Open Permits in Port St. Lucie: Can They Delay a Home Sale?
How open permits in Port St. Lucie surface during a sale, why a title search alone will not find them, how Florida permits expire, what separates an open permit from unpermitted work and a code enforcement lien, and how to clear one before it reaches the closing table.
Quick Answer: Can Open Permits in Port St. Lucie Delay a Home Sale?
Yes, and they routinely do — usually because nobody looked until the last two weeks. An open permit is one that was issued but never received its final inspection. It is not a lien and it will not necessarily appear in a standard title search, which is why it survives undetected until the municipal lien search comes back. Once discovered, closing it can mean scheduling inspections, correcting work, hiring the original contractor or a new one, or applying for a replacement permit. None of that happens in three days. The fix is to search the permit history before listing or before writing an offer, not after.
Educational only. This is general real estate information, not legal, code, or engineering advice. Permit status, jurisdiction, and resolution procedures vary by property and by department. Confirm everything with the City of Port St. Lucie or the St. Lucie County building department for the specific parcel, and take contract and lien questions to a licensed Florida attorney.
What This Guide Covers
- What an Open Permit Actually Is
- How Florida Permits Expire
- The Four Ways It Delays a Closing
- Which Department Has Your Property
- Why the Title Search Misses It
- Unpermitted Work Is a Different Problem
- Code Enforcement Liens
- How to Close an Open Permit
- The Seller’s Playbook
- The Buyer’s Playbook
- Handling It in the Contract
- Where the Gaps Usually Are
- If You Already Closed
- FAQ
Where this fits. Permits come up constantly in the specific cases — pool and screen enclosure purchases, solar installations, and inherited properties where nobody knows what a previous owner did. This page is the general method.
What an Open Permit Actually Is
An open permit is a permit that was properly issued and never finalised. Someone pulled it, work may or may not have been done, and the required final inspection was never passed and signed off. The permit simply sits in the department’s records, open.
It is worth being precise, because three different problems get lumped together and they carry very different consequences.
| Issue | What happened | Shows in a title search? | Typical resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open permit | Permit issued, final inspection never obtained | Usually not | Inspection, correction, or a replacement permit |
| Expired permit | Permit issued, then became invalid under the code | Usually not | New permit and re-inspection |
| Unpermitted work | Work done with no permit ever pulled | No | Retroactive permitting or removal |
| Code enforcement lien | Violation ordered, fine imposed, order recorded | Yes, once recorded | Payment, satisfaction, or negotiated release |
An open permit is not a lien. It does not encumber title and it does not automatically stop a sale. What it does is create an unresolved compliance question that a lender, an insurer, a title company, or a buyer can decide to care about — and any one of them caring is enough to move your closing date.
How do these happen? Almost always innocently. A contractor finished the work and never called for the final. An owner did the job themselves and did not know a final was required. A permit was pulled for a job that was later cancelled. A company went out of business mid-project. In older Port St. Lucie neighbourhoods, records can also reach back through several owners — the open permit may predate the current seller entirely.
How Florida Permits Expire
The Florida Building Code sets the timing, and it is stricter than most owners realise.
Under the code’s conditions of the permit, a permit becomes invalid unless the work it authorises is commenced within six months of issuance, or if the work is suspended or abandoned for six months after it commenced. Work is considered to be in active progress when the permit has received an approved inspection within 180 days. The provision does not apply where work is halted by civil commotion, strike, or judicial order.
The consequence people miss. If a new permit is not obtained within 180 days from the date the original became null and void, the building official is authorised to require that work already commenced or completed be removed from the site. Alternatively a new permit may be issued, provided the work in place meets the regulations in effect when the original expired, plus any that took effect since. That is why an old open permit can be more expensive to resolve than a recent one — the code may have moved.
Practically, this means an open permit does not quietly age into harmlessness. It ages into a situation where the work has to satisfy current requirements, and where the department has authority most owners do not expect it to have. Confirm current procedures and any local amendments with the department that issued the permit — code editions and local practice change.
The Four Ways an Open Permit Delays a Closing
The permit itself does not stop anything. These four parties do.
The municipal lien search
Ordered by the closing agent, this is where open permits usually surface — often two to three weeks before closing. It is a separate product from the title search, and it is the reason the problem is discovered late rather than early.
