Boston Inspectional Services Department (ISD)
- Phone
- (617) 635-5300
- Hours
- Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Massachusetts
Boston, MA permit fees and requirements
Boston prices a building permit on the estimated cost of the work
one row of a two-page fee sheet at a time: $20.00 plus $10.00 for each $1,000 of cost on a Short Form, $50.00 plus the same $10.00 on a Long Form, $20.00 plus $10.00 to amend one, $20.00 or $50.00 flat to change a building's use, and $300.00 for the Nominal Fee route zoning appeals take. Plumbing is $20.00 to apply plus $5.00 a fixture. Electrical is $20.00 to apply plus a rate that follows what the job does: $0.25 an ampere when the service changes, a dollar a device when it does not, $10.00 per $1,000 of cost when neither applies.
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 Boston permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Boston building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Boston electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Boston plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Boston
One department, one sheet, one portal. The Inspectional Services Department issues all three permits this site prices, takes applications through its own online portal, and publishes its schedule as a two-page handout — BUILDING DIVISION PERMIT FEES, Rev. 2021 — whose foot carries the department's address, phone number and web address on both pages. Four live pages on boston.gov then restate its rows in the City's own web words: the Short Form at "$20, plus $10 per $1,000 of estimated cost", the Long Form at "$50, plus $10 per $1,000 of estimated work cost", plumbing at "$20, plus $5 per fixture", and electrical as "$20 + usage-based rate". Where a figure appears in both places it appears twice with the same two numbers, which is the check this jurisdiction can make and most cannot.
The sheet's structure is what to understand before any number. It prices applications rather than projects: five building rows — Short Form, Long Form, Amendment, Changes of Occupancy, Nominal Fee — that are types of filing, and an electrical section built as branches: by amperage when the service changes, by device count when it does not, by cost where neither applies, with Fire Alarm, Low Voltage and Temporary Service as rows of their own. The document was extracted twice, because its two columns are laid out as separate text blocks and the table-preserving mode mispairs them — it hands Plumbing the Off Hour Inspection amount and Use of Premises Sprinkler's rate — while the reading-order mode pairs each row correctly and the four live pages confirm every row they share.
What is absent is itself a fact about Boston. No plan review percentage, no technology fee and no state surcharge appears anywhere in the sheet or the pages: searches for those phrases come back empty, and Massachusetts, unlike the states before this one in this dataset, adds no levy of its own to a local permit. What the City prints instead is a penalty. Work started without a permit, or started on an undervalued estimate, is charged DOUBLE FEE — the sheet says so in capitals, and the permit pages repeat it as ISD "may: charge double the permit cost".
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
The basis for building work is the estimated cost of the work, entered in the portal as an estimated total project cost with no special characters. The sheet charges $10.00 for each $1,000 of it — and it does not print "or fraction thereof", anywhere, so the rate is charged on the exact cost rather than on a cost rounded to the next thousand. A $47,550 renovation pays $475.50 of rate, not the $480.00 a rounded-up schedule would charge; Cambridge, three miles west, prints that phrase on four rows of its own schedule and rounds up, and both readings are asserted against the engine in their cities' tests.
Electrical work is priced from facts the schedule names rather than from cost in the ordinary case: the service's amperage where the service changes, with the voltage deciding $0.25 or $0.75 an ampere; a count of fixtures, plugs and outlets where it does not; and the cost of the work only where neither of those applies — the sheet's own third branch, "When none of the above apply". Plumbing is priced from the fixture count alone, and its $20.00 application fee stands whether or not a count is supplied.
Nothing here derives a cost from square footage or an area from a valuation: the sheet publishes no conversion and the pages ask for a dollar figure instead. The City can also reject the figure it is given — an estimate that undervalues the work is charged the DOUBLE FEE — so the basis is the applicant's number as accepted by ISD rather than a number this site could check.
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 Boston's own building, electrical and plumbing permit fees, as printed on ISD's Rev. 2021 sheet and restated on boston.gov. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- The DOUBLE FEE. Work started without a required permit, or started on an undervalued estimate, is charged twice the fee — a multiplier on a fee that has not been computed, which no rule here expresses. The sheet prints it in capitals and the City's pages repeat it.
- The sheet's event and specialty rows. Off Hour Application at $100.00 an event, Off Hour Inspection at $250.00, Board of Appeal at $150.00 (and $150.00 for each violation cited for four-family and commercial work), Microfilming at $3.00 a sheet, Use of Premises at $50.00, Trench at $60.00, Subdivision or Combining Lots at $50.00 and $100.00, and Sheet Metal at $20.00 plus $25.00 for the first 200 linear or square feet and $25.00 for each 200 after them.
- The other trades on the same sheet. Sprinkler at $20.00 plus $1.00 a head, and Gasfitting at $20.00 plus $5.00 an appliance meter with $.09 per 1,000 BTU for boilers and furnaces and the stored-gas and propane rows — ISD rows for trades these three pages do not price, and fire alarm and sprinkler permits are largely Fire Prevention's.
