Florida's $7,500 Permit Exemption (HB 803) and Small Concrete Jobs
Florida's $7,500 building-permit exemption and small concrete jobs
CS/CS/HB 803, signed May 6, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, exempts an owner of a single-family dwelling (and the owner's contractor) from obtaining a building permit for work on that property valued under $7,500, after a written request for exemption to the local government, and excludes structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas work and property in a flood hazard area. It also bars homeowners' associations from requiring a building permit as a precondition of architectural review.
What it changes for driveways, patios and pads
| Project | Before July 1, 2026 | After | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached backyard patio slab under $7,500 in St. Cloud or Orange County | Building permit required | Exempt with a written request | Flatwork under the threshold, no excluded system |
| Shed pad, AC pad, generator pad | Varied by office | Pad exempt; the generator's electrical/gas still permitted | Excluded systems keep their permits |
| Driveway, new or widened | Driveway permit | Driveway permit still required | Right-of-way and driveway permits are not building permits; §22-50.6 is a traffic-code rule |
| Pool deck tied to the screen enclosure | Permit | Permit | Structural tie |
| Any work in a FEMA special flood hazard area | Permit | Permit | Excluded |
| Work over $7,500 | Permit | Permit | Threshold |
How the exemption is requested
The law keeps a written request for exemption, submitted to the building department, which then confirms the work qualifies; St. Cloud has published its adoption and the exclusions. We prepare the request where a job qualifies and put the answer in the proposal, and we still schedule the inspection-free work to the same spec, because the exemption removes the permit, not the code. Jurisdiction pages: City of St. Cloud, Unincorporated Osceola County, City of Kissimmee, Polk County (unincorporated), Orange County (unincorporated).
The HOA clause
Associations used to ask for the building permit before they would review an application; the law now prohibits that precondition. The ARC still reviews the work itself, with the packet it always asked for (HOA / ARC Packet Checklist, HOA hub).
What the exemption covers and what it does not
| Work | Covered by the $7,500 exemption? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-alone concrete pad or patio under $7,500, outside a flood hazard area | Generally yes, with the written request | No structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical or gas component |
| Driveway or apron in the public right-of-way | No | A driveway permit is a right-of-way approval, not a building permit |
| Slab supporting a structure, a screen room or a roof | No | Structural |
| Any work in a FEMA special flood hazard area | No | Explicitly excluded by the bill |
| Electrical for outdoor lighting, gas to a summer kitchen | No | Excluded trades, handled by the specialists who cover them |
| Pool deck tied into the pool structure | No | Structural connection |
| Resurfacing, sealing or a repair in the same footprint | Not needed | Maintenance was never a permitted activity here |
How the written request works in practice
This is not an automatic exemption. The bill contemplates the owner or the contractor submitting a written request for exemption to the local building official, identifying the work and its value, before the work starts. Jurisdictions are building their own forms and processes for it, and in the first months after the effective date the answer you get depends partly on who picks up the phone. Some offices want the request on their own form with a scope description and a value; others are still asking for a permit application and waiving fees.
Our practice is straightforward. Where the job plainly qualifies and the office has a process, we file the request and give you the response in writing with the proposal. Where the office is not ready or the job is near the threshold, we pull a permit, because a permit costs a few hundred dollars and an unpermitted slab that turns up in a title search costs far more. The value threshold is the whole job value, not the materials, and splitting one project into two invoices to stay under it is exactly the kind of thing a building official will recognise.
The part that matters to anyone in an association
The same bill addresses a long-standing tangle between associations and building departments by barring a homeowners association from requiring an applicant to produce a building permit before the association will review an architectural application. That ordering problem was real: the association would not approve until the county issued, and the county would not issue until the association approved.
What it does not do is remove the association's authority. Architectural review still applies, the board can still require a survey, a product sample, a drainage note and the installer's insurance certificate, and the deed restrictions still bind. So the sequence for a paver driveway in Poinciana, Celebration or a Four Corners resort community is unchanged in substance: assemble the packet, get architectural approval, then permit or file the exemption request. The HOA / ARC Packet Checklist covers the first step and Association of Poinciana Villages (APV) shows how specific one board's criteria are.
Where this sits among the other 2026 changes
The exemption did not arrive alone. The same legislative push has been reshaping the relationship between owners, contractors, associations and building departments across Florida, and one other element matters directly for hardscape work: associations may no longer require a building permit before they will carry out an architectural review, which removes a circular problem that used to cost weeks.
The direction of travel is toward fewer procedural gates and more responsibility on the owner and the contractor to build correctly without them. That is a reasonable trade when the contractor is competent and a poor one when they are not, which is precisely why the checking guide on this site exists and why we keep pointing people at insurance, entity registration, references and a written contract.
What we expect to change over the next year
Local implementation is still settling. In the first months after the effective date, different building departments in this region have taken visibly different approaches to the written request, from a dedicated form to an application with fees waived. That will converge, and this page will be updated as it does.
Two things are unlikely to change. The exclusions are statutory rather than local, so structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, gas and flood-zone work stay outside the exemption everywhere. And a driveway touching the right-of-way remains a right-of-way approval rather than a building permit question, which is the point most often misunderstood about this law.
Questions we get about this
Does HB 803 mean I don't need a permit for a driveway?
No. Driveway permits are right-of-way and traffic-code rules, not building permits; Osceola's §22-50.6 still applies.
Does a patio under $7,500 need a permit now?
Generally not, with a written exemption request, unless it is attached, roofed, in a flood zone or tied to a structure.
Can my HOA still require a permit before reviewing?
No; the law bars that precondition.
Does the exemption lower the spec?
No; the code still applies. We build to the same spec with or without a permit.
Does the exemption mean I can skip inspections?
It means no building permit and therefore no building inspections for qualifying work. It does not waive the code; the work still has to comply, and you still carry the consequences if it does not.
Can a driveway be split into two jobs to stay under $7,500?
No. The threshold is the value of the work, and a building official will treat a split project as one project. A driveway touching the right-of-way needs its driveway permit regardless of value.
Who files the written request?
Either the owner or the contractor, before work starts. We file it and give you the response with the proposal when the job qualifies and the office has a process for it.
Get a written estimate for your project
Tell us the size, the surface you have now and where the lot is. We visit, measure, check access and drainage, and send a written proposal. No pressure calls.
What changed in this update: 2026-09-11 — first published