Permit Fee Allowance Calculator

Permit costs are a bid allowance, not a guess

Permits rarely stop at the posted city fee. A real allowance often includes plan review, inspection coordination, admin time, extra trips, and a contingency for resubmittals or scope changes.

This calculator converts the local fee schedule you already have into a bid line item. Start with a base permit fee and a percent of contract value, then add plan review, inspection trips, admin labor, contingency, and optional pass-through markup.

A worked example

On an $80,000 remodel, a $125 base fee plus 1.2% of project value creates a $1,085 permit fee. A 35% plan-review charge adds $380. Three inspection trips at $95 each and 2.5 admin hours at $75 bring the pre-contingency subtotal to $1,937.

With 15% contingency and 10% handling markup, the recommended allowance is about $2,451. If the proposal only carries $1,500, the bid is short by roughly $951 before the job starts.

How to use this in a proposal

If permits are a reimbursable allowance, show the allowance and reconciliation terms clearly. If permits are included in a fixed price, keep this number inside the job cost so margin is calculated after permit risk, not before it.