because setbacks, lot coverage, height limits and easements all derive from it.

Zoning review checks the proposal against the rules for your parcel: how far the house must sit from each property line, how much of the lot it may cover, how tall it can be, parking and landscaping requirements, and sometimes rules for pools, rooftop terraces and accessory structures. Fixing a zoning conflict on paper is easy; fixing it after construction starts is not.

If your community has a homeowners association or architectural committee, ask for its guidelines before design is finalized. Its approval is separate from the city’s permit, and a plan that satisfies one may still need changes for the other.

• Order a current survey and confirm your zoning district before drawings begin.
• Ask about HOA or architectural committee approval and its calendar.
• Decide the scope of work before submitting; changing it mid-review can restart the clock.

Miami-Dade and Broward are both in the Florida Building Code’s High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, which imposes stricter structural, roofing and opening-protection requirements than the rest of the state. Your plans have to show how the structure resists wind and windborne debris, and the review will check that engineering.

Flood rules are a separate layer. If your property is in a FEMA flood zone, the design must respect the Base Flood Elevation and any additional freeboard your municipality requires, and the plans typically need to show the elevation of the lowest floor, flood openings, and where mechanical and electrical equipment sits. A surveyor prepares an elevation certificate at key points in construction to document compliance.

For renovations in flood zones, the substantial improvement rule can apply: when the cost of the work reaches 50% of the structure’s market value before the work, the building may need to comply with requirements for new construction. We discuss this in more detail in our guide on renovating, adding on or rebuilding.

Windows, exterior doors, garage doors, roofing, shutters and many other exterior products used in South Florida must be approved for the conditions they will face. In the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, many of these products must carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, often called an NOA, and products elsewhere in Florida may carry a Florida Product Approval. Each approval describes exactly how the product must be installed.

Inspectors check that the product on site matches the approval submitted with the permit and that it is installed as the approval specifies: anchors, spacing, substrates and sealants all matter. A beautiful window installed the wrong way will not pass, and changing a product late in construction can mean resubmitting documents.

This is one of the biggest reasons to choose the exterior package early. Lead times for impact-rated products can be long, and the approvals need to be in the permit set before work begins.

Construction proceeds through staged inspections. A new home typically goes through footing and foundation, slab and underground utilities, column and tie-beam reinforcement, wall and roof framing or structure, roofing, rough-in electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and a series of final inspections. The sequence differs by jurisdiction, but nothing is covered until it has been inspected.

A new home closes with a Certificate of Occupancy, which confirms the work was completed according to the approved plans and that the home may be occupied. Renovations often close with a certificate of completion or a final approval, depending on the jurisdiction. Final surveys and elevation certificates may be required before these are issued.

Florida allows an owner-builder exemption for a homeowner who builds on their own property for their own use, but it comes with conditions, including limits on selling or leasing the home shortly after completion, and the owner takes on the responsibility that a licensed contractor would otherwise carry. For a luxury home in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, with its coordination of engineers, products and inspections, we generally advise against it. Check the current statute and your local rules before considering it.

• A Notice of Commencement is recorded with the county before most work begins.
• Keep permit documents, approvals and inspection records; they matter for insurance and resale.
• Ask who will be present for each inspection and who schedules them.

No honest professional can tell you in advance exactly how long a permit will take. Review time depends on the municipality’s workload, the complexity of the project, whether the plans trigger multiple reviewers such as zoning, structural, flood and landscape, and how complete the first submission is. Comments from reviewers are normal; what matters is how quickly and clearly they are answered.

You can protect your schedule by finalizing design decisions before submitting, selecting the exterior products early so their approvals are in the set, answering review comments promptly, and working with a team that knows how the specific building department operates. Surprises in the field, such as an existing condition that was not documented, are another source of delay, which is why a thorough survey and site investigation matter.

Permitting is part of the building process for us, not an afterthought handed to you. Mariano Barreto brings more than 25 years of construction experience to coordinating architects, engineers, surveyors and the building department, so the permit set is complete and consistent before it is submitted, and the products specified can actually be approved and delivered.

We work on residences in Hallandale Beach, in Broward County, and in Miami Shores, in Miami-Dade County, which means we are used to the differences between jurisdictions and to explaining them clearly to owners.

If you are planning a new home or a renovation and want to understand what the permit path looks like for your specific property, contact us. We are happy to talk it through before you commit to anything.