Los Angeles County, California Building Permit Cost Calculator

Los Angeles County prices building permits from a valuation-based table (the 'County Building Valuation Fee Table'), not a flat fee. Staff assign a construction valuation, look it up in the table, and read off two separate numbers: a plan check fee and a permit fee. The table is further split four ways depending on whether the project needs an energy check, a disabled-access check, both, or neither, and each of those blocks has separate residential-occupancy and other-occupancy columns. A permit issuance fee of $41.35 is added on top of every building permit. One- and two-family dwellings combined with attached garages are charged at 1.6 times the standard building permit rate. On top of the base fees the County adds a Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (SMIP) surcharge of 0.013 percent of total valuation for Group R occupancies and 0.028 percent for all other occupancies (minimum $0.50 either way), a 10 percent surcharge for state energy-conservation compliance, and a 5 percent surcharge for Title 24 disabled-access/adaptability compliance. SMIP is excluded from the base used to compute the plan check fee; the energy and access surcharges are included. Fees are adopted under Title 26 of the County Code (Ord. No. 2013-0048) and the schedule shown here is effective July 1, 2026.

There is no dedicated flat deck fee in the County schedule. A permit-required deck is priced the same way as any other building work: the plan checker assigns a construction valuation, that valuation is looked up in the County Building Valuation Fee Table, and separate plan check and permit fees are read off, plus the $41.35 permit issuance fee and the SMIP surcharge (0.013 percent of valuation for residential). Because valuation drives everything, the total scales with the size and framing of the deck rather than with a published deck line item. Schedule effective July 1, 2026 under Title 26 (Ord. No. 2013-0048).

Electrical permits are priced by counting devices and equipment rather than by valuation. There is a $41.35 fee for issuing each permit, then unit fees per outlet, per lighting fixture, per service or panel, and per piece of equipment, so the total is the issuance fee plus the sum of the unit counts. Outlets and fixtures are charged at a higher rate for the first 20 and a lower rate for each one after that, which meaningfully reduces the cost of large rewires. Service equipment is priced in bands by ampacity and voltage. Effective July 1, 2026 under Title 27 of the County Code.

There is no flat fence permit fee. A fence over 6 feet, or any fence acting as a pool barrier or as a wall requiring structural review, is valued and charged from the County Building Valuation Fee Table, yielding a plan check fee and a permit fee, plus the $41.35 issuance fee and the SMIP surcharge on valuation. Effective July 1, 2026 under Title 26 (Ord. No. 2013-0048).

There is no flat reroof fee. A reroof is valued as construction work and charged from the County Building Valuation Fee Table, producing a plan check fee and a permit fee based on the assigned valuation, with the $41.35 issuance fee added and the SMIP surcharge applied at 0.013 percent of valuation for residential occupancies. Simple like-for-like recovers are typically handled at the counter, but the dollar amount still derives from the valuation table rather than a published reroof line. Effective July 1, 2026, Title 26 (Ord. No. 2013-0048). PROVENANCE NOTE 2026-09-12: the $41.35 permit issuance fee, the $225.59 minimum standard-plan plan check fee and the $65.86 minimum permit fee all verify verbatim, but the $65.86 comes from the separate 2026-27 County Building Valuation Fee Table (effective July 1, 2026), not from the Building Code Fee Schedule cited as source_url; fee_source_url now points at that table. The SMIP surcharge rate of 0.013% of valuation is state-mandated under CA Public Resources Code 2705 and appears in NEITHER County document - it needs its own citation.

No flat retaining wall fee is published. The wall is assigned a construction valuation and charged plan check plus permit fees from the County Building Valuation Fee Table, with the $41.35 issuance fee added and SMIP applied to valuation. Where the wall involves cut or fill, a separate grading permit and grading plan check fee from the County Grading Fee schedule apply on top, priced by volume of earth moved. Effective July 1, 2026 under Title 26 (Ord. No. 2013-0048).

An exempt shed carries no building permit fee. A shed that exceeds 120 square feet or 12 feet is charged like any other building: valuation is assigned, plan check and permit fees are read off the County Building Valuation Fee Table, the $41.35 issuance fee is added, and SMIP applies at 0.013 percent of valuation for a residential accessory structure. There is no separate flat shed fee published. Effective July 1, 2026 under Title 26 (Ord. No. 2013-0048). PROVENANCE NOTE 2026-09-12: the $41.35 permit issuance fee, the $225.59 minimum standard-plan plan check fee and the $65.86 minimum permit fee all verify verbatim, but the $65.86 comes from the separate 2026-27 County Building Valuation Fee Table (effective July 1, 2026), not from the Building Code Fee Schedule cited as source_url; fee_source_url now points at that table. The SMIP surcharge rate of 0.013% of valuation is state-mandated under CA Public Resources Code 2705 and appears in NEITHER County document - it needs its own citation.

Water heaters are charged from the County plumbing fee schedule as a unit fee, not from valuation. The permit is the $41.35 issuance fee plus $24.47 for each water heater and/or vent, so a straightforward single-unit replacement is a small fixed cost. Additional plumbing items on the same permit are charged at their own unit rates, for example each plumbing fixture or trap is also $24.47 and a solar potable water-heating system is $81.78. The County also publishes an investigation fee that doubles the exposure if the heater is installed before the permit is pulled: a minimum of $504.47, reduced to $252.23 under the owner-builder exception. Effective July 1, 2026 under Title 28 (Ord. No. 2013-0050).