- Temporary Service's monthly element — $10.00 for each month up to six months, priced in months, a unit no per-unit kind here counts; the $25.00 primary fee is charged and the months are named.
- Plan review, technology and state surcharges — none of them exist. The sheet prints no percentage, the pages print none, and Massachusetts adds no levy of its own; the absence is stated rather than filled with an assumed rate.
- Every other board's and agency's fees: the Zoning Board of Appeal's own charges (the $300.00 Nominal Fee is ISD's row, not the Board's), Fire Prevention's permits, Boston Landmarks Commission review, bostonplans.org zoning approvals, Parks and Recreation approval for work within 100 feet of a park or parkway, and contractor licence and examination fees.
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.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
ISD — Building Division Permit Fees (Rev. 2021), the two-page sheet every figure here comes from
Read 2026-09-25 as a two-page PDF of 263,477 bytes served from boston.gov's own file store, footed on both pages with the department's block: Inspectional Services Department, 1010 Massachusetts Ave. (5th Floor) Boston, MA 02118, www.boston.gov/ISD, (617) 635-5300, Rev. 2021. The two columns were extracted twice, because they are laid out as separate text blocks: pdftotext's table-preserving mode mispairs them — Plumbing picks up the Off Hour Inspection amount and Use of Premises picks up Sprinkler's rate — while the reading-order mode emits each row's cells together and pairs them correctly, and that is the transcription this site uses. Four rows are independently confirmed by the City's live permit pages, where each prints the same two numbers.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
ISD — Electrical Permit (the three usage branches, spelled out)
Read 2026-09-25 for the schedule's three branches in the City's own words: "When upgrading service or installing new service: $20 application fee, plus $0.25/amp up to 240 volts, or $0.75/amp over 480 volts. When there's no change in service: $20 application fee, plus $1 for each fixture, plug, or outlet, and $5 for each approved meter. When neither of the above applies (including all Massachusetts state buildings): $20 application fee, plus $10 per $1,000 of the estimated cost", under the heading "$20 + usage-based rate". This page is where the sheet's voltage wording differs from the web's — "up to 480 Volts" against "over 480 volts" — and both readings are quoted on the electrical page rather than reconciled in silence.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
ISD — Long-Form Permit (major alterations and renovations)
Read 2026-09-25 for the other half of the building schedule and for the taxonomy the model depends on: "A Long-Form Permit covers major alterations or renovations that change a building's structure or use", Fees as "$50, plus $10 per $1,000 of estimated work cost" and again as "$50 application fee / Plus $10 for every $1,000 of the estimated cost of work". The page's subcategory list is what ties the sheet's rows to filing types — "Amendment: Only for changes to existing Long-Form permit applications" and "Use of Premise: Only for Use of Premise permit filings" — and it notes that an owner of a unit in a building with three or more dwellings must hire a licensed contractor.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25: Fees as "$20, plus $5 per fixture", stated again as "There is a $20 application fee plus $5 for each fixture, such as toilets and sinks" — the sheet's plumbing row in the City's own web words, with a worked pair of numbers to check it against. The page also carries the licence rule the sheet does not: "Plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors only", "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work", and a homeowner "must hire a licensed contractor to apply for the permit and complete the work".
- City websiteCityPrimary source
ISD — Short-Form Permit (minor alterations)
Read 2026-09-25 for the City's definition and its restatement of the fee: "A Short-Form Permit covers minor alterations that don't change a building's structure or use", with Fees as "$20, plus $10 per $1,000 of estimated cost" and again in prose as "There is a $20 application fee and $10 per every $1,000 of the work estimate". The page also lists what an application carries — a scope of work naming materials, floors and rooms, an estimated total project cost entered without special characters, design plans stamped by a Massachusetts registered engineer or architect, and a nominal fee letter where the work does not follow the intended zoning — and states that all fees are due upfront and that starting work early may mean ISD charges double the permit cost.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Inspectional Services Department — department page (contact block and hours)
Read 2026-09-25 for the contact facts the fee sheet prints in short form: 617-635-5300, isd@boston.gov, and hours of Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. The page is also where the department links its records request, its notice of accommodation and the Zoning Board of Appeal — the board a nominal fee letter is written for, and the reason the $300.00 Nominal Fee row is understood as an ISD fee rather than a Board fee.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Welcome to Boston Permitting — the City's permitting hub
Read 2026-09-25 for what the City says its permitting site covers — "this website covers home improvement and building projects. We are working to include information on other projects and permits in the future" — and for the routes it points at: the Inspectional Services online portal, Permit Finder for status, the ISD and Fire permit status check, and Fire Prevention's own forms, permits, applications and fees. That last link is the boundary of this dataset's Boston pages: fire alarm and sprinkler permitting is largely Fire Prevention's, and the hub says so by linking there rather than pricing it here.