Do you need a permit to replace windows in Florida?

Yes, it needs a permit — and who pulls it matters

Replacing window or door assemblies is permitted work under the Florida Building Code. Repairing a broken pane in an existing frame generally is not — the line is whether the tested assembly itself is being installed. In practice, the contractor of record pulls the permit for your project, and that is the arrangement that keeps responsibility where it belongs.

Florida also has an owner-builder exemption: a homeowner can pull their own permit for their own residence. Read the disclosure it requires before getting excited — the owner takes on direct, onsite supervision of the work, selling or leasing within one year after completion creates a statutory presumption that the work was undertaken for sale or lease (s. 489.103, F.S.) — which is what puts the exemption in question — and none of a contractor’s obligations protect you from yourself. For made-to-measure structural assemblies in a hurricane zone, it is rarely the bargain it looks like.

Either way, verify whoever contracts the work holds the right state license: the Florida DBPR’s license verification portal shows status, scope and discipline history. Unlicensed activity is a crime in Florida — a more serious one during declared emergencies — and the state runs a hotline for reporting it.

What goes into the permit package

Details vary by city and county (most South Florida cities run their own building departments), but a window-replacement package consistently includes:

• the permit application with the job’s total value;
• a floor plan or elevation drawing showing each opening being replaced — its location, size and what goes in it;
• the product approval documents — Miami-Dade NOAs or Florida Product Approvals — for every product in the job (this is where the approval numbers you learned to look up become mandatory paperwork);
• a schedule tying each opening to its product, its approval number and its design pressures;
• contractor license and insurance documentation, and fees.

Taller buildings carry extra requirements — site-specific engineering is generally mandatory above thirty feet, and threshold buildings add special-inspector paperwork. Condo and HOA projects need association approval on top of the public permit, and associations often constrain appearance choices; get that in writing before anything is ordered.

The Notice of Commencement — where the internet is out of date

Florida’s lien law requires a Notice of Commencement (NOC) to be recorded with the county and posted at the job site before the first inspection, for direct contracts greater than five thousand dollars (s. 713.135, Florida Statutes). That threshold was raised effective October 1, 2023— a large share of pages ranking for this topic still quote the old, lower figure. Practical points:

• Most whole-home impact projects clear the threshold, so plan on an NOC;
• it is recorded with the county clerk, and a copy must be posted at the site — the first inspection does not happen without it;
• the NOC is also the anchor of the lien-law paper trail that protects you from paying twice — releases of lien and the final payment affidavit, covered in our quote comparison guide.

What the inspections actually verify

Expect at least an in-progress and a final inspection, and expect the inspector to look at exactly the things that make the approval real:

• Anchors: type, spacing and embedment matching the approval’s installation instructions — the schedule on the drawings, not someone’s habit;
• Bucks and attachment: the wood or structural bucks the frame fastens to, and how they connect to the wall;
• Labels: the permanent markings on the glass and frame that match the product to its approval — do not peel anything off before the final inspection;
• Sealing and flashing: the waterproofing details around the opening;
• Egress: that sleeping rooms keep a usable emergency exit.

When the final inspection passes, the permit closes — and that closed permit is the durable, public evidence that your protection is what the paperwork says it is. Keep a copy of everything; it feeds directly into the wind mitigation credit.

Skipping the permit: how it surfaces later

• During the work: stop-work orders, fines, and in the worst case removal of finished work so it can be inspected;
• At claim time: protection you cannot document is protection your insurer may not credit — unverified openings classify as unverified on the wind mitigation form;
• At resale: open permits and unpermitted alterations show up in due diligence, and buyers price them like problems, because they are. After-the-fact permits exist, and they are the expensive version of doing it right.

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