City of Toledo — Division of Building Inspection
- Phone
- (419) 245-1220
- Hours
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday – Friday
Ohio
Toledo, OH permit fees and requirements
Toledo prices construction on area, not cost:
a $60 or $75 base plus $0.20 per gross square foot, plan review at a base plus $0.03 per square foot, demolition by the building's cubic feet, and a state surcharge of 1% residential or 3% commercial that sits *on top of* plan review and permit together. A 5,000 sq ft commercial alteration is the City's own example: $1,075 permit + $225 plan review + $39 surcharge + $75 certificate = $1,414.
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 Toledo permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Toledo building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Toledo electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Toledo plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Toledo
Chapter 1307 is one ordinance chapter for all three trades — Ordinance 476-18, passed December 4, 2018, stamped on every section from the general fee clause to the copying charges. The building fees it sets are area-based end to end: base plus twenty cents a square foot for the permit, base plus three cents a square foot for plan review, and cubic feet for demolition. Only the Early Start Phased Permit reads a valuation, and the application form is explicit about what that valuation excludes: "cost of mechanical and electrical work for which separate permits are required".
Two document facts are worth knowing before you trust a quote. First, the City's Commercial Building Alteration page prints its fee prose backwards — "The Plan Review fee is $75 + $.20 per sq. ft." and "The Commercial Building Permit fee is $75 + $.03 per sq. ft" — while the worked table immediately below, § 1307.03(a)(1) with § 1307.02(b), and the application worksheet all put $.03 on plan review and $.20 on the permit. This site charges the code's pairing and records the swap, because three of the City's own documents agree against one sentence of prose. Second, the same page's "$103 Amendment fee" and its "standard inspection fee is $75 / expedited inspection fee is $150" appear nowhere in the chapter — $100 is the amendment figure the code prints, and the inspection pair is recorded as page-only rather than invented into a rule.
What could not be read is one state statute. RC 3781.10, behind § 1307.13's surcharge, answers to no fetch from this environment — codes.ohio.gov, the General Assembly, Justia, FindLaw and the Wayback Machine all failed on the day of this pass — but unlike Cleveland, Toledo's own chapter states the surcharge rates outright (1% and 3%) and the City's worked example shows exactly what they read, so nothing in this jurisdiction's model depends on the missing text.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Almost nothing here is priced on value, and the schedule says so by construction.
Building and plan review: gross square footage. $60 (residential 1–3) or $75 (commercial and 4+ family) plus $0.20 per gross square foot for the permit; $50 or $75 plus $0.03 per square foot for plan review; both with the chapter's 100-square-foot minimum, which this model carries as a floor on the combined base-plus-area amount ($80, $95, $53, $78 respectively).
Demolition: cubic feet. Three bands — up to 6,000 at $75, to 50,000 at $100, and above that $100 plus $3.00 per 1,000 cubic feet or fraction. The third band's rate is read on the building's whole volume (the amount line states no base to subtract), which puts $253 on a 50,001-cubic-foot building against the flat band's $100 — the cliff is the schedule's own and the alternative excess reading is recorded unresolved.
Valuation: one fee only. The Early Start Phased Permit's half-percent of building permit valuation, minimum $100 — and the application form defines that valuation as total contract cost or appraised market value including material and labor, with mechanical and electrical work under separate permits excluded. Trade permits read units and amperes: $90/$60/$100 per dwelling unit on electrical, $0.50 per amp for services, fixtures at $6 each on plumbing.
The surcharge reads the subtotal, not the permit. § 1307.13 says "of total", and the City's worked example shows the total it means: plan review plus permit. The certificate of occupancy line comes after the surcharge on both the application worksheet and the worked example, which is why this model runs it outside the base.
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 Toledo's own permit, plan-review and surcharge amounts for building, electrical and plumbing work. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- Motors, generators and the hydronic BTU rows. § 1307.04(c)(8)–(9) price motors by horsepower ($6 / $6 + $0.50 per hp / $60 + $0.25 per hp) and generators by kilowatt ($40 minimum or $0.30 per kw); § 1307.05(d) prices hydronic work per 30,000 BTU. No horsepower, kilowatt or BTU basis exists in this engine, so those rows are quoted on the pages and charged by no rule.
