Permits & licensing in Tennessee.
Tennessee's default is the state. The State Fire Marshal's Office, inside the Department of Commerce and Insurance, holds building code plans review and inspection everywhere it has not delegated them, and runs the State Residential Building Code Enforcement Program for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses.
Delegation is the exception that swallows the rule in the metros. A local government running an adequate codes enforcement program is approved by the SFMO as an exempt jurisdiction and takes plans review and inspections for buildings that would otherwise need state approval. Nashville/Davidson County, Knox County and Knoxville all hold that status. An exempt jurisdiction must adopt codes within seven years of the most current published edition under T.C.A. § 68-120-101(b)(5)(A), and an SFMO audit team reviews each one every three years. State-owned buildings, educational facilities and licensed daycare and DCS facilities stay with the state regardless.
A city or county may also opt out of the state residential program by a two-thirds vote of its legislative body, which leaves no residential building code enforcement at that address at all. Contractors run through the Board for Licensing Contractors, which requires a license before bidding, offering or negotiating a price.
- Where a local government has no approved program, plans review and inspection sit with the Codes Enforcement Section of the State Fire Marshal's Office.
- Exempt jurisdictions — Nashville/Davidson County, Knox County and Knoxville among them — are delegated codes enforcement by the SFMO, audited on a three-year cycle, and must stay within seven years of the current published code edition.
- A city or county can opt out of the state residential building code and its enforcement by a two-thirds vote of its legislative body.
- The Board for Licensing Contractors requires a license before bidding at $25,000 and above as prime contractor, at $25,000 and above for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, HVAC and roofing subcontractors under a contractor, and at $100,000 and above for masonry.
Talk to a permit specialist — for your Tennessee project.
Tennessee, county by county.
Every shape is a door — select a county or city to open its page.
All 28 Tennessee jurisdictions, A–Z
Talk to a permit specialist
Ten minutes on your project. You leave knowing the approvals it needs, in what order, and what each review will take. Or send the address, scope, and plans and we start from there.