Winter does not wait on a permit counter
When a furnace, boiler, or water heater goes down in a Chicago winter, the equipment is rarely the slow part. The slow part is the permit — the registration that is not linked, the worksheet that is not signed, the application sitting in the wrong lane. PermitsPros files heating changeout permits for owners, property managers, installers, and general contractors across metro Chicago, from our portal, with the same discipline we have run since 2008: the complete package is pre-checked before it files, and it files the same day the complete package is in.
Chicago is a new market for us, and this page is written that way on purpose. Our permit record to date is California-filed. What follows is what we can file for you in metro Chicago and how each jurisdiction's lane works — capability and process, stated plainly.
The gate towns: express lanes for heating changeouts
Our Chicago filing starts in the suburbs whose permit lanes are built for exactly this work — online submittal, no plan review for a clean changeout, and a published express track. Before any filing, we confirm the jurisdiction from the street address itself; a ZIP code is a starting point, never the answer.
- Skokie — Furnaces, water heaters, and air conditioners are expressly over-the-counter permits with no plan review, filed online through the Village's BS&A portal. Homeowner and contractor signatures are part of the package, and contractors must be licensed and bonded with the Village.
- Schaumburg — Express Permits expressly include furnace, water heater, and air conditioner replacement with no plan review, filed through OpenGov. Additional parties can be added as guests on the record, so the owner, the installer, and our desk all see the same file. Water-heater work carries the Illinois plumbing letter-of-intent step, which we build into intake.
- Evanston — The Express list expressly includes water heater, boiler, and furnace — new or replacement — with no plan review, filed through Accela Citizen Access. The City states an express turnaround of 3–5 business days. Trade worksheets are signed by the registered contractors, and email submissions are not accepted — the portal is the lane.
- Downers Grove — Village Code sets a single flat category for residential water-heater, furnace, and A/C condenser replacement: $75, including one inspection, filed through the Village portal. One category, one fee, one inspection — the cleanest changeout lane in the metro.
- Palatine — All applications run through Tyler Customer Self Service. The Village states an Express goal of 3–5 business days; the filer must be attached to the record as a Contact, and contractor registration is verified before invoicing — both of which we set up at intake, not after a hold.
- Lake in the Hills and New Lenox — Both villages expressly list air conditioner, furnace, and water-heater permits as available to apply for online, and both are in our first filing ring alongside the gate towns.
The City of Chicago: Express, and an honest exemption check first
Inside the city, permit-required work runs through the Chicago Express Permit Program — guided work types, document upload, electronic fee payment, and online status — covering mechanical and HVAC work, including non-in-kind changes such as relocation, capacity, venting, or gas-piping changes, and commercial scope. On every Express job, the licensed contractor electronically accepts the filing before issuance; we coordinate that step so it never stalls the record.
One check comes before any of that. Chicago Municipal Code §14A-4-402.2 lists in-kind replacement of a hot water heater, boiler, furnace, or air-conditioning equipment among repairs exempt from permit. A truly in-kind city swap may need no permit at all — and we will tell you that before we sell you a filing. Where a permit is required, or a permit record is needed for the job, Express is the route and we file it.
The matchmaking loop: the permit is the hinge
A heating job has three sides, and each side is usually looking for the other two. Owners and property managers need an established local installer who can start now. Installers need jobs that do not sit — and a supply chain that keeps equipment moving. Distributors need installers whose work never stalls. PermitsPros runs that loop from one desk: our desk makes curated introductions between owners and registered installers matched to the job, and we file the changeout permit ourselves, so the introduction and the permit move together instead of waiting on each other.
Every party follows the job on one private board — installer, permit status, and the issued permit delivered. No contract to start: send one building address or one live job, and we return the match and the permit timeline for it.
What we need at intake
- The street address — we confirm the true jurisdiction and the right lane from it.
- The installing contractor's registration for that town, linked once — not re-proven on every job.
- The signed pieces each lane requires: homeowner and contractor signatures in Skokie, contractor-signed trade worksheets in Evanston, the plumbing letter of intent for Schaumburg water heaters.
- Names, license numbers, and scope that match across the application and the contract — field for field, so the package is approvable when it lands.
Call (888) 907-9511 and we will confirm exactly which Chicago-area permits your project needs — including when the answer is that it needs none.