Birmingham, Alabama Building Permit Guide

Building permits inside the City of Birmingham are issued by the city’s Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits (PEP), whose Permitting Division works from Room 210 of City Hall, 710 20th Street North (205-254-2904). Trade permits are applied for in the city’s Online Permit Center; building permits still start at the Room 210 counter while they move online. Birmingham is Alabama's historic industrial and commercial centre and the seat of Jefferson County, and its permitting profile reflects that history: a large share of the work here is renovation, adaptive reuse and change of occupancy in buildings that are decades or a century old, rather than new construction on clear sites.

This guide covers the department and how to reach it, the code edition that governs a filing here, what permits cost and who may pull them, and how inspections are booked. Rules that apply everywhere in Alabama are summarized in each section, with a link to the full statewide explanation.

This guide covers work inside the City of Birmingham limits. Surrounding municipalities and unincorporated Jefferson County permit separately.

What requires a building permit in Birmingham?

Under the city's locally adopted codes, a permit is required for most construction activity inside the city limits.

Exemptions are narrow and local, and an exemption from a building permit is not an exemption from zoning, setbacks, floodplain rules, utility approval or a fire authority review. Confirm scope with the department before work starts rather than after.

Which code edition applies

Birmingham enforces locally adopted International Codes with city amendments. Because Alabama adoption is local, the city's editions are set by ordinance and are not necessarily aligned with Jefferson County's or with the neighbouring municipalities'. Confirm the editions and amendments in force on your filing date.

In Alabama, where a project is and what it is decide who reviews it, and whether anyone reviews it at all. There is a State Building Code, but its scope is deliberately narrow. There is a statewide residential code, but it is enforced only by local jurisdictions that run residential permitting and inspection programs (§ 34-14A-12(b)). And everything else — ordinary private commercial and residential work — is permitted and inspected locally, by whichever city or county has taken that job on.

The State Building Code is administered by the Division of Construction Management (DCM), a division of the Alabama Department of Finance (§ 41-4-400), under Title 41, Chapter 9, Article 6 of the Code of Alabama. DCM adopted the 2021 International Building Code effective 1 July 2022, and amended it on 17 March 2025 to pull in portions of the 2024 International Building Code and its companion codes. But DCM applies that code only to work on state-owned property or using state funds, to all public and private K–12 schools, to public postsecondary schools, and to hotels, motels and movie theatres. On municipal and county-owned projects DCM’s jurisdiction is limited to ADA Standards compliance. DCM has no jurisdiction over residential property, and none over commercial property beyond hotels, motels and theatres.

So for the overwhelming majority of private construction in Birmingham, the code that governs you is the one the City of Birmingham Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits has adopted, and the office that enforces it is the local one.

From 1 January 2027, under Act 2024-443, a residential home builder must build to the applicable residential code (the Alabama Residential Building Code, or the local code where one applies) even where no building department inspects the work. Since 1 October 2024 the Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board adopts the residential code, and the Licensing Board for General Contractors the commercial energy code. Alabama’s codes and the 2027 change

Who handles permitting in Birmingham?

PEP handles plan review, permit issuance and inspections inside the city limits. Building permit applications start at the Room 210 counter, where staff open a case and route the plans for review; trade permits are applied for in the Online Permit Center. Zoning, engineering and fire review may run alongside the building review depending on scope.

Birmingham's downtown and inner neighbourhoods contain a substantial stock of historic commercial, industrial and residential buildings, and redevelopment of that stock is a defining category of work. Historic designation, where it applies, adds a design review track that runs alongside the building permit and does not substitute for it — and its requirements can constrain exactly the exterior alterations a code upgrade would otherwise suggest.

Former industrial land is a related consideration. Redevelopment on legacy industrial sites raises subsurface and environmental questions that sit outside the building code and ahead of it, and they belong in due diligence rather than in plan review.

A county’s building code applies in its unincorporated areas; inside a city it applies only with the city’s consent, so confirm for the specific parcel whether the city or the county issues. Outside the city limits, a county code may be enforced in a city’s police jurisdiction only as § 11-40-10(b)(2) provides. County authority and police jurisdictions in Alabama

Permit types

Residential permits

Residential work spans renovation of established neighbourhood housing, infill construction, and conversion of non-residential buildings to residential use in and near downtown. Conversions are the demanding category: change of occupancy brings egress, fire separation, accessibility, ventilation and structural questions together in a building not designed for the new use, and the compliance path should be agreed with the department before design is developed.

Commercial permits

Commercial work centres on downtown redevelopment and adaptive reuse, medical and institutional construction around the university and hospital district, office and retail, and light industrial activity. Fire and life-safety retrofit in existing buildings is a recurring theme, and accessibility upgrade triggers on alteration are among the most commonly underestimated items in an older city's permit process.

Statewide rules also shape Alabama submittals: commercial and multi-family plans must be sealed by an Alabama-licensed design professional where the thresholds require it; a parcel in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area generally needs floodplain approval before the building permit; where adopted, storm shelter (ICC 500) and coastal wind provisions drive the detailing; and no state, county or city body may require residential fire sprinklers (§ 34-14A-12.2). Sealed plans, flood, storm and sprinklers in Alabama

Birmingham permit costs and fees

Birmingham permit fees are generally valuation-based, with plan review calculated per the adopted fee schedule and separate fees per trade. Re-inspection and revision fees apply, and neighbouring jurisdictions maintain entirely separate schedules.

