Does your job need a permit? How to find out first

Why it matters even on a small job

Three reasons, and the third is the one that bites.

Work done without a required permit can have to be opened up and inspected later. Your insurer can take an interest after a loss if the work that caused it was unpermitted. And when you sell, unpermitted work shows up — the square footage does not match the records, or the inspection finds a circuit nobody ever signed off. That is a negotiation you have at the worst possible moment.

The rough line

Not legal advice, and not a substitute for asking. But as a way of knowing when to ask:

• Usually no permit: replacing a faucet, a toilet, a garbage disposal, a light fixture or a fan in the same place with the same kind of thing. Painting. Patching drywall. Flooring. Cabinet hardware. Shelving. Mounting a television.
• Usually a permit: moving or adding plumbing, adding or altering electrical circuits, water heaters, anything structural, windows and doors in new openings, decks above a certain height, re-roofing, HVAC changes, converting a garage into a room.

Notice where the line sits. It is not about how much the job costs. It is about whether you are maintaining what exists or changing the system.

How to get your city's actual answer

Three ways, all free.

Call the building department and describe the work in one sentence. This is the fastest and the most reliable. Ask specifically: "does this need a permit at my address?" Write down who you spoke to and when.

Read the city's own handouts. Most building departments publish short information bulletins listing work that does and does not need a permit. These are written for homeowners and they are the clearest documents the city produces.

Use the counter or the online portal. If your project is at all ambiguous, a pre-application question at the counter takes an hour and saves weeks.

Where to start for each of the four cities

• San Jose. Planning, Building and Code Enforcement. They publish homeowner information bulletins covering what needs a permit.
• Campbell. Community Development Department, building division.
• Los Gatos. Community Development Department. Note that the hillside areas have additional requirements that have nothing to do with the size of the job.
• Saratoga. Community Development Department. Tree removal is separately regulated here and catches people out.

If your home is in an association, there may be a second approval to get that has nothing to do with the city — and the association's rules can be stricter than the city's, particularly about anything visible from outside.

What to do if work was already done without one

Do not panic and do not hide it. Cities have processes for permitting existing work retroactively. It costs more and it may mean opening something up for inspection, but it is a known path, and it is far better handled on your timetable than during a sale.

Where this leaves me

I do not take work that needs a permit. That is not caution for its own sake: work that needs a permit needs a licensed contractor behind it who can pull one, and that is a different kind of business from this one.

What I will do is tell you which side of the line your job is on, on the phone, before either of us has spent anything. If it is the other side, you get the name of the trade you actually need instead of a quote you should not accept.