The most common call we get is not “how do I apply” — it is “I applied months ago and nothing is happening.” A stalled permit always has a reason, and finding it is usually a twenty-minute investigation in the jurisdiction’s online portal. Here is the diagnostic checklist we run, in order.
1. Comments Are Waiting for You
The single most common cause: a reviewer issued comments weeks ago, the notification went to a spam folder or a contractor’s unwatched inbox, and the clock has been stopped ever since. Building departments do not chase applicants. Log into the portal, open each review discipline, and read the status — “disapproved” or “comments issued” means the ball is in your court, and has been.
2. One Discipline Is the Bottleneck
Permits route through multiple reviews — building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, zoning, sometimes fire, DERM or environmental in parts of Miami-Dade, and flood review near the coast. Four approvals mean nothing while the fifth sits in queue or in comments. Identify which discipline is holding, because that determines who fixes it: your architect, your engineer, or your contractor.
3. The Resubmittal Was Incomplete
Answering three of four comments restarts the review and earns a new rejection for the fourth. Comment responses should be complete, itemized, and cross-referenced — “see sheet A-3, revised per comment 2” — because reviewers approve faster when they can verify fast. Partial responses are how ninety-day permits become nine-month permits.
4. Paperwork Expired Mid-Process
Contractor licenses, insurance certificates, and notarized owner authorizations age out during long reviews. A permit ready to issue will sit silently waiting on an updated certificate nobody knows about. Check the “holdes” or requirements tab — administrative holds hide there.
5. Fees or the NOC Are Outstanding
Some jurisdictions will not issue — or will not even continue processing — with unpaid fees, and most will not pass first inspection without a recorded Notice of Commencement for qualifying jobs. Both show as statuses people scroll past.
6. The Property Itself Has Baggage
Open or expired permits from previous work, active code cases, or unresolved liens can freeze new applications. This surfaces constantly on recently purchased homes — the previous owner’s 2014 fence permit becomes your kitchen remodel’s problem. The fix is closing out the old before the new moves.
The Pattern
Notice what is missing from this list: “the city is just slow.” Queues are real and vary by season and municipality, but the multi-month horror stories almost always trace to stopped clocks — unanswered comments, incomplete resubmittals, expired documents — not review time itself. The cure is monitoring: someone checking every discipline, every week, and answering same-week. That is, candidly, the job description of a permit expeditor.
Stuck in review, or want the paperwork handled right the first time? IG Permit Expeditors prepares, submits, and tracks permits across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Request a quote through our website or email info@igpermitexpeditors.com.