Manatee County, FL Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Manatee County Code Sec. 73, for use in the unincorporated county, and it authorizes the county to set permit and related fees and charges by separate ordinance and resolution rather than in the code itself. Subsection (b) separately adopts Florida Building Code - Residential Appendix Q, the tiny-house standard, so even a tiny house on a permanent foundation needs a permit under that appendix. Subsection (c) makes clear that whenever any county ordinance, resolution, or official document refers to the Building Code, it means the current Florida Building Code as adopted by the county, so the permit trigger updates automatically with each statewide code cycle.

Only a contractor with an actual contract for the job may pull the permit. Under Sec. 2-6-37(a)(26), it is a violation for a certificate holder to apply for or obtain a building permit unless the contractor or business duly qualified by said contractor has entered into a contract to make improvements to, or perform the contracting at, the real property specified in the application or permit, though a contractor may still permit unpaid work or work on property the contractor personally owns. The county's Construction Trades Board enforces permit misuse under Sec. 00 per violation. Contracting without any license at all is handled separately as a civil infraction under Sec. S. 531(1).