Read this first. Everything below is general information compiled from publicly available sources — California statutes, state and local building codes, and published city and county guidance — current as of August 2026. It is an estimate of how the rules generally work, not a determination about your property.
Codes get amended locally, thresholds and fees change, and building officials apply judgment case by case. Two houses on the same street can get different answers. Do your own research with the building and planning departments that actually have jurisdiction over your parcel, and have a qualified professional look at your specific property and scope — a designer, a registered engineer, or a licensed architect, depending on what the project turns out to need — before you make decisions or spend money on the strength of anything you read here.
This is not legal, engineering, or code-compliance advice, and reading it does not create a professional relationship. RDD Solutions is a residential design and drafting firm; we are not an architecture firm and we do not provide licensed architectural services.
The short version. California publishes an explicit list of work that does not need a permit — it is short and specific. Everything structural, everything that changes the building envelope, and most electrical, plumbing and mechanical work needs one. The permit itself is rarely the bottleneck; incomplete drawings are.
What’s on this page
- The general rule
- What is exempt, specifically
- The exemptions people misread
- Two permits, not one: building vs. planning
- What a submittal has to contain
- How long it takes
- ADUs get their own clock
- Working without a permit
1. The general rule
A permit is required for construction, alteration, repair, moving, demolition, or change of occupancy of a building or structure, and for the installation or alteration of electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing systems. That is the default. The exemptions are the exception, and they are enumerated rather than general.
The practical version for a homeowner: if you are changing structure, changing the envelope, or touching a system, assume you need a permit until you have confirmed otherwise against your local jurisdiction’s adopted code.
2. What is exempt, specifically
The California Residential Code sets out exempt work at R105.2. The building items are:
- One-story detached accessory structures, provided the floor area does not exceed 120 square feet
- Fences not over 7 feet high
- Retaining walls not over 4 feet in height, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall
- Water tanks supported directly on grade, capacity not exceeding 5,000 gallons
- Sidewalks and driveways
- Painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, countertops and similar finish work
- Temporary motion picture, television and theatre stage sets and scenery
- Prefabricated swimming pools less than 24 inches deep
- Swings and other playground equipment
- Window awnings supported by an exterior wall, not projecting more than 54 inches
- Decks not exceeding 200 square feet, subject to conditions on height, attachment and occupancy
There are parallel short lists for electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing — covering things like replacing a branch-circuit overcurrent device of the same capacity in the same location, low-voltage work under 25 volts, and minor repairs such as changing lamps.
Local amendment is the norm, not the exception. Cities and counties routinely modify R105.2 when they adopt the code. Several California jurisdictions publish their own amended version of this exact list. The state list tells you the shape of the rule; your building department’s adopted version is the one that governs your parcel.
3. The exemptions people misread
Three of these cause most of the trouble.
“Cabinets and countertops are exempt, so my kitchen remodel is exempt.” The finish-work exemption is about finishes, in isolation. The moment the remodel relocates plumbing, alters circuits, adds ventilation, or removes any part of a wall, you are outside it. A genuine kitchen remodel almost always needs a permit — the exemption describes replacing a countertop, not renovating a room.
“My shed is under 120 square feet, so nothing applies.” The R105.2 exemption is from the building permit. It is not an exemption from zoning — setbacks, lot coverage and accessory-structure rules still apply, and they are enforced separately. It also does not exempt any electrical service you run out to it.
“The wall is only 4 feet.” The retaining-wall threshold is measured from the bottom of the footing, not from grade. A wall showing three feet above ground with an 18-inch footing is over the line. Surcharged walls — those retaining a slope or supporting a load above — are commonly excluded from the exemption entirely.
A reminder, because it matters here. The rules above are the general shape of California law and common local practice as of August 2026, drawn from public sources. They are estimates, not guarantees, and they have not been checked against your parcel. Cities and counties amend the building code locally and building officials have discretion on individual projects.
Verify with your own jurisdiction, and get a professional to review your actual property before acting. Treat every timeline on this page as an estimate rather than a commitment. RDD Solutions is a residential design and drafting firm — not an architecture firm — and this article is general information, not legal or engineering advice.
