A building official can still stop a job, deny a certificate, and audit your provider. What the official can no longer do is re-review approved plans or re-inspect approved work on a hunch.
Most coverage of the 2026 amendments reads as a list of things building departments lost. That framing is not useful if you are trying to work with a department rather than around one. Here is the actual line.
The building official may not review plans, construction drawings, or any other related document that a private provider has determined to be compliant with applicable codes. The exceptions are specific: local ordinances, floodplain management regulations, site review requirements, and any other administrative or life-safety review unrelated to building code compliance.
For the other forms and documents the statute requires, the official may review for completeness only, and must state with specificity what is incomplete.
This is the sharpest limit. A local building official may perform building inspections of construction a private provider has determined to be compliant only if the official has knowledge that the private provider did not perform the required inspections. Before performing that inspection, the official must give the private provider written notice of the facts and circumstances the knowledge rests on.
Two things follow. The trigger is knowledge that inspections were not performed, not disagreement about whether they were performed well. And the notice comes first, in writing, with the facts stated.
The official may still visit the building site as often as necessary to verify that the private provider is performing the required inspections. Observing is not the same as inspecting.
Auditing is confirming that the inspection services were performed: that the plan review affidavit was properly completed and submitted, and that the minimum mandatory inspections were performed and recorded. It is not a second inspection, and the official may not replicate the plan review or inspection unless the statute expressly authorizes it.
A local agency may not audit at all until it has created and published standard operating audit procedures covering purpose, scope, criteria, process, objections, and findings. Those procedures must be online and available in printed form in agency buildings, along with the prior two quarters of audit results. The agency's process must follow its own published procedures.
The same provider or firm may not be audited more than four times a year, unless the official determines a building condition is an immediate threat to public safety and welfare, communicated in writing. Each audit requires at least five business days' notice. Work may proceed after a private provider's inspection and approval, and may not be delayed for an audit to finish.
No reinspection or reaudit fees may be charged as a result of an audit inspection occurring before the private provider's inspection, or for any other administrative matter not involving detection of an actual code or permit violation.
Issue a stop-work order where a site condition is an immediate threat to public safety and welfare. That authority is untouched.
Deny a permit, or a request for a certificate of occupancy or completion, where construction or plans do not comply and the noncompliance poses an immediate threat to public safety and welfare.
Issue a Notice of Corrective Action during construction where the official determines a condition may constitute a hazard once the building is in use, provided the cited condition is shown to violate the code or approved plans.
The statute sets out a path. The building official must be available to meet with the private provider within two business days of issuing a stop-work order or denying a permit or certificate. If that does not resolve it, the matter goes to the local enforcement agency's board of appeals, which considers it at its next scheduled meeting or sooner. From there it can be appealed to the Florida Building Commission.
A local enforcement agency may not require additional verification of licensure or insurance beyond what is required at registration. And it may not prohibit or limit a private provider's use of virtual inspections unless a virtual inspection is prohibited by an applicable code.
Only in a narrow circumstance. The official may perform building inspections of construction a private provider has determined to be compliant only if the official has knowledge that the private provider did not perform the required inspections, and must first give the private provider written notice of the facts and circumstances supporting that knowledge.
No, with defined exceptions. The official may not review plans, construction drawings, or related documents a private provider determined to be code compliant, except to the extent necessary to determine compliance with local ordinances, floodplain management regulations, site review requirements, and other administrative or life-safety review unrelated to building code compliance.
Not more than four times in a year, unless the building official determines a building condition is an immediate threat to public safety and welfare, which must be communicated in writing. The provider must also receive at least 5 business days' notice of each audit, and work may proceed while an audit is pending.
This article describes Florida Statute 553.791 and related provisions as amended by HB 803 (Chapter 2026-63), effective July 1, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction for your specific project.
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