Generally the person or company who pulls the permit is also the person that is responsible for calling in when inspections are required. If the architect pulls the permit, this would somewhat cross the line of means and methods integral with the AIA documents.

Another reason, the cost of the permits is more directly applicable to the construction cost of the project rather than being a reimbursable expense on the architect's invoice.

All this being said, I have obtained permits on projects before where my firm was acting as the developer, architect and construction manager.

The contract assumes that there isn't a licensed architect involved in the project (the use of Designer). Once a separate owner-architect contract, in conjunction with the owner-contractor contract, is agreed upon, then obtaining the permit becomes negotiable...

that's my interpretation.

When a person obtains a permit that person is legally liable for anything damage that is caused to property during the course of construction for improvements being made. So, if you are getting your roof redone for instance and the ladder falls on your neighbors car, whom ever pulled the permit is responsible and maybe sued by the neighbor. So, just as a word of advice, if you are a home owner and the contract tells you that you are in charge of pulling the permit, I'd be careful and make sure that contractor has a contractor license number because they are pulling your leg already.

I work for a city in Florida, so I can just tell you thats the way it works in florida.

what has been said above + the person who obtains the permit is generally the entitiy performing the construction work. on just about every project larger than a single family residence, the architect is required to submit a controlled construction affidavit to the building department.

I have also NEVER worked on a project where the architect has not met with the building department before the project going out to bid.

so what i have seen is: coordination meetings + no surprises with the building commissioner - Architect / Engineer Affidavits - Architect fills in portions of the building permit application, which is then completed and filed by the person performing the work.

also, for anything larger than a single family residence, you typically must be a licensed contractor (each individual trade) in order to obtain the permit, which most architects are not...

Typically the architect proceeds thru plan-check to the point where the permit is 'ready to issue', at which point the contractor or owner can come in and pay for it and assume liability for reasons stated above.

Thats pretty boilerplate anywhere in CA, but depending on which city your in there is a lot of variation on the scope relating to contractor's licensing and bonding, etc...

I've done work all over the US and it's common practice all over for the architect to handle the plan-check and notify the GC when the permit is ready. At least on GMax projects with tight schedules. Often I have used an expediter to submit the drawings directly to the city, or walked them in myself. If up front fees are required the owner has always provided that and not been paid by the arch as a billable expense.

On the traditional design-bid-build there's a fair amount of lag time before you have a GC to submit the drawings for review. Thus the reason many corporate clients don't want to follow this process. When I did educational/civic work we did this but the process took what seemed like a lifetime.

Have also done design-build projects where I never heard a thing from the plans reviewers. The owners Construction Manager handled it on that.

hey all.

thank you very much for your responses. i have been on lots of different projects in during most of the phases but I haven't been lucky enough to take a project from the beginning to the end yet. i have now been presented an opportunity to do so on my own, and i have learned a lot so far but find myself missing information on things i probably took for granted before. thanks again for clearing this up for me.

I'm in Georgia and at the two firms I worked for prior to going out on my own, the contractor or the owner were the ones that submitted for permit. Sometimes they would use an expeditor. The architect was listed on the coversheet so whenever there were questions from the building official, they would contact us directly for clarification or to let us know that there were corrections. Sometimes they would just notify the owner or contractor that there were corrections necessary - we'd then get the drawings, make the revisions, and get them back to whoever to resubmit. When necessary, we would go down to the building department to meet with code officials to discuss, but still, the contractor or owner were the ones to submit and start the process, in addition to being the ones to pay the fees and pull the permit.

I did recently have a client act surprised when I told them that I don't submit for permit - but like I said, that's the only way I've ever done it in Georgia.

Many years ago, I worked in Chicago, and there, we did submit for permit. I hated that. Nothing like having to trudge through a snowstorm to get your drawings to the building department...

once again, i hate seattle's dpd...