4. Two permits, not one
This is the structural misunderstanding that costs the most time. In most California jurisdictions there are two separate review tracks, run by two different departments, answering two different questions:
| Building plan check | Planning review | |
|---|---|---|
| Asks | Is it code-compliant and safe? | Is it allowed here, and does it look acceptable? |
| Covers | Structural, energy, egress, fire, MEP | Zoning, setbacks, height, coverage, design/architectural review, historic status, coastal zone |
| Nature | Ministerial — meet the code and it passes | Often discretionary — judgment, sometimes a hearing |
| Can require | Corrections, calculations, deferred submittals | Story poles, neighbor notice, hearings, redesign |
Building plan check is predictable. Planning review is where schedules break, because a discretionary body can ask for changes that send the design back to the start. If your project triggers planning review — and second-story additions, small lots, steep slopes and historic districts commonly do — find out before you commission construction documents, not after.
5. What a submittal has to contain
Requirements vary, but a residential submittal in California generally includes:
- Scope of work and property data
- Site or plot plan — setbacks, footprint, coverage, drainage, grading
- Foundation plan
- Floor plans, existing and proposed
- Roof and floor framing plans
- Construction sections and details
- Mechanical, electrical and plumbing plans
- Title 24 energy compliance documentation where conditioned floor area is added
- Stamped structural calculations for any portion outside conventional framing
Most California jurisdictions now accept — and many require — digital PDF submittal.
Who may prepare these: for single-family woodframe dwellings up to two stories and a basement, and appurtenant structures such as garages, an unlicensed person may prepare the plans under Business & Professions Code § 5537 — explained in full here. Portions deviating from conventional framing must be prepared by or under the responsible control of a licensed architect or registered engineer.
6. How long it takes
Jurisdictions publish target review times. As one concrete example, the City of Monterey publishes roughly 15 business days for first plan-check review on projects valued under $100,000 and roughly 20 business days from $100,000 to $1 million, with about four additional days for intake and routing.
Three caveats attach to any figure like that, and they matter more than the figure:
- It is an estimate, not a commitment. Published targets are goals, and departments have busy seasons.
- It assumes a complete submittal. An incomplete set may not even start the clock.
- It is the first review only. Corrections start another cycle. Two or three rounds is common; the number is largely determined by the quality of the set.
And it excludes planning review entirely. A project needing architectural review, story poles and a hearing operates on a different and longer timescale.
Not sure which side of the line you’re on?
Send us the address and a sentence about the scope. We will tell you whether it is a drafting job, an engineering job, or one of the few that genuinely needs a licensed architect — and if it is the last one, we will say so.
Ask us about your project7. ADUs get their own clock
Accessory dwelling units are the one residential category where state law imposes a hard timeline on the jurisdiction. Under Government Code § 66314:
- Review is ministerial — no public hearing, no discretionary design review
- A completeness determination is due within 30 days, or the application is deemed complete
- The application must be approved or denied within 60 days of a complete application
- Failure to act within 60 days means the application is deemed approved
- Pre-approved or identical detached ADU plans get an expedited 30-day timeline
Ministerial review raises the stakes on the drawings rather than lowering them: with no discretion available, approval turns entirely on whether the set demonstrably meets objective standards.
8. Working without a permit
The realistic consequences, in rough order of how often they bite:
- It surfaces at sale. Unpermitted square footage affects appraisal, financing and disclosure, and buyers’ agents look for it.
- Stop-work order and retroactive permitting. Usually possible, usually with investigation fees, always slower than doing it in order.
- Exposure of concealed work. Framing, wiring and plumbing that were closed up may have to be opened for inspection.
- Insurance. A claim arising from unpermitted work is a conversation you do not want to be having.
- Removal. Where the work cannot be brought into compliance.
None of this is exotic. It is routine, it is expensive, and the cost of avoiding it is a permit fee and a set of drawings.
Where to go from here
State law gives you the shape of the requirements. What actually governs your project is your jurisdiction’s adopted and amended code, plus whatever planning overlay sits on your parcel. Our service-area pages set out the specific plan-check timelines, review triggers and submittal requirements city by city across Monterey County.
RDD Solutions is a residential design and drafting firm in Carmel — not an architecture firm. We produce permit sets for exempt residential work, coordinate licensed structural engineering where a project requires it, and respond to plan-check comments on our clients’ behalf.
Related reading
- When do you actually need an architect in California? — the full guide
- The complete guide to Monterey home permits
- six permit mistakes that stall Monterey County remodels
- Carmel home remodeling permitting 101
- Santa Cruz County ADU permitting
- The home remodel timeline with approved plans
Where we work
RDD Solutions provides residential design and drafting across the Monterey Peninsula — Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel Valley — including kitchen and bathroom design, home additions, whole-house drafting, and plan sets for general contractors. Get in touch to talk through your project.