Building Inspections Division
- Phone
- (843) 724-7311
- Hours
- Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET
South Carolina
Charleston, SC permit fees and requirements
Charleston's Building Inspections Division prices permits under one ordinance-approved schedule:
a non-refundable $40 application fee on every building and trade permit, plan review at 50% of the building permit fee, and a residential valuation ladder that opens at $35.00 plus $5.50 per $1,000 or fraction thereof and chains to $1,600 plus $2.00 per $1,000 above $500,000 — with valuations for new single-family homes set from ICC Building Valuation Data.
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 Charleston permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Charleston, SC Building Permit Cost | structural | 2026-09-26 |
| Charleston, SC Electrical Permit Cost | electrical | 2026-09-26 |
| Charleston, SC Plumbing Permit Cost | plumbing | 2026-09-26 |
Local context
What is specific to Charleston
Charleston enforces the South Carolina Building Codes with the City's Board of Architectural Review (BAR-L and BAR-S) and Design Review Board reviews layered over permits in the historic and design districts. The schedule's applicability section names BAR, DRB, Board of Zoning Appeals and Technical Review Committee fees as belonging to the same fee family.
What distinguishes Charleston's ladder is that it chains exactly at every seam: the $290.00 base of the $50,001–$100,000 band is precisely what the $35.00 + $5.50/$1,000 arithmetic produces at $50,000, and the same is true at $100,000 and $500,000. Affordable housing as defined in Chapter 54 of the City Code receives a 100% waiver of building permit fees, and work valued at $1,000 or less pays the application fee alone. The City cut its permit backlog through 2025, issuing more than 16,000 permits in the year.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Construction cost is the total value of work — labor and material at current retail value plus overhead and profit (the total contract price). For single-family new construction the City derives valuation from ICC Building Valuation Data per square foot, adopted by Council.
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 municipal figures cover the building permit, plan review, trade permits and the application fee. They exclude:
- Board of Architectural Review and Design Review Board filing fees for work in the historic districts.
- Re-inspection fees ($100.00 per failed re-inspection) and plan-revision review fees ($100 commercial / $50 residential per discipline).
- Zoning, floodplain and site development review fees outside the building permit.
- Water and sewer tap fees billed by the City's utilities.
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
Applications & Guidelines (Permit Center)
Names the Building Inspections Fee Schedule as the document of record and links the fee-schedule PDF used as this seed's primary source.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Charleston Building and Trade Permit Fee Schedule
Approved by Ordinance Nos. 2017-131, 2019-064 & 2019-072, effective October 1, 2019. $40 non-refundable application fee on all building and trade permits; plan review 50% of the building permit fee; residential valuation ladder $35.00 + $5.50 per $1,000 or fraction to $50,000, $290.00 + $4.64 to $100,000, $522.00 + $3.00 to $500,000, $1,600.00 + $2.00 above; valuation from ICC Building Valuation Data ($116.15/sq ft finished structures in the schedule's example).