The lender
Underwriting may decline to close on a property with unresolved permit or code issues, particularly where the work affects habitability, structure, or systems. Requirements vary by program and by lender, so the answer has to come from the specific loan officer.
The insurer
A carrier may ask about additions, roofs, electrical, and enclosures. Work that cannot be shown as permitted and finalised can affect what they will write, and on what terms.
The buyer
Once disclosed, a buyer can demand resolution before closing, request a credit, or cancel within their inspection period. The later they learn about it, the more leverage the discovery gives them.
Notice that three of the four are discoveries made by someone else, on their timetable. That is the entire argument for searching the permit history yourself, before anyone else has a reason to.
Which Department Has Your Property?
This trips people up more than anything else in the process, and it is specific to how St. Lucie County is organised. A Port St. Lucie mailing address does not mean the City of Port St. Lucie issued the permit.
Properties in the area fall under different building departments depending on jurisdiction:
- City of Port St. Lucie — parcels inside the city limits, which is most of Tradition, St. Lucie West, and the main residential grid
- Unincorporated St. Lucie County — parcels outside any municipality, which still carry Port St. Lucie or Fort Pierce mailing addresses
- City of Fort Pierce — parcels inside Fort Pierce city limits
- St. Lucie Village — a separate small municipality
- Martin County or the City of Stuart — for Palm City, Stuart, and Jensen Beach properties, which are a different county entirely
Start from the parcel, not the address. Look the property up on the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser site to confirm the parcel ID and the taxing jurisdiction. That tells you which building department to search. Searching the wrong department returns nothing, which people reasonably but incorrectly read as “no open permits.”
Older properties can also have records split across systems. Many departments migrated to digital permitting at some point, and work done before that transition may sit in legacy records that are not in the online portal. If a home has an addition, an enclosure, or a converted garage that predates the digital records, ask the department directly whether legacy files exist rather than concluding from an empty online search.
Why the Title Search Misses It
Buyers assume the title search covers everything. It does not, and the distinction is the single most useful thing in this article.
A title search examines the public records for recorded interests — deeds, mortgages, judgments, easements, recorded liens. If a code enforcement order has been recorded, it will generally turn up there.
A municipal lien search is a separate product ordered from the municipality or a search company. It reaches the things that are not recorded in the public records: open and expired permits, code violations that have not been reduced to a recorded lien, unpaid utility balances, special assessments, and outstanding municipal charges.
These are unrecorded obligations. They do not appear in the chain of title, so a clean title commitment tells you nothing about whether the property has an open permit. In practice the municipal lien search is ordered by the closing agent well into the transaction, which is exactly why open permits are usually discovered late. There is nothing stopping either party from ordering the equivalent information earlier.
For a seller, that means the permit history is something you can and should check before you list — the same discipline as ordering your payoff and pulling your association documents early, covered in what comes first when selling. For a buyer, it belongs in the inspection period alongside the inspections themselves.
Checking a Property Before You List or Offer?
A permit history search costs nothing but attention, and it is far cheaper now than two weeks before closing. Send me the address and we can work out which department has jurisdiction and what to ask for.
Unpermitted Work Is a Different Problem
An open permit means someone started the right process and did not finish it. Unpermitted work means the process never started. That is usually harder and more expensive to resolve.
The common candidates in Port St. Lucie are familiar: a garage converted to living space, a screened porch enclosed into an air-conditioned room, an addition, a shed on a slab, a pool enclosure, electrical at a pool or spa equipment pad, a water heater or panel replacement, and roof work.
Why it matters beyond code
- Square footage. Unpermitted living space may not be counted by the property appraiser or by an appraiser valuing the home, which affects both price and the buyer’s loan.
- Insurance. A carrier may take a position on unpermitted structural, electrical, or roofing work.
- Disclosure. A seller who knows about it is dealing with a known material fact, not an inconvenience.
- Your future sale. A buyer who accepts it inherits the same conversation when they sell.
Resolution generally means applying for permitting after the fact, which can require opening walls for inspection, engineering documentation, bringing the work to current code, and paying fees that may be higher than they would have been originally. Some work cannot be permitted retroactively at all and has to be removed. The department that has jurisdiction is the only authority on which category yours falls into.
Do not describe unpermitted space in a listing as if it were permitted. Advertising a converted garage as a bedroom when the records do not support it creates a problem far larger than the conversion itself. State what the records show, and let the buyer evaluate it.
