City of Atlanta Increases Permit Fees

The Office of Buildings of the City of Atlanta has increased their Permit Fees. And though the information is just making the rounds on the customer level (that would be the builders and remodelers – aka. taxpayers), the increases were adopted by the City Council last fall, effective October 18, 2011. Very interesting!? Clearly as the number of new projects requiring building permits has been reduced by the economy, so has the revenue from permit fees. The new fee structure makes a big effort to try to recoup some of that lost income with both increases in most existing fees as well as the addition of new fees.

For example, there is now a Permit Processing Improvement Fee of $25 per permit. We are all looking for those improvements, yes? The Minimum Permit Fee has increased from $100 to $150. The Change Contractor Fee has increased from $50 to $100. For new construction, the Certificate of Occupancy fee has doubled from $50 to $100. These are just a few examples that will affect many common permits.

The biggest change that will cause the most increase in the cost of permits is the base fee factor – increasing from $5 per $1000 of cost of construction to $7 per $1000. On a large project this could easily add several hundred dollars to the total.

Ultimately, every remodeler and builder who works in the City of Atlanta will have to pay the new higher permit fees, and consequently pass these along to the clients.

Welcome to 2012!!