Texas
Dallas, TX permit fees and requirements
Dallas prices construction permits from three tables in one schedule
and the table that applies is chosen by what you are building rather than by what it costs: new single-family and duplex work is charged per square foot, new multi-family work per dwelling unit, and commercial work from the value of the proposed work. Every permit also carries an inspection fee set by the number of trades on the job, and a $15 technology fee. Dallas publishes no electrical, plumbing or mechanical permit fee at all — trade work is priced through that trade-count inspection fee instead.
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 Dallas permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-24 |
| Dallas electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-24 |
| Dallas plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-24 |
Local context
What is specific to Dallas
Three things are worth knowing before you read any number here.
The first is that the residential table is charged on the whole building area, not on the part above a bracket floor. That produces a step at 700 square feet where the fee falls by $206.67 as the building gets one square foot larger — 700 sq ft pays $749.00 and 701 sq ft pays $542.33. It is a real property of the published schedule, not a transcription error, and the City's own worked example computes the same way. We reproduce it rather than smoothing it.
The second is that Dallas's three construction paths are not interchangeable. A $400,000 house and a $400,000 tenant finish-out are priced by different tables, in different units, and neither figure can be derived from the other.
The third is that two of the City's own documents contradict each other. The permit fee schedule prints a plan review fee of "$0.46 per sq. ft. or $577 (whichever is greater)"; the department's permit fee estimate worksheet computes $0.046 a square foot in all five of its worked examples, whose totals balance to the cent at that rate. We do not charge either figure. Plan review is stated on each page, held out of every total, and marked as disputed until one of the two documents is corrected.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
For a new single-family house or duplex, Dallas charges per square foot of building area — not from cost. Table A-I's rates apply to the whole area.
For new multi-family construction, the fee is $652 per dwelling unit, and the schedule states that it does not apply to accessory structures such as parking garages, gyms or leasing offices; those are priced from the commercial table instead.
For commercial work, the fee is a rate applied to "the value of the proposed work", plus the table's own add factor. The pages of the schedule read for this work do not define that phrase, and the City's estimate worksheet asks only for "Enter Valuation", so the figure is the applicant's declared value of the work rather than a value the City computes.
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 the fees published in the City of Dallas Permit Fee Schedule (effective 1 May 2024, Ordinance 32676) and Ordinance 25-0638, computed by this site's engine. They are not a total project cost. In particular they exclude:
- Plan review. The schedule and the City's own worksheet disagree about the rate by a factor of ten, so no plan review figure is charged. See the note on each page.
- The zoning surcharge. The schedule charges an extra 10% of the permit fee for planned development, specific-use permit and deed-restricted areas. The City's worksheets show it applied to the base permit fee, not to the whole invoice.
- Alterations and repairs. Those are priced from Table B-I, which Ordinance 25-0638 replaced on 15 April 2025, and from Table B-II for single-family and duplex structures. Neither table is estimated here.
- Fees that attach to events rather than to permits: permit extension $200, reinspection $75, additional inspection service $125 per trade inspection, after-hours inspection $125 an hour with a $300 minimum, same-day inspection $250, unauthorized concealment $200 per trade, and work without a permit investigation $100 an hour per trade. Certificate of occupancy is $375 general, $104 partial and $250 for a residential temporary certificate.
- The technology fee is per document submitted. One is charged in these estimates.
- Postage and handling, and the inspection scheduling fee, no longer exist. The 2024 schedule still prints them; Ordinance 25-0638 removed them on 15 April 2025.
- Demolition, fire, health and utility fees, and any fee charged by a department other than the one that issues the permit.
- Anything for property outside the Dallas city limits. Whether Dallas County issues construction permits for unincorporated areas, and for which functions, has not been verified against the county's own site, so it is not described here.
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.
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Ordinance 25-0638, amending Chapter 52 Section 303
Effective 15 April 2025. Amends Table B-I (alterations or repairs), the technology permit fee (restated unchanged at $15), the Q-Team review caps, the mover's licence and non-premise sign fees, and REMOVES the postage and handling fee and the inspection scheduling fee that the May 2024 schedule still prints. Read from the scanned document's text layer; the table itself is legible enough to confirm that the row the schedule misprints as "$500,000,001 - 10,000,000" is "$5,000,001 - 10,000,000".
- Official calculatorCityPrimary source
PDV Fee Estimate Worksheet Examples
The department's own estimator, with five worked examples (new single-family dwelling, residential remodel, new commercial office building, commercial tenant finish-out, multi-family complex). Its arithmetic is what resolves the commercial table's upper brackets, which the printed schedule omits, and it is the source of the plan-review discrepancy: it computes $0.046 per sq ft where the schedule prints $0.46. Earliest capture 2025-10-16. Used arithmetically, never copied: the estimate on every page is computed by this site's engine from the published rates.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Ten pages, effective 1 May 2024, adopted by Ordinance 32676. Carries the City's own disclaimer: "the fees listed in this schedule are for informational purposes only and are subject to change. Final permit fees will be calculated at the time of submittal". Retrieved from the Internet Archive raw snapshot of 2025-11-29 (sha256 90cb9d4a7087803fd5034146611a968caa28dd8ce71d9e4fa7bcda99a492b117) because dallascityhall.com did not respond from this environment; text extracted with pdftotext -layout and -raw. A later capture can be compared against that hash.