Code Enforcement Liens: When It Escalates
An unresolved violation can move from a compliance issue to a recorded lien, and the mechanism is set out in Chapter 162 of the Florida Statutes.
An enforcement board may order a violator to pay a fine for each day the violation continues past the compliance deadline, and that fine continues to accrue until the violator comes into compliance or until judgment is rendered in a suit filed under the statute. A certified copy of an order imposing a fine may then be recorded in the public records, at which point it constitutes a lien against the land where the violation exists — and, notably, against other real or personal property owned by the violator.
Two features to take seriously. First, the daily accrual means a modest violation left alone for a year is not a modest number. Second, the lien can reach beyond the property where the violation occurred to other property the same owner holds. That is a meaningful risk for an owner with more than one Florida property, and it is a question for a Florida attorney rather than an agent.
Once recorded, a code enforcement lien behaves like other recorded liens: it will generally surface in the title search and has to be satisfied or released for the sale to close. The local governing body may execute a satisfaction or release, and in some circumstances negotiated reductions are possible — again, an attorney question.
The practical point for a seller is that this is the end of a road that started with something small and ignorable. Open permits and violations are cheapest to address at the beginning, which is the same reason the pitfalls in costly mistakes selling a Port St. Lucie house cluster around delay rather than around dramatic errors.
How to Close an Open Permit
The route depends on what the record shows and what physically exists. These are the realistic paths, and the department decides which one applies.
Schedule the missing inspection
The best case. The work was completed correctly and simply never inspected. An inspector visits, approves, and the permit is finalised. Fast and inexpensive when it works.
Bring in the original contractor
Permits are tied to the contractor who pulled them. If the company still exists and is still licensed, having them close it out is usually the cleanest route.
Apply for a replacement or new permit
Where the original expired or the contractor is gone. The work in place generally has to meet the regulations that applied when the original became void, plus anything adopted since — which is where cost enters.
Correct the work, then inspect
If the inspection reveals deficiencies, they have to be corrected before the final is issued. Budget time for a trade to be scheduled twice.
Permit by affidavit or engineering documentation
Some departments accept documentation from a licensed professional where the work is concealed. Availability and requirements vary — ask the department directly rather than assuming.
Remove the work
The last resort, and the authority the code gives the building official where a replacement permit was not obtained in time.
Timelines are the real cost. Inspection scheduling, contractor availability, plan review where a new permit is needed, and a re-inspection if the first one fails are each measured in days to weeks, and they run sequentially. A permit discovered three weeks before closing is a genuine risk to the date. The same permit discovered before listing is an errand.
The Seller’s Playbook
Everything here happens before the listing goes live, and it takes an afternoon.
- Confirm jurisdiction from the parcel record, then search that department’s permit history for the address.
- Ask about legacy records if the home predates digital permitting or has an addition, enclosure, or converted space.
- List every permit and its status. Note anything open, expired, or missing a final.
- Compare records to reality. If the home has a pool, cage, addition, shed, generator, solar array, or replaced roof, there should be a permit for it. A gap is a question to answer now.
- Start resolution immediately for anything open. Inspections and contractors do not move on your closing schedule.
- Keep the documentation and give it to the buyer up front. Finalised permits are a selling point, not a disclosure burden.
From a listing standpoint, the sellers whose transactions run late are almost never the ones with the worst properties. They are the ones who found out about a records problem at the same time as the buyer. Discovering it first is what converts a negotiation into an errand. That is a professional observation from working local files, not a published statistic.
If the property is inherited and you did not live in it, treat the permit search as mandatory rather than optional. You have no personal knowledge of what a previous owner or a tenant did, and the records are the only account you have. The wider process is in selling an inherited Port St. Lucie home.
The Buyer’s Playbook
Your inspection period is the window. Use it for records as well as for condition.
- Pull the permit history yourself early in the inspection period rather than waiting for the closing agent’s municipal lien search.
- Walk the property against the records. Every visible improvement should have a corresponding permit. Pay attention to enclosures, additions, converted garages, pool equipment, electrical panels, and roofs.
- Compare the appraiser’s square footage with what you are being shown. A discrepancy often points to unpermitted living space.
- Ask the seller in writing whether all improvements were permitted and finalised, through your agent.
