Who issues the roof permit for your address
City limits decide it, not the mailing address. Inside the City of Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City, Lakeland or Mulberry, the city’s building department issues the roof permit. Everywhere else in Hillsborough County it’s the County’s Development Services, and in the unincorporated parts of the two Polk ZIPs it’s Polk County.
Tampa Roofing Guys takes roofing calls across Hillsborough County plus 33811 and 33860 in Polk, and plenty of those houses have a Tampa, Plant City or Lakeland address without being inside that city. The table sorts each covered ZIP by who usually issues the permit. The shares come from Census land-area data, so a split ZIP still needs an address check.
| ZIP | What’s inside it | Who issues the roof permit |
|---|---|---|
| 33602, 33603, 33604, 33605, 33606, 33607, 33609, 33611, 33616, 33629 | All City of Tampa | City of Tampa |
| 33612, 33614 | Split between the city and unincorporated areas (Egypt Lake-Leto, Lake Magdalene, University) | City of Tampa or Hillsborough County |
| 33610, 33613, 33619, 33634 | Mostly unincorporated (East Lake-Orient Park, Lake Magdalene, Palm River-Clair Mel, Town ‘n’ Country), some city | Hillsborough County, or the City of Tampa for city parcels |
| 33615, 33618, 33624, 33625 | Unincorporated: Town ‘n’ Country, Carrollwood, Lake Magdalene, Northdale, Citrus Park | Hillsborough County |
| 33617 | About half Temple Terrace by land, plus City of Tampa and unincorporated pieces | City of Temple Terrace, City of Tampa or Hillsborough County |
| 33510, 33511, 33569, 33578, 33579, 33594, 33596, 33584, 33527, 33534, 33570, 33572, 33573, 33503 | Unincorporated: Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, Seffner, Dover, Gibsonton, Ruskin, Apollo Beach, