Permits & licensing in California.
California builds to one code. Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations — the California Building Standards Code — is codified and published by the California Building Standards Commission, inside the Department of General Services, which reviews and approves the building standards each state agency proposes. A new edition issues every three years, with supplements in the intervening cycle; the 2025 edition took effect January 1, 2026, and in it Part 7 became the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code.
Enforcement belongs to local government. State law requires cities and counties to enforce Title 24 whether or not they adopt it by ordinance; the city's building department holds the file inside the city line, and the county's holds the unincorporated land. A local amendment may go further than Title 24 only where it is reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological or topographical conditions, on express findings, and the Commission reviews each one for acceptance for filing. Contractors license through the Contractors State License Board, and Business and Professions Code § 7031.5 makes every permit applicant file a signed statement giving a license number or the basis for an exemption.
Some building types never reach the local counter. The Office of Statewide Hospital Planning and Development, inside the Department of Health Care Access and Information, is the enforcing agency for hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and skilled nursing and intermediate-care facilities — the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act preempts the local building jurisdiction there — while licensed clinics typically stay with the local building official. The Division of the State Architect holds plan review and construction oversight for public K–12 schools, community colleges and state-owned or state-leased essential services buildings. The Department of Housing and Community Development oversees local enforcement of the State Housing Law, regulates the manufacture of factory-built housing, and inspects mobilehome parks wherever the local government has not assumed enforcement. On the coast, the Coastal Act adds a coastal development permit, separate from and in addition to the city or county permit.
- The California Building Standards Commission republishes Title 24 on a triennial cycle with intervening-cycle supplements; the 2025 California Building Standards Code took effect January 1, 2026.
- Under Business and Professions Code § 7048, work under $1,000 in labor, materials and all other items falls outside the Contractors State License Board's license requirement only if it needs no building permit and the person doing it employs no one; the threshold rose from $500 on January 1, 2025.
- HCAI's Office of Statewide Hospital Planning and Development is the building official for hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and issues their building permits; the Division of the State Architect reviews and oversees public K–12 schools and community colleges. Neither file sits with the city.
- Development in the coastal zone may not begin until a coastal development permit issues. Once the Coastal Commission certifies a Local Coastal Program, most of that permit authority passes to the city or county; the Commission keeps tidelands, submerged lands and public trust lands, and appeal jurisdiction over certain development.
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