Plan Check vs Permit: Where Your Project Stands and What Happens Next

Plan check is the review of the submitted design and supporting documents. Permit issuance is the authorization step for the approved scope. Inspections during and after construction are another stage. A submission receipt, reviewer comment or approved drawing does not by itself tell you that every permission needed to start has been issued.

The stages homeowners often hear described as “permitting”

Seattle’s application guidance illustrates why preparation, review and issuance need to be tracked separately. The sequence and terminology vary by jurisdiction. Ask your local authority which status labels apply rather than forcing every city into an identical checklist.

Does an average permit timeline predict your project?

Not without knowing what the measurement includes. An intake-to-issuance interval differs from the time a reviewer actively spends on a file. A dataset of issued permits also omits applications that never reached issuance. Check the cohort, dates and project types before using its median to choose a demolition date.

Our permit timeline tool provides historical context, with its methodology and limits. Use it alongside the current application record. It cannot tell you that your own drawings are complete, a reviewer has accepted a response or a utility approval is ready.

Is the file with the city or with your team?

Ask for the last completed action and the next required one. If comments have been issued, identify who is preparing each response. If documents have been resubmitted, confirm the receipt and current status. “Still at the city” is not a useful update when the applicant is actually revising a drawing.

How should a corrections letter be handled?

Turn the comments into a response log. Ask the design team to identify the relevant drawing or calculation for each answer and to coordinate changes across disciplines. Closing an architectural comment while leaving a conflicting plumbing layout can create another round of work.

Agree who is responsible for resubmission and whether ordinary responses are included in the professional fee. Separate changes needed to address comments from owner-requested redesign. If an answer depends on a product selection, record when the owner must decide.

No-plan permits and quick approvals: what to verify

A simplified route still has eligibility criteria. For example, San Diego’s permit FAQ describes no-plan and other permit types. It does not mean every small remodel has no requirements. Our San Diego kitchen permit guide works through that distinction for a specific project type.

If someone promises same-day approval, ask which permit and assumptions the promise covers, what happens if the scope does not qualify and whether other approvals remain. A fast trade permit does not necessarily authorize a larger alteration.

Before you schedule demolition or nonreturnable orders

Have the contractor confirm that the issued approvals cover the work about to begin. Identify decisions that can change during review and delay commitments that depend on them. A refundable reservation and a nonreturnable custom order expose the homeowner to different risks.

For an ADU, read the garage-conversion permit analysis rather than applying a generic remodel timetable to a statutory ADU process. For a hillside deck, the Seattle deck schedule guide explains how site assessment affects the front of the calendar.

The three questions to ask this week

“What is the application’s current stage? What exact item is preventing the next step, and who owns it? Which dates can we responsibly commit to before that item is resolved?” Ask for the answer in writing with the current status record attached.

What is plan check?

Plan check is the building department's review of your drawings and documents before a permit is issued. Reviewers compare the proposed work with the codes and local rules that apply to it. In the words of the LADBS homeowner guide, officials review the documentation to ensure it complies with all relevant building codes and regulations, and they may approve the plans or ask for modifications. Los Angeles uses the two names interchangeably: plan check is also known as plan review.

The building department is rarely the only reviewer. In San Francisco, the Department of Building Inspection reviews every application for life safety and building code compliance, and other departments, including Planning, Public Works, the Public Utilities Commission and the Fire Department, review some projects too. Los Angeles lists possible separate approvals from Planning, Fire, Public Works, Transportation, Housing and the Department of Water and Power, depending on scope. San Diego's online system shows review findings in a Project Issues Report organized by discipline, so one project can carry comments from several reviewers at once.

Plan check, permit and inspection side by side

The order matters. LADBS says that once plan review is complete, the applicant may proceed to permit issuance, and that after payment a permit is issued so that construction can begin. Its "Ready to Issue" status means the plans and all clearances have been approved. San Francisco is just as direct on its building permits page: only start work after permit issuance. Inspectors then check the work for code compliance and permit scope. Los Angeles requires an inspection before any work is covered or concealed, so a wall stays open until the framing, pipes or wiring inside it have been seen.

Counter plan check, express permits and full review

Departments sort projects by how much review they need. The labels differ by city, but the logic is similar.

• No plan check. Los Angeles defines an Express Permit as a permit that does not require plans or plan check, and its e-permit list includes kitchen or bathroom remodeling for qualifying projects. San Francisco sends in-kind, non-structural kitchen or bath work in qualifying residential buildings through its online portal without plans.
• Same-day review. In Los Angeles, Counter Plan Check plans are reviewed the same day they are submitted. San Francisco may accept an application for Over-the-Counter review when each permitting department can review it in less than one hour.
• Full review. Larger projects go to Regular Plan Check in Los Angeles, where plans are returned within weeks depending on workload. Paying 50% more of the plan check fee buys an expedited review. In San Francisco, applications that cannot be reviewed in under an hour become In-House Review projects. An interior remodel that demolishes more than 75% of the interior walls is one of the triggers for in-house Planning review there.

If the route is unclear, both cities offer a meeting before submittal. LADBS sells a Preliminary Plan Check appointment with a plan check engineer for $208 plus a 3% and a 6% surcharge, limited to 1.5 hours. San Francisco offers an optional pre-application meeting with building or fire staff.

What happens after plan check comments

Comments lead to revised drawings and a second look. San Francisco says plan checkers may request revisions, and it calls the revised plans resubmissions. The revised sheets usually go back to the same person: San Francisco tells applicants to recheck their plans with the plan checker from the first review, and San Diego sends a "Recheck Required" email from the review discipline that raised the issue.

Repeated rounds have consequences. In San Francisco, a review that needs three rounds of comments, revisions and resubmissions is escalated to a DBI supervisor. For applications filed on or after June 21, 2026, San Francisco allows up to 730 days to finish review and obtain the permit, with a 180-day extension available for a fee. Changes after issuance are a separate matter there: revising an issued permit requires a new permit application.

Does California law set a deadline for plan check?

For housing development projects, yes. AB 2234, approved in 2022, added Government Code section 65913.3. It requires a city or county to tell the applicant within 15 business days whether a post-entitlement permit application is complete. For projects with 25 units or fewer, the agency then has 30 business days after the application is complete to return either an approval or a full set of comments with a comprehensive request for revisions. Projects with 26 units or more get 60 business days.

The statute has limits. The clock is paused while an outside entity reviews the application, and the law places no limit on how much feedback or how many revisions an agency may request. It covers building permits for development intended to be at least two-thirds residential, so ask the department whether it applies to your ADU, new home or alteration before relying on it. Los Angeles posts its AB 2234 submittal lists and sample approved plans for single-family homes, ADUs and duplexes. For ADU timing, see the garage conversion permit analysis, and use the permit timeline tool for historical context.

Sources and Methodology

Reviewed September 28, 2026. Agency process guidance supports the stage distinctions. Tracking tables are editorial tools. Unsupported national delay percentages, project-cost statistics and fixed review times have been removed. We do not infer causation from a permit’s elapsed calendar time. See our editorial methodology.