- Get the insurance answer on any work you cannot verify, before your inspection period closes.
- Price the resolution before you decide. A quote turns a worry into a negotiating position.
If something turns up, you have three real options: require the seller to resolve it before closing, take a credit and handle it yourself afterwards, or cancel within your contractual rights. Which one is right depends on how big the gap is and how much time remains. The offer-stage version of this thinking is in writing a strong Port St. Lucie offer.
A credit is not always the safer choice here. With a permit problem you are accepting an obligation to a government department with its own timeline and its own view of what the work must satisfy. Sometimes the stronger position is requiring the seller to finalise it before closing, so the risk of a failed inspection stays with them.
Handling It in the Contract
Once an open permit is on the table, the question becomes contractual. A few practical points, none of which replace legal advice.
Be specific about what “resolved” means
“Seller to close permit” is ambiguous. “Seller to obtain final inspection approval and provide documentation of permit closure prior to closing” states an outcome that can be verified. Vague obligations produce disputes at the closing table.
Set a deadline that precedes closing
If the work has to be finalised before closing, the deadline needs enough margin for a failed inspection and a second visit. Building that margin in is not pessimism; it is the ordinary experience of scheduling municipal inspections.
Decide who carries the risk of the unknown
An inspection can reveal that the underlying work is deficient. Someone has to bear that. Address it up front rather than discovering the gap when the inspector fails the job.
Escrow holdbacks
Sometimes proposed where resolution cannot finish before closing. Whether a holdback is permitted depends on the lender and the closing agent, and the arrangement has to be documented. Confirm feasibility before you negotiate around it.
Notice requirements, deadlines, and cancellation rights are set by the contract, and their interpretation belongs with a licensed Florida attorney. What an agent can do is make sure the issue is surfaced early enough that you still have options.
Found an Open Permit Mid-Transaction?
It is usually solvable, and the first step is identifying exactly what is open and which department controls it. Let’s work out the sequence before the closing date becomes the problem.
Where the Gaps Usually Are, by Home Age
Port St. Lucie was not built all at once, and the permit questions differ depending on when a house went up. Knowing the pattern tells you where to look first.
The original grid
The older platted sections built through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Look for garage conversions, enclosed porches turned into air-conditioned space, added rooms, sheds on slabs, electrical panel changes, and re-roofs. Records from this era are the most likely to sit in legacy files rather than an online portal.
The 2000s expansion
Rapid growth, heavy storm activity, and a great deal of roof and enclosure work. Screen enclosures, pool cages, and roofs are the recurring items. Some of that work was done well and permitted; some was not.
Master-planned communities
Tradition, St. Lucie West, PGA Village Verano, and Riverland. Original construction is usually clean because the builder pulled and finalised permits. The gaps appear afterwards — owner-added pools, extended patios, pergolas, outdoor kitchens, and generators.
Recent new construction
Usually the least exposed, but confirm the certificate of occupancy exists and that any builder options or owner additions since completion were separately permitted.
The reliable method regardless of age: walk the property and list every improvement that is not original construction, then match each one against the permit record. Anything visible without a matching permit is a question. That comparison finds more than reading the permit list alone, because you cannot notice a missing permit for work you did not know happened.
Buyers comparing communities may find this useful alongside the structural differences between them, covered in Tradition, St. Lucie West, or PGA Village.
If You Already Closed and Then Found It
It happens, and it is not the end of anything. But the order of operations matters.
Confirm what is actually open
Get the permit record from the department with jurisdiction, in writing. People frequently panic over a record that turns out to be a duplicate entry, a cancelled permit, or work that was finalised under a different number.
Find out what closing it requires
Ask the department directly what they need: an inspection, a replacement permit, engineering documentation, or corrective work. That answer sets your cost and your timeline.
Get a licensed contractor involved early
Because permits are tied to the contractor who pulled them, and the original may be gone, a new licensed contractor usually has to take responsibility for the work to carry it through inspection.
Ask an attorney about recourse
Whether you have any claim depends on disclosure, contract terms, and what the seller knew. That is a legal question with a real answer, and it is time-sensitive.
Do not wait
An open permit does not improve with age. Under the code, the longer it sits the more likely the work has to satisfy newer regulations, and an unresolved violation can escalate toward a recorded lien.