- Additional tents and additional in-ground tanks. The chapter's first tent ($75) and first tank ($75) are charged; the "$25 for each additional" counts have no per-unit kind to charge them on.
- Resubmission counts. Plan review includes the first resubmission; after that the chapter charges $150 then $300 (OBC) or $75 (RCO) per resubmission — a count with no basis here.
- Chapter 1319's investigation fees. § 1307.09 points illegal-work investigations there, and that chapter was not read — no tripling or investigation fee is modelled.
- Registrations and renewals. Contractor, journeyman and apprentice registration under § 1307.04/05/07 is licensing, not permitting.
- The alteration page's inspection pair. Its "standard inspection fee is $75 / expedited inspection fee is $150" appears nowhere in Chapter 1307; recorded as page-only, not charged.
- Website payment and portal fees. The online portal's charges are the payment channel's, not the chapter's.
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
City of Toledo — Building Permit application (fee worksheet and valuation definition)
Read 2026-09-25 from the application PDF the City's permits pages link. It carries the valuation definition this jurisdiction quotes ("Valuation is the total cost of general contract, or the appraised market value of the project, including material and labor. Exclude cost of mechanical and electrical work for which separate permits are required"), the fee worksheet in payment order (Building Permit, Plan Review, Subtotal, State of Ohio Surcharge 1% or 3%, Certificate of Occupancy / Partial / Completion $75 each, Other Fees, Total), and both base-plus-area rows for residential and commercial — plus the one figure Chapter 1307 does not print: the exterior non-structural row's "($60 Residential $95 Commercial each)". The worksheet's ordering is what fixes the surcharge base used in this jurisdiction's model.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
City of Toledo — Commercial Building Alteration permit page (fee prose and worked example)
Read 2026-09-25. The page's worked example — plan review $75 + $.03 × 5,000 = $225; building permit $75 + $.20 × 5,000 = $1,075; state surcharge $1,300 × .03 = $39; certificate of occupancy $75; estimated total $1,414 — is reproduced cent for cent by this jurisdiction's building worked example, and it settles what "3% of total" means: the base is plan review + permit, with the certificate listed after the surcharge. The page's fee prose, however, prints the two rates swapped ("The Plan Review fee is $75 + $.20 per sq. ft. The Commercial Building Permit fee is $75 + $.03 per sq. ft") — contradicted by the table directly below it, by § 1307.03(a)(1) and § 1307.02(b), and by the application form. The code's figures are charged; the swap is documented. Two smaller conflicts: the page's "$103 Amendment fee" against the code's $100, and its "standard inspection fee is $75 / expedited inspection fee is $150" which appears nowhere in Chapter 1307 (the page-only pair is recorded, not modelled).
- City websiteCity
City of Toledo — permits index and Division of Building Inspection pages
Read 2026-09-25 with the demolition, certificate-of-occupancy, building-permits and department pages. The department page supplies the counter address, hours and the 419-245-1220 line; the permits index supplies the portal URL and the "when a permit is not required" anchor; the alteration page (separately sourced) supplies the in-person filing note. The site carries no electrical or plumbing fee page at all — those fees exist only in the code and on the application form, which the research record states explicitly.
- Municipal codeCityPrimary source
Toledo Municipal Code Chapter 1307 — Fees (1307.01 through 1307.14)
Read 2026-09-25 in full through the rendered codifier (the host 403s plain fetchers, so every section was read in a browser session and the list taken from the chapter's own table of contents): 1307.01 general, 1307.02 permit fees (a)–(k), 1307.03 plan review and ESPP, 1307.04 electrical, 1307.05 plumbing, 1307.06–07 HVAC and refrigeration, 1307.08 refunds, 1307.09 → Chapter 1319, 1307.10 reinspection, 1307.11 special services, 1307.12 pools, 1307.13 state fees, 1307.14 copying. Every section carries (Ord. 476-18. Passed 12-4-18.). Two internal cross-reference errors are recorded as found: 1307.03(a)(2) cites "section 1307.08(a)" for plan-review fees while 1307.08(a) is the refund clause, and 1307.12(c) cites "Section 1307.03(C)(11)" for pool bonding while that fee is 1307.04(c)(11).