The Permit-Readiness Checklist: 12 Things Bay Area Reviewers Bounce Sets For

PermitsPros is a California and nationwide permit expediting firm specializing in building permits and fire protection. We also specialize in tenant improvements for restaurants, retail, and banks. Since 2008, our desk has filed thousands of submittals across Bay Area counters — and this is the pre-check every one of them passes before it files.

The 12-point permit-readiness checklist

1. License numbers match — everywhere. The contractor license number is identical on the application, the plan title blocks, and every certificate. A mismatch anywhere is a hold anywhere.
2. The active city business license is current. The job's city business license matches the CSLB record and is in force on the day you file — not last year's.
3. Workers' comp is current and in the same name. Certificate unexpired, and the insured name matches the license name exactly.
4. The address reads exactly as the city record shows it. Street, unit, and ZIP copied from the record — a transposed digit routes your set to the wrong file.
5. Scope on the plans = scope on the application. Word for word. Reviewers compare them side by side, and any daylight between them becomes a correction.
6. Cutsheets for every device and piece of equipment. Listed, current, with the listing numbers the reviewer will ask for — in the set, not promised later.
7. Calculations included wherever the scope triggers them. Battery and voltage-drop for fire alarm; Title 24 wherever the scope touches it. Missing calcs are the fastest bounce in the pile.
8. The applicant of record can actually work the record. In that city's portal, the applicant is the account that can see the record, upload to it, and answer for it.
9. Fees identified before filing day. Exact amount, who pays, and which lane — portal, pay link, or check — so payment posts the day it's filed and the review clock starts.
10. The jurisdiction's own checklist, completed line by line. Every city publishes one for the permit type. Generic checklists miss the line that holds your job.
11. One set architecture. Sheet index matches sheet titles; the reviewer finds any answer in under a minute. Confusion reads as incompleteness.
12. A corrections path planned before you file. Who revises, who resubmits, and how it goes back — decided up front. The first correction cycle is where schedules die.

Get the checklist by email

We'll send the checklist as a clean one-pager for your crew — and when a jurisdiction changes a rule that affects it, you'll hear that from us too. No noise, ever.

Email me the checklist

That didn't go through — check the email and try again.

Or skip the checklist — hand us the set

This checklist is our pre-check, and we run it for you. Send the plans once at portal.permitspros.com; we check the package against all 12 points, file it, carry the correction cycles, and deliver the issued permit. Simple permits $125 plus city fees. Fire alarm permits $250 for filing, or $495 complete through issuance.

Questions and answers

Q: Why do permit submittals get bounced or held?

A: Most holds are paperwork mismatches, not design problems: license numbers that differ between the application and the title block, an expired workers comp certificate, missing cutsheets or calculations, or fees that weren't ready the day the set was filed — so the review clock never started.

Q: Is the checklist really free?

A: Yes — the full 12 points are printed on this page, and the email version is a one-pager for your crew. No demo call, no sales wall.

Q: Who is PermitsPros?

A: PermitsPros is a California and nationwide permit expediting firm specializing in building permits and fire protection. We file permits same-day. Since 2008.