Retaining wall permit checklist — Miami-Dade County, Florida
Assembled from Miami-Dade County’s own published permit rules. Every line below is quoted from a city document and linked to it. Nothing here is generated, estimated, or inferred from another jurisdiction.
Do you need a permit?
Miami-Dade County requires a permit for a retaining wall.
Miami-Dade County's Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER), Building and Neighborhood Compliance, is a conventional building department serving the unincorporated municipal service area - the county states it handles buildings in unincorporated areas, with folios beginning with '30'. Each of the county's 34 municipalities has its own building official, so a property inside a city is permitted by that city. Unlike the Texas counties, Florida has a mandatory statewide code and Miami-Dade enforces the Florida Building Code with High-Velocity Hurricane Zone provisions, so building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and roofing permits are all genuinely required here. There is no separate retaining wall line; walls are grouped with fences on the fee schedule, so a masonry or concrete retaining wall is priced by linear foot under that section. Engineered walls may also incur structural plan review. Confirm the classification with RER for a specific design.
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Sources
- retaining wall — permit rules ↗verified August 2026
Other permits Miami-Dade County publishes rules for
Listed because the city publishes a separate rule for each type — not because this project necessarily triggers one. Whether it does depends on your scope of work.
- Deck permit checklist
- Fence permit checklist
- Shed permit checklist
- Water heater permit checklist
- Re-roof permit checklist
- Electrical work permit checklist
- General building work permit checklist
BuildSpec is a reference, not the authority having jurisdiction. Confirm requirements with Miami-Dade County before you build.