Permits & licenses in Knox County.
Knox County sits inside Tennessee's two-layer arrangement: the State Fire Marshal's Office holds building code plans review and inspection everywhere it has not delegated them, and here it has — the local codes department issues the permit and runs the inspections. State-owned buildings, schools and licensed daycare facilities stay with the state either way.
- Knox County Codes Administration administers and enforces the building regulatory codes outside the city limits of Knoxville and the Town of Farragut; filings run through the Knox Permit Portal.
- Inside Knoxville, the Plans Review and Inspections Department holds plans review, permits, building inspections and zoning and development services.
- Knox County and Knoxville are separately approved exempt jurisdictions under the State Fire Marshal's Office, each running its own plans review and inspections.
Talk to a permit specialist — for your Knox County project.
county seat: Knoxville
Knox County · drawn from Census boundaries
What we clear here
- Building permits — new construction, fit-outs, renovations
- Trade permits — electrical, plumbing, gas, mechanical
- Use & occupancy and the inspections behind it
- Business & contractor licensing
- Signs, site work, and right-of-way
How it moves
Your package is reviewed against the current Knox County submission requirements before it's filed — forms, editions, scales, signatures. Then it's tracked in the queue and carried through comments. A resubmittal means the back of the line; the pre-filing review is there to help keep you out of it. The habit comes from volume: the team has processed 400+ permits annually across Maryland, D.C., and Virginia counters.
Straight answers
Who issues building permits in Knox County?
Knox County Codes Administration and City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections Department — with the trade, health, and fire reviews that attach depending on the project.
Does DaKa work in Knox County?
Yes — Knox County is one of the Tennessee markets we serve. Call (240) 344-5075, or send the project over, and we'll lay out your project's permits and licenses, in order, with what each review will take.
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.