Private Provider Plan Review and Inspection Coordination

What the private provider option is

Florida Statute 553.791 allows an owner or contractor to retain a licensed private provider — typically an engineer or architect with the appropriate credentials — to perform plan review, building inspections, or both, in place of the local building department. The building department retains oversight and issues the permit and the certificate of occupancy; the private provider performs the review and inspection work and certifies compliance.

The statute has been amended over time, including provisions extending the framework to single-trade permit applications. The practical mechanics — notice requirements, timeframes, audit rights — are set by statute and administered locally.

When it genuinely helps

• The jurisdiction is backed up. Where plan review is running many weeks, a private provider can compress that substantially. This is the primary reason people use it.
• Inspection scheduling is the bottleneck. Where next-available inspections are days out and your trades are waiting, private inspections scheduled around your crew can be worth more than the fee.
• The project is phased or fast-tracked. Flexibility on sequencing has real value on a tight schedule.
• Repeat prototype work. Where the same design is built repeatedly, a provider who knows the prototype moves quickly.

When it does not

• The jurisdiction is already fast. Paying for private review to save four days on a two-week turnaround is not a good trade.
• The project is small. Fixed provider costs weigh heavily against a modest permit.
• The jurisdiction administers it reluctantly. Some building departments process private provider projects smoothly. Others add administrative steps that erode much of the saving. This varies more than anyone advertises.
• The project is unusual. Complex or first-of-its-kind work sometimes benefits from the building department's institutional familiarity and from having the ultimate authority engaged directly throughout.

We do not sell private provider services, which means we have no reason to recommend the route when it does not help. On roughly half the projects where clients ask about it, our honest answer is that the jurisdiction is fast enough that it is not worth the cost.

What coordination involves

1. Assessing whether the route makes sense for your specific project and jurisdiction.
2. Preparing and filing the statutory notice to the building official within the required timeframe — a step that, done late or incorrectly, forfeits the option.
3. Coordinating the provider's scope: plan review only, inspections only, or both.
4. Managing the interface between the provider's certifications and the building department's permit issuance and CO process.
5. Scheduling inspections around your construction sequence rather than around a queue.
6. Handling the situation where a jurisdiction exercises its audit rights, which is routine and should not derail anything.