Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement
- Phone
- (901) 222-8300
- Hours
- Permit counter weekdays; inspections scheduled through the OCCE portal.
Tennessee
Memphis, TN permit fees and requirements
A Shelby County building permit is the commercial ladder plus plan review plus $4.00 admin and a $1/$5 surcharge:
$5.00 per $1,000 to $25,000; $125 plus $3.50 a thousand to $1,000,000; $3,537.50 plus $2.25 to $25,000,000; $57,537.50 plus $1.75 beyond, with a $75 minimum and no rounding to whole thousands. Residential is $0.07 a square foot ($125 minimum) for new construction and $5.00 per $1,000 ($50–$325) for alterations. Electrical and plumbing are price lists gated by amperage, circuit count, KVA and fixture/sewer counts.
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 Memphis permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Memphis building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Memphis electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Memphis plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Memphis
Memphis answers to the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement, not to a city department of its own. The same county OCCE reviews plans, issues construction permits and inspects for Memphis, Arlington, Germantown, Lakeland, Millington and unincorporated Shelby County, and the joint Develop 901 portal links the one fee schedule that prices all of them — the 2022 Building Fee Schedule whose cover line is the whole surcharge mechanism: "ALL FEES BELOW DO NOT INCLUDE AN ADMINISTRATIVE CHARGE OF $4.00 AND A SURCHARGE OF $1.00 FOR RESIDENTIAL OR $5.00 FOR COMMERCIAL (ADD $5 TO RESIDENTIAL TOTAL AND $9 TO COMMERCIAL TOTAL)". Each is an `other` component so the $75 building minimum, which measures the base subtotal, cannot read them.
The commercial building ladder is the mirror of Nashville's. Nashville prints three bases that are not its own arithmetic and rounds every band's chargeable part up to a whole thousand because every row says "or fraction thereof"; Shelby County's bands chain exactly — $125 + 975 × $3.50 is $3,537.50, and $3,537.50 + 24,000 × $2.25 is $57,537.50 — and no row rounds, because no row prints the fraction phrase. The plan review is tiered the other way too: Nashville charges half the permit fee then a ladder; Shelby County charges nine flat amounts keyed by valuation — $80, $160, $325, $650, $875, $1,200, $1,600, $2,000 and $3,000 — as a `tiered_table`, never as a percentage of anything.
Residential answers a different question — square feet, not valuation — at $0.07 a foot with a $125 floor for new construction and an addition, and $5.00 per $1,000 clamped $50–$325 for an alteration or repair. Electrical opens with the same $20 issuance and $15 minimum as plumbing and mechanical, then branches: new multi-family by the main's amperage (three flat bands, $70/$125/$250) with a $1.00 charge for each tenant device running alongside them, existing residential by circuit count (two bands at $30/$45), service/feeder/panel replacement at $50, low voltage and manufactured homes at $30–$50, and commercial new/increased service at $1.00 per amp (120/240V) or the excess-480V KVA ladder whose first 10,000 KVA are $1.50. Plumbing is fixtures at $7.50 ($1.50 less than Clark County's 2030 figure), residential sewer $30, commercial sewer/water/fire/medical gas at $8.00 per $1,000 with floors of $100 ($200 for large commercial water service), and water service by size ($20 at 1" and $30 through 2").
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Commercial valuation is prorated: the schedule writes "$5.00/1,000", "$3.50/1,000" etc. with no "or fraction thereof", so the rate is charged on the exact valuation. The four bands are $5.00 per $1,000 to $25,000 (which is $125.00 at the top), $125 plus $3.50 per $1,000 above $25,000 to $1,000,000 ($3,537.50 at the top), $3,537.50 plus $2.25 per $1,000 above $1,000,000 to $25,000,000 ($57,537.50 at the top), and $57,537.50 plus $1.75 per $1,000 beyond, with a $75 minimum on the permit fee. Each base above the first is exactly the arithmetic below it — the ladder chains — so the printed bases are derivable rather than printed over a seam.
Residential new construction is the opposite shape: square footage at $0.07 per foot, $125 minimum, which is the ordinary price for a house, a duplex or an addition. Residential alteration or repair is valuation at $5.00 per $1,000, $50 minimum and $325 maximum — the same $5.00 rate commercial uses at its bottom, clamped to a different window. The plan review is neither: nine valuation brackets priced flat — $0–$25,000 $80; $25,001–$50,000 $160; $50,001–$100,000 $325; $100,001–$200,000 $650; $200,001–$500,000 $875; $500,001–$1,000,000 $1,200; $1,000,001–$2,000,000 $1,600; $2,000,001–$5,000,000 $2,000; $5,000,001 and up $3,000.