The one thing not to do is decide it is fine because nobody has mentioned it. It will be mentioned — by your insurer at renewal, by a buyer’s municipal lien search when you sell, or by the department if a neighbour complains. Resolving it on your own schedule is considerably cheaper than resolving it on someone else’s.
Buying in a condominium? Permits are only part of it — buying a Treasure Coast condo in 2026 covers milestone inspections, SIRS reserve studies, and association financing risk.
Checking a reroof permit? Buying a Port St. Lucie home with an older roof explains how roof age, remaining useful life and permit records affect insurance eligibility.
FAQ: Open Permits and Property Records in Port St. Lucie
It can delay one and occasionally derail one. An open permit is not a lien and does not by itself encumber title, but a lender may decline to close, an insurer may take a position on the work, and a buyer may require resolution or cancel within their inspection period. Resolution takes days to weeks because it depends on inspection scheduling and contractor availability. Discovered before listing it is an errand; discovered two weeks before closing it is a genuine risk to the date.
A permit that was properly issued but never received its required final inspection. The work may have been completed correctly — someone simply never called for the final sign-off, so the permit remains open in the building department’s records. It is different from unpermitted work, where no permit was ever pulled, and different from a code enforcement lien, which is a recorded claim against the property. Each has a different resolution path and different consequences.
Usually not. A title search examines recorded interests in the public records — deeds, mortgages, judgments, recorded liens. Open permits, expired permits, unrecorded code violations, and unpaid municipal charges are unrecorded obligations that do not appear there. They surface in a separate municipal lien search, typically ordered by the closing agent well into the transaction. That timing is precisely why open permits are so often discovered late.
Under the Florida Building Code, a permit becomes invalid unless the authorised work commences within six months of issuance, or if the work is suspended or abandoned for six months after commencing. Work is considered in active progress when the permit has received an approved inspection within 180 days. If a new permit is not obtained within 180 days of the original becoming null and void, the building official is authorised to require that work already commenced or completed be removed. Confirm local practice with the issuing department.
It depends on the parcel, not the mailing address. Properties inside the city limits fall under the City of Port St. Lucie building department; parcels in unincorporated St. Lucie County are handled by the county, even though many carry Port St. Lucie addresses. Fort Pierce and St. Lucie Village are separate, and Palm City, Stuart, and Jensen Beach are in Martin County. Confirm the parcel and jurisdiction through the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser first, then search the correct department.
The routes are: schedule the missing final inspection if the work is sound; have the original contractor close it out, since permits are tied to whoever pulled them; apply for a replacement or new permit where the original expired or the contractor is gone; correct deficiencies found at inspection and re-inspect; use engineering documentation or an affidavit process where the department allows it for concealed work; or, as a last resort, remove the work. The department with jurisdiction determines which applies.
An open permit means the correct process was started and not finished — often just a missing final inspection. Unpermitted work means no permit was ever obtained, so nothing was reviewed or inspected. Unpermitted work is generally harder and more expensive to resolve, may require opening walls, engineering documentation, or bringing the work to current code, and in some cases cannot be permitted retroactively at all. It can also affect square footage, appraisal, and insurance.
It is negotiable, and it depends on when it is discovered. Before a contract, a seller who resolves it removes the issue entirely. During the inspection period, a buyer can require resolution, request a credit, or cancel under their contractual rights. After closing, it becomes the new owner’s problem regardless of who created it — which is why buyers should search the permit history themselves rather than waiting for the closing agent’s municipal lien search.
Yes, but it needs to be disclosed and addressed. A known open permit or unpermitted improvement is the kind of material fact a seller is expected to disclose, and concealing it creates far more exposure than the permit does. Practically, buyers, lenders, and insurers will each form a view once they know. The workable approach is to identify it before listing, start resolution immediately, and present the documentation rather than letting the buyer discover it.
It is a search of municipal records for obligations that do not appear in the public records: open and expired permits, code violations not yet reduced to a recorded lien, unpaid utility balances, special assessments, and other municipal charges. It is a separate product from the title search and is normally ordered by the closing agent during the transaction. Either party can pursue the equivalent information earlier — doing so before listing or during the inspection period is what prevents late surprises.
