Medford, MA Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Sec. 10-101 puts plumbing enforcement on the building commissioner, who acts ex officio as the inspector of buildings for this purpose. Sec. 10-102 layers on a distinct inspector of plumbing, appointed under M.G.L.A. c. 142, § 11, exercising the powers that statute sets out. Sec. 10-103 does not restate the fee amounts itself; it points instead to the Appendix A fee schedule, where item (a)(1) prices new residential plumbing work in a building of up to three dwelling units at $125.00 for the first five fixtures and $15.00 for every additional fixture or appurtenance.

Once a job is underway, item (5) of that same schedule adds a $50.00 reinspection fee, payable in advance, any time a plumbing job is not ready for inspection or was done incorrectly, so a contractor who calls for an inspection before the work is actually finished pays for the visit twice. The dual-inspector structure means a single plumbing job in Medford can draw oversight from both the building commissioner's office under Sec. 10-101 and the dedicated inspector of plumbing under Sec. 10-102, whose state-derived authority under M.G.L.A. c. 142, § 11 exists independently of the city's own building permitting chain.