North Dakota
Fargo, ND permit fees and requirements
Fargo prices construction on two building sheets split by the sheet's own scope line — one- and two-family dwellings on one
everything else on the other — an itemized plumbing schedule where no valuation is ever a fee basis, and electrical work whose dollars belong to the North Dakota State Electrical Board, because the City publishes no electrical schedule of its own. Both building ladders round the cost up in whole $1,000 steps; the commercial sheet's ladder carries a plan review at 20% with a $50 floor, and the residential sheet prints no plan review line at all.
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 Fargo permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Fargo building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Fargo electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Fargo plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Fargo
One department, three published schedules, and one honest absence. The Inspections Department serves its own fee PDFs — residential and commercial building sheets both stamped Effective January 1, 2026, a plumbing schedule stamped Effective January 1, 2025 — and beside them a Building Permit Fee Calculator whose inputs are project type and estimated value, because the tables are what it computes from. The City Code page carries the Department's fee-schedule index, and that index is the answer to the electrical question: it links residential building fees, heating, plumbing, sign and code-enforcement schedules, and no electrical entry. The self-wire page completes it — the inspector values the work at rough-in and "NDSEB will bill applicable fees to the homeowner".
Every band after the first on both building sheets prints "or fraction thereof", and that phrase is what this jurisdiction rounds on: $1,001 of residential valuation pays the $50.00 first thousand and a whole $5.56 step for the $1 fraction, not $0.0056 of it. The seams between bands close to the cent — $50.00 + 99 × $5.56 is exactly $600.44, the printed base of the sheet's third band — everywhere except one place, where the document disagrees with itself: the commercial sheet's band 3 computes $578.50 at $50,000 of valuation while band 4 prints its base as $578.75. Both numbers are charged as printed and both are asserted in the tests, the same way Las Cruces's own $100 discontinuity is kept rather than smoothed.
The valuation comes to this site from outside: the Department takes the applicant's figure, guides it by the ICC building valuation data "less 15% for local area considerations", reviews it twice, and lets the Building Official make the final determination. That derivation is named on the pages, not re-run here — and the commercial page's request for two valuation totals, building and parking lot, is kept as the open question it is, because no fee sheet read prices parking lots separately.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Three permits, three different measures — and one that measures nothing.
Building: total valuation, in whole-thousand steps. Both sheets charge a ladder on the job's valuation, and both round the cost above each band's floor up to a whole $1,000 — the phrase "or fraction thereof" printed in every band after the first. The residential ladder runs $50.00 flat to $1,000, then $5.56 a thousand to $100,000, then $3.06 a thousand from a $600.44 base; the commercial ladder runs seven bands from $12.75 down to $4.64 a thousand over bases of $55.00 through $5,316.75. The valuation itself is the applicant's, guided by the ICC table less 15% and finalized by the Building Official — this site takes it as given.
Electrical: the contract or owner cost of the work. NDSEB's basis sentence is "the total amount of the contract or total cost to the owner, including extras", less the four exclusions the board lists (appliances, HVAC units, electric motors/PLC/generators and industrial machines). The first band charges $50.00 and 2% of the balance above $500 to $20,000; above that, $440.00 and one tenth of one percent. The board's table prints no round-up phrase, so both rates are prorated.
Plumbing: no valuation at all. The schedule prices counts and rows — fixtures over an allowance of five, sewer lines by what is being done, sprinklers and water heating flat — and no plumbing rule on this site reads a cost, so a plumbing total never changes because a job got more expensive.
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 Fargo's own building, electrical and plumbing permit fees. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- The hourly items. Both building sheets and the plumbing schedule price after-hours inspections at $75.00 per hour with their minimums, unspecified inspections and additional plan review at a half-hour minimum, and outside consultants at actual cost — priced by hours this calculator does not collect, quoted on the pages instead.
- The repeat-offence increments. "Second offence within 180 days - $200 minimum; $100 for each additional violation subsequent" needs a violation history this site does not collect; the three valuation bands of the same table are charged, and this line is quoted.
- The heating, sign and code-enforcement schedules. Separate fee schedules linked from the City's own index and named as separate permits; this pass publishes building, electrical and plumbing, and no figure from those schedules appears in any total here.
- The ICC-minus-15% valuation derivation. The Department's calculation against the ICC table, taken as an input; producing the valuation from a construction type and a scope is the applicant's side of the exchange.
- NDSEB's exclusions, hourly special services and $50 correction-order charge. The four cost exclusions belong to the job-cost figure the board bills against, and the $50.00-per-hour special services and $50.00 correction-order administration charge are quoted beside the two bands rather than charged by them.
- Water Permit to Connect and Tapping Fees. A utility connection schedule linked from the plumbing page — tap charges are utility charges rather than permit fees.
- License fees and returned-check charges. None of them is permitting, and none is charged.