It varies enormously by what is open and what the inspection finds. A permit needing only a final inspection on sound work is inexpensive. A permit that expired years ago may require a new permit, plan review, and bringing the work to regulations in effect when the original became void plus anything adopted since. Unpermitted structural or electrical work is the expensive end. Get a written quote from a licensed contractor and confirm fees with the department rather than estimating.
Under Chapter 162 of the Florida Statutes, an enforcement board may order a violator to pay a fine for each day a violation continues past the compliance deadline, and that fine accrues until compliance or judgment. A certified copy of the order may be recorded in the public records, at which point it becomes a lien against the land where the violation exists and against other real or personal property owned by the violator. Once recorded it generally appears in a title search and must be satisfied or released.
An open permit itself does not change your tax bill. Unpermitted living space can, because space that is not permitted may not be counted by the property appraiser or by an appraiser valuing the home — which affects both the price a buyer can pay and the loan they can obtain. If a home is being marketed with square footage that the records do not support, that discrepancy is worth resolving before it reaches underwriting. Verify with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser.
With permits, requiring the seller to finalise before closing is often the stronger buyer position, because you are otherwise accepting an obligation to a government department on its timeline and its standard. A credit gives you control over contractors but leaves you carrying the risk that an inspection reveals deficient underlying work. Whichever you choose, state the required outcome specifically — final inspection approval and documentation of closure — rather than agreeing to “seller to close permit.”
This is common and it is solvable. Because permits are tied to the contractor who pulled them, a new licensed contractor generally has to apply for a replacement or new permit to take responsibility for the work and carry it through inspection. The work in place will typically need to meet the regulations in effect when the original permit became void, plus anything adopted since. Ask the building department what their specific process is before hiring anyone.
Search the Records Before Someone Else Does
Open permits in Port St. Lucie are a timing problem far more than a legal one. The permit is rarely the disaster. The disaster is finding it in week four of a five-week contract, when inspections cannot be scheduled fast enough and the buyer has just acquired leverage they did not have the day before.
Three facts do most of the work here. A title search will not find an open permit, because it is an unrecorded obligation — that is what the municipal lien search is for. Jurisdiction follows the parcel, not the mailing address, so a Port St. Lucie address may be a county file rather than a city one. And permits do not age into harmlessness — under the Florida Building Code an expired permit can leave the building official authorised to require the work be removed, and a replacement permit generally has to satisfy today’s regulations.
For a seller the whole remedy is a search before listing. For a buyer it is a search inside the inspection period, walked against what you can actually see on the property. Either way it costs an afternoon, and either way it is the difference between an errand and a renegotiation.
Verify three things with a primary source rather than an article: the parcel and jurisdiction through the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser, the permit history and resolution process with the department that actually issued the permits, and any lien or contract question with a licensed Florida attorney. No general guide substitutes for the department that holds your file.
Jeannie Jacobson is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate with RE/MAX Gold, working with buyers and sellers in Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie West, Tradition, PGA Village, Fort Pierce, and the Martin County communities of Stuart, Palm City, and Jensen Beach. If you are preparing to list or evaluating a property, the permit history is one of the cheapest things to check and one of the most expensive to skip.
Check the Permit History Before It Costs You the Closing Date
Send the address and we can confirm which department has jurisdiction, what to request, and how to sequence any resolution around your timeline.
Serving Port St. Lucie, Tradition, St. Lucie West, PGA Village, Fort Pierce, Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, and the Treasure Coast · Jeannie Jacobson · Licensed Florida Real Estate Sales Associate · RE/MAX Gold
Sources and scope. Permit validity, commencement and abandonment periods, the 180-day active-progress standard, and the building official’s authority regarding work not covered by a replacement permit: Florida Building Code, conditions of the permit (§105.4 and subsections), as published by the Florida Building Commission. Code enforcement fines, daily accrual, recording of orders, and the resulting lien against the land and other property of the violator: Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, §162.09. Verified August 2026. Code editions, local amendments, departmental procedures, fees, and the availability of affidavit or engineering alternatives vary by jurisdiction and change over time — confirm each with the City of Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County, or the applicable municipality for the specific parcel. Lender, insurer, and title company requirements vary and are set by those parties. This article is educational and is not legal, code, engineering, insurance, or title advice, and is not a permit search or opinion for any specific property. Consult a licensed Florida attorney, the applicable building department, licensed contractors, your lender, your insurer, and your closing agent for guidance on your transaction.