Guide
Roof permits in Arizona: who issues them and why it matters
Updated
The permit is a small piece of paper that quietly settles two arguments: whether the work was inspected, and whether the person who did it was allowed to.
Permits are local, always
Arizona does not run roof permitting from the state. Your city or county building department adopts its own edition of the model codes with local amendments, sets its own fees and decides what triggers a permit. Phoenix, for instance, publishes the codes it has adopted on its building construction codes page. Unincorporated county areas and each other municipality do the same thing separately.
Because of that, we will not quote you a permit fee. Ask your own building department, or make the roofer confirm the fee in the bid. Any specific dollar figure you read on a national roofing site is a figure for someone else's jurisdiction.
The permit also decides the licensing question
Arizona's exemption for unlicensed contracting is explicitly switched off in any case in which the performance of the work requires a local building permit (A.R.S. 32-1121(A)(14)(a)). So the moment your reroof needs a permit, there is no under-$1,000 argument available to an unlicensed roofer, whatever the invoice says. See how to check an ROC license.
What to do before the tile comes off
- Call your city or county building department and ask: does this reroof need a permit, and what is the fee?
- Ask each bidder who pulls the permit. If the answer is "you do", understand you are being asked to become the responsible party.
- Get the permit number when it is issued, and keep it.
- Do not pay the final balance until the inspection has passed and the permit is finaled.
- File the permit final, the invoice, the underlayment product name and the warranty together. If you need the Registrar later, that folder is your case.
Homeowners association approval is a separate matter from the permit. If your community controls tile profile or color, get that approval in writing before materials are ordered, because a mismatched replacement tile is expensive to unwind.