How to Fax Building Permits to Government Agencies
Local building departments authorize construction, renovation, and demolition through the permit process, and plenty of them still take applications and supplemental documents by fax, particularly for minor-work permits and jurisdictions that have not moved everything to an online portal. A faxed permit package usually carries the application form, the property's APN or legal description, the contractor's license number, and reduced-scale plans. Send FAX Mail is useful when a contractor is submitting to several jurisdictions in one afternoon, or when a plan checker requests added documentation mid-project and the response needs a dated record of when the department received it.
How to Fax a Building Permits
- 1Obtain the current permit application form for your jurisdiction — requirements vary significantly by municipality, and outdated forms are routinely rejected
- 2Complete all required fields including the property address, legal description (APN or lot/block), scope of work description, estimated project value, and contractor license number
- 3Attach reduced-scale site plans, floor plans, or elevation drawings if required — confirm the building department's fax-resolution requirements for plans (many require 1/8" scale minimum at 8.5"x11")
- 4Include all required supporting documents such as soils reports, energy compliance calculations (Title 24 in California, REScheck elsewhere), or structural calculations
- 5Locate the building department's official permit application fax number from the city or county website — not from third-party directories
- 6Log in to Send FAX Mail, upload the complete permit package, and save the delivery confirmation as proof of submission date
Document Format
Site plans and construction drawings must be clearly legible at standard fax resolution — fine line work and small text often does not reproduce well. Use PDF originals from design software rather than scanned paper drawings when possible. Include the permit application number on every page if one was pre-assigned. The property address and APN must appear on the permit application cover page exactly as they appear in county records. Include all contractor license numbers and expiration dates.
Legal Considerations
Construction without a required building permit violates local building codes and may result in stop-work orders, fines, required demolition of unpermitted work, and complications when selling the property. The permit application date establishes which edition of the building code applies to your project — submitting before a code change takes effect can significantly impact project requirements. Many jurisdictions consider a fax received after 5 PM as received the following business day for permit dating purposes.
Industries That Fax This Document
What’s current · as of August 2026
Recent updates
Federal agencies still write fax into new rules and notices
The Federal Register — the daily journal of U.S. federal rulemaking — regularly publishes rules and notices that reference fax as an accepted or required submission channel for filings with agencies like the IRS, SSA, and CMS. That is why fax remains a live requirement for many official forms even as electronic portals expand.
Federal Register →
Faxing a Building Permits — FAQ
Departments that accept fax generally intake and route a faxed application for plan check the same as a hand-delivered one. The catch is that some jurisdictions still require wet-stamped drawings or original signatures before the permit actually issues. Confirm your local rule first so you are not surprised when the permit is ready to pull.
Fine line work and small callouts are where faxed drawings fall apart. Use PDF originals exported from your design software rather than scans of paper prints, and confirm the department's minimum scale, which is often 1/8 inch at 8.5 by 11. If your plan set is large or detailed, the building counter may still want a physical set for the permanent file.
Yes. The confirmation Send FAX Mail emails you shows when the department's fax line received the package. That date matters because it determines which code edition applies to your project and your place in the plan check queue. In busy municipalities where review runs weeks long, that record is worth holding onto.
Fax the revised drawings or written responses to the plan checker's fax number, and put the permit application number and the plan checker's name on the cover sheet so it routes correctly. The delivery confirmation documents when your corrections arrived, which helps if a deadline is involved.
A basic permit application with simple drawings runs about 5 to 15 pages, so the 7-day free trial (send-only, no card to start) lets you push a small submission through at no cost. Contractors juggling larger plan sets or multiple permits at once will want the Starter plan at $12.99 a month for 600 pages, and if a heavy filing week runs past that you move up a plan rather than paying for extra pages.
Ready to fax your building permits?
Upload your document and send in seconds. No fax machine needed.
7-day free trial · No credit card required