Department of Licenses & Inspections
- Phone
- (302) 576-2620
- Hours
- Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Delaware
Wilmington, DE permit fees and requirements
Wilmington prices its construction permit at $12.00 per $1,000.00 of cost — one rate at every valuation
with no bands and no published minimum. Each trade permit is flat: $20.00 for electrical work and $20.00 for plumbing, the same figure the schedule prints for heating, air conditioning, mechanical ventilation, fire suppression, alarm and refrigeration permits. Certificates of occupancy are separate: $75 for a dwelling, $100 for other buildings, and a temporary CO runs $100 residential / $250 commercial.
Permit costs we have worked out
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Wilmington permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Wilmington building permit fees | structural | 2026-09-26 |
| Wilmington electrical permit fees | electrical | 2026-09-26 |
| Wilmington plumbing permit fees | plumbing | 2026-09-26 |
Local context
What is specific to Wilmington
Wilmington's permit fees live on one page maintained by the Department of Licenses & Inspections, whose fee table states in its own header that the amounts 'coincide with the approved and adopted International Code Council Building Codes'. The table is an increase schedule — every row printed in CURRENT FEE and NEW FEE columns, 'Effective June 1, 2014' — and the NEW FEE column is what the City charges: permit fees rose from $10 to $12 per $1,000, and each trade permit doubled from $10 to $20.
The schedule's simplicity is its most useful fact: there is one valuation rate and a handful of flat trade fees, no bands to misread and no minimum printed anywhere on the page. A $60,000 addition costs exactly 60 times what a $1,000 repair costs on the permit row.
Two things a cost-estimator should know sit outside the table. Certificates of occupancy and compliance are their own schedule on the same page — $75 for dwellings and two-family houses, $100 for all other buildings and new commercial construction, $50 for a certificate of compliance, and temporary COs at $100 residential and $250 commercial. And the Fire Marshal's office prices fire-protection plan review separately: a $200 minimum on all plans, rising by $5.00 for every $1,000 of construction cost above $1,000,000.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
The declared cost of the work, at a single published rate: $12.00 for each $1,000.00, with the trade permits flat at $20.00 regardless of the job's size. The schedule publishes no valuation bands, no square-foot rows and no minimum fee; nothing on the L&I table derives from area, volume or fixture counts.
Who to contact
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
What these fees do not include
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are Wilmington's building, electrical and plumbing permit fees from the L&I table. They exclude:
- Certificates of occupancy and compliance on the same page: $75 for dwellings and two-family houses, $75 for private accessory buildings, $100 for all other buildings and new commercial construction or alterations, $100 for a change of occupancy, $50 for a certificate of compliance, $15->$50 duplicates, and temporary COs at $100 residential / $250 commercial.
- Fire protection plan review (Fire Marshal's Office): a $200 minimum on all plans, plus $5.00 for every $1,000 of construction cost above $1,000,000.
- Elevator and moving-stairway certificates of registration at $50 each on the same page.
- Annual license permits for theaters, assembly halls and similar occupancies, each a separate row.
- Water, sewer and stormwater charges billed by the City's water utility, and any Public Works sewer permit, which are separate bills from the L&I permit.
- State of Delaware licences — a contractor's state registration is not a City fee.
Official sources for this jurisdiction
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-26 from the City's own URL via its Internet Archive capture of 2026-06-09 (HTTP 200); the live host serves HTTP 403 to scripted requests and the capture is the same document. The page presents every fee in CURRENT FEE / NEW FEE columns dated 'Effective June 1, 2014'; this seed prices the NEW FEE column: permit fees $12.00 per $1,000.00 (from $10.00), plumbing $20.00 (from $10.00), electrical work $20.00 (from $10.00), heating, air conditioning, mechanical ventilation, fire suppression, alarm and refrigeration rows each $20.00. The page states the fees 'coincide with the approved and adopted International Code Council Building Codes'. No minimum fee appears anywhere on the page, and none is charged. This is the most recent fee schedule the City publishes in an addressable form; the department's Construction & Development Review page (read via the 2026-08-14 capture) links fee amounts only through a Step-by-Step Guide document that is itself not addressable HTML.