• General

    If you are building, rehabbing or changing the use of a building, we urge you to contact our Building & Code Enforcement Department early in your project. The staff there will work with you to help you understand the review process and help you determine up-front what requirements you will need to move through the approval process. It is important for you to be as specific as possible with all questions in order for the Department to give you the correct information.

  • Building and Mechanical Permits are required for the following work:

    • An owner or authorized agent who intends to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a commercial/residential building, structure and facility or to erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any electrical, gas, mechanical, or plumbing system regulated by the Uniform Construction Code.
    • Emergency repairs or replacement of equipment may be made without first applying for a permit if a permit application is submitted to the building code official within 3 business days of the repair or replacement.
    • Construction or alteration of a parking lot.
    • Fences, retaining walls, driveways.
    • Cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work.
    • Window replacement.
    • Ordinary repairs, which includes the following:
    • Cutting away a wall, partition or portion of a wall.
    • The removal or cutting of any structural beam or load-bearing support.
    • The removal or change of any required means of egress, or rearrangement of parts of a structure affecting the egress requirements.
    • The addition to, alteration of, replacement or relocation of any standpipe, water supply, sewer, drainage, drain leader, gas soil, waste, vent or similar piping, electric wiring or mechanical.

  • Commercial Work:

    • Any construction, alteration or relocation of a building or any new building or structure.
    • Installation or replacement of building, mechanical, and plumbing equipment.

  • Residential Work:

    • New Construction.
    • Alterations or additions which affect structure members or when needed to define the nature and extent of work including decks.
    • Accessory buildings (garages or sheds).
    • Projects involving minor repairs, painting, decorating or maintenance.
    • The building code official may waive or modify the submission of construction documents that are not required to be prepared by a licensed architect or engineer, or other data if the nature of the work applied for does not require review of construction documents or other data to obtain compliance with the code. The building code official may not waive the submission of site plans that relate to accessibility requirements.

    Building plans submitted for review to the Norristown Building and Code Enforcement Department as part of a permit application will be charged an additional fee which shall be paid at the time of the permit application as follows: Residential Plan review of $70 per review and Commercial Plan review of $110 per review.

  • Use & Occupancy

    A Use & Occupancy Inspection is required before a residential or commercial property is sold or a change of tenant occurs in a commercial building. Questions should be directed to the Norristown Code Department, 610-270-0441.

  • Rental licenses

    Anyone wishing to rent a dwelling unit to anyone other than a family member is required to apply for and obtain a rental license.

    If the intent were to rent a single family dwelling the owner would complete a rental license application and submit it to the code department. A code inspector or a member of the Code staff will then contact the applicant to schedule the required property maintenance inspection. Once any violations are repaired the owner will be issued the annual rental license once the ($65.00) fee is paid.

    In building housing; two or more dwelling units the owner/applicant would be required to obtain a zoning use registration permit prior to filing the rental application with code. The process requires the responsible party to complete and submit the application to the zoning officer for review to verify that the building is compliant with the zoning regulations established for the area in which the structure is located. After zoning approval is received the applicant would then be able to apply for the rental license with the code department in the same manner as a single family dwelling with the exception that the fees are based on $65.00 per unit.

    Once a license is issued the owner will be billed annually for the license. The building or space may be inspected at the time of license renewal as well.

    Rental licenses are required to insure that buildings intended to be rented comply with all zoning and property maintenance laws in order to guard against overcrowding and blight.

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