Montgomery, Alabama Building Permit Guide

Building permits inside the City of Montgomery are issued by the city’s Inspection Department, 25 Washington Avenue (334-625-2073; Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm). Electrical, plumbing, gas and mechanical permits and inspection requests go through the city’s Online Permitting Portal, and building permits are applied for online. Montgomery is Alabama’s capital and its fourth-largest city, and being the seat of state government means that some projects here also fall under the State Building Code administered by the Division of Construction Management.

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 Montgomery limits. Montgomery County’s Engineering Department permits only outside the police jurisdictions of Montgomery and Pike Road, and Montgomery’s extends 3 miles beyond the city limits, so confirm a parcel in that belt with the Inspection Department. State-owned projects follow the Division of Construction Management.

What requires a building permit in Montgomery?

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

Since 1 October 2024 the Inspection Department has enforced the 2024 International Building, Residential, Existing Building, Swimming Pool and Spa, Plumbing, Mechanical, Fuel Gas and Property Maintenance Codes, the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code and the 2023 National Electrical Code. DCM’s State Building Code operates alongside on its own defined categories of building. 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 Montgomery, the code that governs you is the one the City of Montgomery Inspection Department 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 Montgomery?

The Inspection Department handles plan review, permit issuance and inspections for private work inside the city limits. Register in the Online Permitting Portal to apply; residential plans are typically approved within 5 working days and commercial plans within 10. Land use (zoning), engineering, fire and, in designated areas, historic review may run alongside.

Montgomery has a substantial stock of historic buildings, and designated districts carry design review that runs alongside the building permit rather than in place of it. Where a project touches a designated property or district, establish the review requirements before exterior work is designed — historic review can constrain materials, openings, roofing and signage in ways that interact awkwardly with code-driven upgrades if the two are addressed in the wrong order.

The city's older commercial core also means a high proportion of renovation, adaptive reuse and change-of-occupancy work. The existing building compliance path is therefore a live question on many projects here, and agreeing it with the department early determines how much structural, fire, accessibility and egress scope the project carries.

In 2025, building permits issued in Montgomery authorized 503 new privately owned housing units, 239 of them single-family homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.

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 covers renovation in the established neighbourhoods, infill and subdivision construction on the city's growing edges, and multifamily development. In historic areas the design review layer applies to exterior alterations, and in older housing stock the existing building provisions govern how far a renovation must go. Establish both before scoping.

Commercial permits

Commercial work includes downtown redevelopment and adaptive reuse, office, medical, retail and hospitality, alongside institutional construction connected with government and education. Hospitality projects need their review path confirmed at the outset given the state carve-out, and larger private projects bring site, drainage, traffic and fire review alongside the building set.

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

Montgomery permit costs and fees

Montgomery permit fees are generally valuation-based, with plan review calculated per the adopted fee schedule and separate fees per trade. Montgomery County maintains a separate schedule, and state projects under DCM do not follow a local schedule.

Fee schedules are revised on each jurisdiction’s own cycle, so ask Montgomery 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 Montgomery building permit

Review rules, permit duration, revival and appeal routes come from each Alabama jurisdiction’s own ordinance, so ask Montgomery 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 Montgomery

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 work adds existing-condition verification and rated assembly inspection, and historic projects may add design compliance checks.

Where a project falls under the State Building Code rather than the city's, the inspection regime is DCM's. A local final inspection does not close out a state-administered project, and the two should not be assumed interchangeable.

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.

Montgomery 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 Montgomery Inspection Department 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 Montgomery
• 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

Who permits state government buildings in Montgomery?

The Division of Construction Management administers the State Building Code for work on state-owned property or using state funds, and for public and private K-12 and public postsecondary schools. It is not a City of Montgomery permit.

Do hotels fall under the State Building Code?

Yes. DCM’s State Building Code expressly reaches hotels of 15 or more bedrooms, motels and movie theatres alongside state property and schools. DCM’s page does not say a private hotel needs no city permit, so confirm the review path with both DCM and the Inspection Department before assembling a submittal.

Does historic designation affect my project?

In designated districts and on designated properties, design review runs alongside the building permit. Check designation before exterior work is designed, since it can constrain materials and openings.

What governs a renovation of an older building?

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

Does Montgomery County issue permits inside the city?

No. The city permits its own limits. Montgomery County’s Engineering Department issues building permits only outside the police jurisdictions of Montgomery and Pike Road, which extend 3 miles beyond each limit.

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 Montgomery permitting with Alliance Permitting

In Montgomery the filing path itself is the first decision. State property and schools fall under a separate state code administration, hotels, motels and theatres need DCM’s review as well, historic review runs in parallel on much of the older fabric, and renovation scope turns on a compliance path that should be agreed before design.

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

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

• We establish ownership and occupancy category before choosing a filing path.
• We confirm with DCM and the city what a hotel, motel or theatre project needs from each.
• We check historic designation before exterior alterations are drawn.
• We agree the existing-building compliance path with the department early.
• We keep city, county and state administrations clearly separated on the file.

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 Montgomery permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.