Owner-Builder Permits for Florida Property Owners

What the owner-builder exemption actually allows

Florida's owner-builder exemption permits an owner to build or improve their own property and to act as their own contractor, provided the work meets the statutory conditions. In broad terms, the exemption is intended for owners doing work on property they own and occupy or intend to occupy, not for building to sell, and it requires that the owner personally supervise the construction.

The specific conditions, the occupancy requirement, the restriction on selling within a defined period, and the rules on who may be hired to perform the work are set by statute and are enforced. Jurisdictions require the owner to sign an affidavit and a disclosure statement acknowledging them — and, in most jurisdictions, to appear in person to do so.

We will walk you through what the disclosure actually means in practice. What we will not do is help anyone use the exemption as a workaround, because the person who signs that affidavit is the person who carries the consequence.

The obligations people underestimate

• You become responsible for code compliance. Not the subcontractor who did the work. You.
• You may become an employer. Hiring unlicensed individuals to perform work can create employer obligations including workers' compensation liability, and personal exposure if someone is injured on your property.
• Your insurance may see it differently. Some homeowners policies limit or exclude coverage for owner-performed structural work. Ask your carrier before starting, in writing.
• Resale disclosure follows you. Owner-built work is frequently scrutinized at sale, and permits that were pulled but never finalized are found in the municipal lien search.
• Licensed trades still need to be licensed. The exemption covers you as the permit holder; it does not let unlicensed people perform work that Florida requires a licensed contractor to perform.
• You handle every inspection. Scheduling, meeting the inspector, understanding corrections, and re-scheduling. On a full renovation that is a lot of weekday mornings.

Where we help

1. Confirming whether your project genuinely qualifies for the exemption in your jurisdiction before you sign anything.
2. Preparing the affidavit and disclosure statement package and explaining, in plain English, what each acknowledgement commits you to.
3. Assembling the application, drawings, product approvals and notice of commencement.
4. Filing and tracking the permit through review, and handling comments.
5. Scheduling inspections in the correct sequence and telling you what each inspector will be looking for.
6. Driving the permit to final close-out, which is the step owner-builders most often skip and most often regret.

And sometimes: telling you that hiring a licensed contractor is the cheaper path. On structural work, roofing and anything involving a change of occupancy, it usually is.