Denver Building Permit — Filed & Tracked For You

Denver is the largest permitting jurisdiction in Colorado and the only one that publishes a fully integrated Building and Fire Code rather than a model code plus a separate list of amendments. Everything is in one document, which is a genuine advantage — and the process built around it has one mechanism worth understanding before you use it.

Community Planning and Development runs plan review across building, zoning, sewer use and drainage and fire disciplines, with applications filed through the city’s permitting portal. The Denver Building and Fire Code took effect on the first of May, two thousand twenty-three.

This guide covers the City and County of Denver, which is a single consolidated jurisdiction. The surrounding metro cities — Aurora, Lakewood, Thornton, Arvada and the rest — each permit separately and license contractors separately.

What requires a building permit in Denver?

Denver is a consolidated city and county that writes and publishes its own integrated Building and Fire Code rather than adopting a model code and listing amendments separately. That is possible because Colorado has no statewide building code: home rule leaves adoption to each of roughly two hundred and seventy municipalities and sixty-four counties, and Denver has used that latitude further than anywhere else in the state. Denver also charges for re-review caused by another team’s changes: where a review is completed by one entity and another entity then requires changes to the submitted documents, necessitating a re-review by the team that previously reviewed and approved the project, additional fees are charged on an hourly basis at standard rates

An ordinary repair is defined more narrowly than owners expect, and an exemption from a building permit is never an exemption from zoning, the energy provisions or a trade permit. Confirm scope with Denver Community Planning and Development before work starts.

What the state still governs, even here

Local latitude does not reach everything. The electrical and plumbing trades run against state-adopted codes and state licensing; the energy floor set by House Bill 22-1362 attaches whenever a jurisdiction adopts or updates a building code; and the wildland-urban interface code adopted by the state in twenty twenty-five sets a minimum for new construction and significant exterior alterations in designated areas. Where the energy provisions conflict with the Colorado plumbing code or the National Electrical Code, the plumbing code or the electrical code prevails.

Who handles permitting in Denver?

Community Planning and Development administers the Denver Building and Fire Code, issues building and trade permits, and routes plan review across the building, zoning, sewer use and drainage and fire disciplines.

The preparatory permit family is more granular than it first appears. A fire alarm conduit-only permit can be issued to the fire alarm or electrical contractor where metallic conduit is required, and it issues only once the preparatory construction permit has been issued. First-time building occupancies must request a zoning verification letter from zoning review and obtain approval from the architectural plans reviewer before submitting under the policy, and neither substitutes for the zoning and building reviews of the logged-in plans.

Shoring and excavation is a separate submittal from the building permit plans and may be filed at any time during the building plan review. It requires shoring calculations and design drawings, a soils report electronically signed and sealed by a Colorado professional engineer, and a civil and architectural site plan locating the excavation and building footprint relative to property lines, roads, alleys, utilities and the limits of excavation including tiebacks and soil nails.

Permit types

Residential permits

Residential work follows the Denver Building and Fire Code with the city’s zoning code applied alongside. New dwellings and remodels increasing the bedroom count require proof of sanitation. Soils reports must be sealed by a Colorado professional engineer, and reports older than two years are subject to the city’s published building code policies.

How Colorado contractor credentials work

Colorado has no state general contractor licence. General contractor licensing is done by municipalities and counties, many of which also require a surety bond, so a credential earned in one Front Range city does not necessarily travel to the next. The trades are the opposite: electricians and plumbers are licensed by the state, through the State Electrical Board and the State Plumbing Board, and those licences are statewide. A journeyman electrician works under a registered electrical contractor and cannot independently pull permits.

Commercial permits

Commercial and tenant-finish work is where the preparatory permit policy applies, and it is worth reading before relying on it. The policy does not apply where a change of occupancy from the previous tenant is required, and the facility conditions attached to it — including suppression and functioning fire alarm requirements — are specific. The Green Buildings Ordinance and deferred and phased construction each have their own published guidance.

Local licences, state trade registration and design professionals

Three credential layers appear on a Colorado project and they are held by three different bodies: the local general contractor licence and any bond the jurisdiction requires; state registration for the electrical and plumbing contractors, verified with the state boards; and, on commercial and larger residential work, drawings stamped by a Colorado-licensed architect or professional engineer. Confirm what Denver Community Planning and Development requires for the specific building before filing.

Denver permit costs and fees

Denver fees are set by the city’s published development services fee structure, with additional hourly charges where a re-review is triggered by another discipline’s changes to previously approved documents.

Because Colorado sets no statewide building fee schedule, two jurisdictions on the same model code can price the same project very differently. The component most often missed is the trade permit, because on a job outside a local inspection programme it is paid to a state board rather than to the city. Ask Denver Community Planning and Development for the schedule in force on your filing date, and confirm the electrical and plumbing route separately.

Trade permits and who may pull them

Trade permits in Colorado are not necessarily issued by the same body as the building permit. Where the jurisdiction runs its own electrical or plumbing inspection programme, the trade permit is local. Where it does not, the permit and the inspection come from the state board instead, and state-issued permits run for one year from issue.

