Electing a private provider changes what a Florida jurisdiction is allowed to charge you. Since July 1, 2026 the commercial numbers are specific, they are minimums, and there is a penalty for ignoring them.
There are two provisions, and they do different work. Subsection (2)(d) sets minimum percentage reductions for commercial construction projects. Subsection (2)(b) applies to everything and bars plan review and inspection fees outright. Marketing that presents the 25 and 50 percent figures as a universal discount is describing only half the statute, and the wrong half for residential work.
Those percentages are statutory minimums, not caps: s. 553.791(2)(d) expressly provides that it does not prohibit a local enforcement agency from reducing a permit fee in excess of them. In practice the reductions Inspektr customers see run from 25% to 85% depending on the jurisdiction and the mix of services a private provider performs.
Three details matter when you compare this against how it is usually described. The 25 percent applies to the plan review or inspection portion, not to plan review alone. Both figures are floors, and the statute expressly permits an agency to reduce further. And the surcharge required by s. 553.721 is calculated on the reduced fee, not the original.
Non-commercial work is not left out; it is handled differently, and arguably more strongly.
The local jurisdiction may not charge fees for plans review or building inspections if the fee owner or the fee owner's contractor hires a private provider to perform such services. The local enforcement agency may not charge punitive administrative fees when a fee owner has chosen to work with a private provider.
s. 553.791(2)(b), Fla. Stat.The same subsection requires the jurisdiction to reduce the permit fee by the amount of cost savings realized for not having to perform the services.
This changed on July 1, 2026. The prior text of (2)(b) expressly allowed a local agency to charge "a reasonable administrative fee." Chapter 2026-63 deleted that authorization. If a jurisdiction is still applying an administrative fee on that basis, it is applying superseded law.
The fee reduction is real, and for a high-volume commercial operator it is not trivial. It is also usually the smaller half of the economics. The larger half is what the schedule does when a permit issues on a statutory clock instead of a queue, and when an inspection happens on demand instead of in a four-hour window three days out. Our ROI calculator models both.
Yes. Two separate provisions apply. For commercial construction projects, F.S. 553.791(2)(d) requires the local enforcement agency to reduce the permit fee by at least 25 percent of the portion attributable to plan review or building inspection services, and by at least 50 percent where a private provider performs all required services. For every project, commercial or not, F.S. 553.791(2)(b) bars the jurisdiction from charging plan review or inspection fees where a private provider performs them, and bars punitive administrative fees.
A floor. F.S. 553.791(2)(d) says the agency must reduce the fee by at least 25 percent, and the subsection expressly states that it does not prohibit a local enforcement agency from reducing a permit fee in excess of those percentages.
For a commercial project, F.S. 553.791(2)(d) provides that if the local enforcement agency does not reduce the fee by at least the stated percentages, the agency forfeits the ability to collect any fees for that commercial construction project.
No. Those percentages apply to commercial construction projects. Residential and other non-commercial work is governed by F.S. 553.791(2)(b), which requires the jurisdiction to reduce the permit fee by the cost savings realized and bars it from charging plan review or inspection fees at all where a private provider performs them.
Not a punitive one, and not a plan review or inspection fee. The prior statute permitted a reasonable administrative fee; chapter 2026-63 deleted that authorization effective July 1, 2026 and added an express bar on punitive administrative fees. Under F.S. 553.791(4), the required registration system must also carry no administrative fee.
This page summarizes Florida Statutes s. 553.791 as it reads following chapter 2026-63, Laws of Florida, effective July 1, 2026. Provided for general information by Inspektr, a Florida private provider. Not legal advice. The authoritative text is published by the Florida Legislature at leg.state.fl.us. Last reviewed September 2026.