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 websiteCity
City of Fargo — City Code page: the Department's own fee-schedule index
Read 2026-09-25 as the index that answers the electrical question by not answering it: it links Residential Building Fees, the Heating Permit Fee Schedule, the Plumbing Permit Fee Schedule, the Sign Permit Fee Schedule and the Code Enforcement Fee Schedule — and there is no electrical entry. An absence proved from the City's own listing is why the electrical page is built on the state board's table instead of an invented city fee.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Fargo — Commercial Building Permit and Plan Review Fees
Read 2026-09-25 as the Department's own one-page PDF, printed "Effective January 1, 2026". Transcribed in full: the seven-band ladder ($55.00 flat; then $12.75, $8.70, $6.14, $4.99, $4.87 and $4.64 per additional $1,000 "or fraction thereof" with printed bases $55.00, $361.00, $578.75, $885.75, $2,881.75 and $5,316.75), the plan-review line (20% of the attributable building permit fee, $50 minimum, "when a plan review is required"), the same flat rows as the residential sheet, and the same unpermitted table with this sheet's floors ($980 and $2,500). The sheet's own arithmetic is discontinuous by 25 cents at $50,000 — band 3 computes $578.50 there while band 4 prints $578.75 — and both figures are kept.
- City websiteCity
City of Fargo — Commercial Building Permits & Fees (the valuation rules)
Read 2026-09-25, stamped "Effective January 1, 2026" and "Content Updated January 2026". The source for this site's valuation section: applicants provide the valuation split into Building Valuation and Parking Lot Valuation; "The Inspections Department uses the current International Code Council (ICC) building valuation data as a guide for calculating permit valuations, less 15% for local area considerations"; valuations are reviewed at submission and before issuance, and "The Building Official makes the final valuation determination as required in the building code."
- City websiteCity
City of Fargo — Electrical Self-Wire (the City takes the application; NDSEB bills the fee)
Read 2026-09-25, undated — and the page that explains why this jurisdiction's electrical page is priced by the state: only the owner-occupant of a single-family home may self-wire (not rentals, day cares or mobile homes; everything else by a licensed contractor), the inspector determines "the value of the work done" at rough-in, and "the North Dakota State Electrical Board (NDSEB) will be notified of the value of work done and NDSEB will bill applicable fees to the homeowner."
- City websiteCity
City of Fargo — Plumbing permits
Read 2026-09-25, undated. The process page behind the plumbing schedule: the ND State Plumbing Code, a licensed contractor for the street-to-building sewer and water, all underground work inspected and tested before cover, a final inspection after fixtures are set — and the sentence that keeps the trades apart, "Any building, electrical or mechanical work requires permits separate from plumbing permits."
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Fargo — Residential Building Permit Fees (one- and two-family dwellings)
Read 2026-09-25 as the Department's own one-page PDF, printed "Effective January 1, 2026" on its face. Transcribed in full: the three-band ladder ($50.00 flat to $1,000; $5.56 for each additional $1,000 "or fraction thereof" to $100,000; $600.44 then $3.06 above it), the flat rows (demolition $100/$50, house moving $300/$50/$150, Board of Appeals $150), the hourly items, and the work-begin-without-a-permit table with this sheet's own floors ($550 and $2,000). Extracted with pdftotext -table, which pairs each valuation with its fee cleanly.
- City websiteCity
City of Fargo — Residential Permit & Fees
Read 2026-09-25 as the Department's own page, carrying "Effective January 1, 2026" and linking the two building PDFs, the Building Permit Fee Calculator and the trade subpages (plumbing, electrical self-wire). The page is this jurisdiction's index to the residential side of the split, and the calculator beside it takes project type and estimated value only — the fee tables are what it computes from.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Fargo — Schedule for Plumbing & Sanitary or Storm Sewer Permits
Read 2026-09-25 as the Department's own two-page PDF, printed "Effective January 1, 2025". Transcribed in full: Water Heating Permits $35.00; Inside Plumbing Permits "Minimum Fee $50.00 (includes up to 5 fixtures or traps) (each fixture or trap over 5 is $10.00 each)"; the four sewer rows ($125.00 original, $70.00 disconnect, $30.00 additional line, $75.00 repair); Lawn Sprinkler System $40.00; the hourly other-inspection list; and the closing pair — "Permit fees will be charged for all government projects" and "Double fees for all work commenced without a permit. In case of an emergency, a permit must be taken out within 48 hours after commencement of work."
- State agencyStatePrimary source
North Dakota State Electrical Board — Inspection Fees
Read 2026-09-25 as the board's own page, printing "Effective July 1, 2024" above the current table with the superseded table beneath it. Both job-cost bands are transcribed from it (up to $500.00 → $50.00 minimum; $500.00 to $20,000.00 → $50.00 plus 2% on the balance; over $20,000.00 → $440.00 plus 1/10 of 1% on the balance), with the basis sentence ("the total amount of the contract or total cost to the owner, including extras"), the four exclusions (appliances, HVAC units, electric motors/PLC/generators, industrial machines) and the $50.00 late-certificate increase. Bismarck and Fargo each carry their own source row for the board, because NDSEB bills the installer directly in both — a state fee, not a city one.