• Electrical work follows the National Electrical Code as adopted by the state and amended locally, performed by a state-licensed electrician working for a registered electrical contractor.
• Plumbing work follows the Colorado plumbing code, performed by a state-licensed plumber for a registered plumbing contractor.
• Mechanical and fuel gas work follows whichever mechanical provisions the jurisdiction adopted, permitted locally.

How to apply for a Denver building permit

Review, corrections and what actually causes delay

The first cause of delay in Colorado is the trade split: a project waits on a city inspection that was never going to happen, because the electrical or plumbing permit sits with a state board. The second is the wildland-urban interface, where a parcel inside the mapped area brings requirements the building code alone does not describe. The third is the energy code, because the tier a jurisdiction sits on depends on when it last updated rather than on a statewide date. The fourth is edition drift between neighbouring jurisdictions on the same corridor. There is no statutory review clock for building permits: any timeline you are given is that jurisdiction’s own target. Confirm the checklist with Denver Community Planning and Development before filing.

Inspections in Denver

Standard checkpoints include footing and foundation, framing, rough-in electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and energy compliance, fire systems on commercial work, and final, with a certificate of occupancy before the building is used. Where a preparatory permit was used, items installed under it are inspected against the finally approved plans rather than the plans in review when they went in.

Plan around the possibility of two inspection queues. Where the state boards hold the electrical or plumbing permit, their inspectors attend on the state’s schedule and the local inspector will not sign off that trade. State board policy is that the contractor or a representative, or an adult homeowner or their representative, must be present for the inspection of an occupied dwelling unit — so an unattended property cannot be inspected.

Do not cover work before the required inspection has been approved. Keep the issued permits, the approved plans and the energy compliance documentation available on site.

Denver permit search and official resources

Permit records in Colorado are split the way the permits are. Where Denver Community Planning and Development is the authority for the City and County of Denver, it holds the building record — but an electrical or plumbing permit issued by a state board sits with that board instead. If you are buying, refinancing or renovating, check both, because a clean local record does not mean the trade work was ever permitted.

These are the primary sources behind this guide. Codes, fee schedules and procedures change — confirm the position for your filing date.

• Denver commercial permitting guide
• Denver administrative policy 131B, preparatory permits
• Colorado electrical and plumbing permits homepage
• House Bill 22-1362, building greenhouse gas emissions
• Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code Board

Frequently asked questions

Can I start work before my plans are approved?

On a tenant-finish project, partly, and at your own risk. Denver issues preparatory permits for demolition, non-structural framing, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire suppression and fire alarm work, on the explicit understanding that building, zoning, sewer use and drainage, and fire code review is not complete and that changes may be required to items installed under them.

Does Colorado set the code Denver uses?

No. Colorado has no statewide building code. Home rule leaves adoption to local government, so whether a building code applies at all, and which edition, is decided by the municipality or the county — roughly two hundred and seventy municipalities and sixty-four counties, each choosing for itself. House Bill 22-1362 does not compel any jurisdiction to update, but when a jurisdiction adopts or updates a building code it must take up at least the specified minimum energy code, so the energy floor arrives with the update rather than on a statewide date. Where the energy provisions or the state model codes conflict with the Colorado plumbing code or the National Electrical Code, the plumbing code or the electrical code prevails.

Who issues my electrical and plumbing permits?

It depends whether the jurisdiction runs its own inspection programme. The trades are the part Colorado does decide centrally. The State Electrical Board and the State Plumbing Board issue permits and carry out inspections everywhere in the state with no local inspection programme of its own, and the state does not inspect where a local programme exists, so establishing the correct authority for the job site is the applicant's responsibility. State-issued permits run one year from the date of issue. Electricians and plumbers are licensed by those state boards and the licences are statewide, while general contractors are licensed by municipalities and counties, often with a surety bond. It is a violation of state law for anyone other than the homeowner, who is not a registered electrical or plumbing contractor, to install that work.

Why am I being charged an hourly fee for a re-review?

Because a previously approved review had to be revisited. Where a review is completed by one entity and another entity requires changes to the submitted documents, necessitating a re-review by the team that previously reviewed and approved the project, additional fees are charged hourly at standard rates.

How old can my soils report be?

Soils reports must be electronically signed and sealed by a Colorado professional engineer, and reports older than two years are subject to the city's published building code policies rather than being accepted automatically.

Is shoring part of the building permit?

No. Shoring and excavation is a separate submittal from the building permit plans and may be submitted at any time during the building plan review process, with calculations, design drawings, a sealed soils report and a civil and architectural site plan.

Simplify Denver permitting with Alliance Permitting

Denver’s preparatory permits are genuinely useful and genuinely risky. Knowing which is which on a given project is the job.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 22 years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

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

• Twenty-two years of filing, so the trade authority is settled before the application goes in
• We confirm which edition the jurisdiction adopted and when it last updated
• Local general contractor licence and state trade registration both verified, in different places
• Wildland-urban interface position checked against the state map before the design is fixed
• Two inspection queues sequenced so a cover-up never waits on the wrong inspector

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in Colorado. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the permitting authority 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.