Fee schedules are revised on each jurisdiction’s own cycle, so ask Birmingham for the schedule in force on your filing date, and ask separately about plan review, trade, re-inspection and revision charges. How Alabama permit fees work

Trade permits and who may pull them

Alabama licenses contractors through five state boards: the Licensing Board for General Contractors (undertakings of $100,000 or more), the Home Builders Licensure Board (residential work over $10,000, and residential roofing over $2,500), and separate electrical, plumbing and gas, and HVAC boards that license by trade regardless of project value. A local business licence and registration with the building department are commonly required as well. Contractor licensing in Alabama

How to apply for a Birmingham building permit

Review rules, permit duration, revival and appeal routes come from each Alabama jurisdiction’s own ordinance, so ask Birmingham which code editions apply on your filing date, how long a permit stays valid and where appeals go. Where a jurisdiction has adopted no building code, no building permit is issued, but zoning, floodplain, health and utility requirements can still apply. Review and corrections in Alabama

Inspections in Birmingham

Standard checkpoints include foundation, framing, rough-in electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and final, with a certificate of occupancy required before legal occupancy or use. Renovation and change-of-occupancy projects add existing-condition verification, fire-rated assembly inspection and accessibility checks.

In existing buildings the inspection risk is concealment. Rated assemblies, fire stopping, structural repairs and concealed conditions must be observable when the inspector attends, and in a building being opened up progressively that requires deliberate sequencing rather than closing work as it is completed.

Do not cover work before the required inspection has been approved. Keep the issued permit, the approved plans, energy documentation, product listings, special-inspection reports and your correction responses available on site.

Birmingham permit search and official resources

Permit records sit with the authority that issued them, which in Alabama makes record research a jurisdictional question before it is a clerical one. A search of the wrong office returns nothing and proves nothing — and in parts of the state a property may genuinely have no permit history because no permit was ever required. If you are buying, refinancing or renovating an existing building, ask the City of Birmingham Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits what it holds for the parcel, whether any permit was closed without a final inspection, and whether the property was inside the enforcing jurisdiction at the time the work was done.

Annexation, changing police jurisdiction boundaries and counties adopting codes at different times all mean that the authority over a parcel today is not necessarily the authority that governed it when a previous addition or alteration was built.

These are the primary sources behind this guide. Codes, fee schedules and portal procedures change, and in Alabama a jurisdiction’s own published packet can lag an adoption by months — the adopted ordinance governs, not an un-updated handout. Confirm the position for your filing date.

• City of Birmingham
• Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board
• Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors
• Alabama State Building Code (Division of Construction Management)
• Code of Alabama Title 34, Chapter 14A

Frequently asked questions

How do I apply for a Birmingham building permit?

Building permit applications start at the Room 210 counter in City Hall; trade permits are applied for in the Online Permit Center, where building permits are also moving. Assemble a complete package including application, drawings sealed where required, scope and valuation, contractor licence and insurance, and respond to correction comments promptly.

Does Jefferson County issue permits inside Birmingham?

No. The city permits its own limits. Jefferson County’s building code covers unincorporated land and towns that do not enforce a code of their own; in a city’s police jurisdiction outside its limits, who enforces depends on the city’s and county’s arrangements under § 11-40-10(b)(2).

What governs a renovation in an older building?

The existing building compliance path, which determines how much of the structure must be brought to current requirements and what triggers accessibility, fire and structural upgrades. Agree it with the department before developing design.

Does historic designation change the permit?

Where it applies, design review runs alongside the building permit and does not substitute for it. It can constrain exterior alterations that a code upgrade would otherwise suggest, so check designation before designing exterior work.

What is the most underestimated item in an older building project?

Accessibility upgrade triggers on alteration, together with fire-rated assembly and egress requirements arising from a change of occupancy. These are frequently scoped too late.

What changes on 1 January 2027?

Under Act 2024-443 a residential home builder must build in accordance with the applicable residential building code from that date. The duty attaches to the builder's licence rather than to a local building department, so it applies even where no inspector will attend.

Simplify Birmingham permitting with Alliance Permitting

Birmingham is an existing-building city inside Alabama's most crowded jurisdictional map. The projects that go wrong here go wrong on scope — an existing-building compliance path agreed too late, or an accessibility and fire retrofit discovered after the budget was set.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 21+ years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

Contractors and builders choose Alliance for Birmingham because the work is done by people who have stood at the counter:

• We confirm the city boundary in a county with more than 30 permitting authorities.
• We agree the existing-building compliance path before design is developed.
• We check historic designation before exterior alterations are drawn.
• We scope accessibility and fire retrofit triggers early, not at plan review.
• We sequence inspections so concealed and rated work stays observable.

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in Alabama. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the building department through issuance. We are not a contractor and we do not perform licensed plan review or inspections; that work stays with your licensed team and the jurisdiction.

This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Birmingham permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.