Plumbing and electrical do not read a valuation at all except where the sheet says "$8.00 PER $1000 OF VALUATION" — which is commercial sewer, large commercial water service, fire protection and medical gas — and electrical's excess-480V KVA ladder reads KVA.
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 are the Shelby County OCCE's building, electrical and plumbing permit fees for Memphis. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- Sign erection, construction, relocation, alteration or maintenance — $1.25 per sq ft by the sign's area, with a $25.00 minimum and $25/$50 annual reinspection — and the sign plan review tiers beside them.
- Elevators, escalators, dumbwaiters, stair lifts and amusement devices — new elevator/escalator at $15 for the first $1,000 and $8 per $1,000 to $1,000,000 then $3, lunch-landings renewals, etc.
- Mechanical (Section M) and gas (Section G) — the other two OCCE trades, each priced valuation at $15/$8/$3 per $1,000 with a $15 minimum, transcribed in the research record; the same mechanism as the building ladder, applied to a different permit.
- Demolition, roofing and temporary structures — demolition at $9.00 per 25,000 cu ft ($70 min–$560 max), commercial roofing at $5.00 per $1,000 ($70–$560), temporary construction office/storage at $45 per six months; each its own instrument.
- Appurtenances — conveyor, process piping, racking/shelving and the appurtenance valuation rows ($70 to $250,000, $2.00 per $1,000 beyond).
- Miscellaneous construction — tower/stack/pool/retaining wall at $5.00/1,000, gate/wall/fence, portable building move ($224), implosion ($1,120), curb cut, fence, trailer/manufactured-home and pool rows, all flat.
- The doubling and tripling penalties — "WORK COMMENCING BEFORE PERMIT ISSUANCE DOUBLE FEE" on building/mechanical/gas and "INSTALLATION PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF PERMIT TRIPLE FEE" on signs: multipliers on the fee.
- Credit-card processing (2.75%) and LUCB/BZA/ARC zoning fees — administrative charges printed on the same fee directory but not part of the building permit 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 websiteCounty
Develop 901 — Fee Information (Memphis-Shelby joint portal)
Read 2026-09-25 (HTTP 200). The joint portal's fee-information hub describes the OCCE as the building construction authority for Memphis, Arlington, Germantown, Lakeland, Millington and unincorporated Shelby County, and links the approved fee schedule that the "Construction Enforcement" tab resolves to — the same 2022 schedule carried as the primary source.
- Fee schedule (PDF)County
Shelby County OCCE — 2019 New Fee Schedule (predecessor, 6 pages)
Read 2026-09-25 (6 pages, 179,040 bytes, HTTP 200). Same commercial building bands with the 2019 printing's rounded bases ($3,025 instead of $3,537.50, $51,025 instead of $57,537.50) and the same plan-review tiers; read to confirm the mechanism was stable before modelling the 2022 figures.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CountyPrimary source
Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement — 2022 Building Fee Schedule
Read 2026-09-25 with pymupdf in blocks mode and pdftotext in layout mode (9 pages, 357,947 bytes, HTTP 200). The cover line is the whole surcharge mechanism: "ALL FEES BELOW DO NOT INCLUDE AN ADMINISTRATIVE CHARGE OF $4.00 AND A SURCHARGE OF $1.00 FOR RESIDENTIAL OR $5.00 FOR COMMERCIAL (ADD $5 TO RESIDENTIAL TOTAL AND $9 TO COMMERCIAL TOTAL)". Commercial building: "NEW CONSTRUCTION/ ADDITIONS/ ACCESSORY BUILDINGS COMMERCIAL" at $5.00/1,000 to $25,000, $125 + $3.50/1,000 to $1,000,000, $3,537.50 + $2.25 to $25,000,000, $57,537.50 + $1.75 beyond, minimum $75; plan review at nine flat bands ($80-$3,000); signs by valuation; residential at $0.07 per sq ft ($125 minimum) and alteration/repair at $5.00/1,000 ($50-$325). Electrical E-0 to E-8 (issuance $20, minimum $15, new multi-family by amperage with $1.00 per tenant, existing residential by circuit count, commercial KVA ladder). Plumbing P-1 (fixtures $7.50, residential sewer $30, commercial sewer/water/fire/medical gas at $8.00/1,000, water service by size). Mechanical and gas tables at $15/$8/$3 per $1,000.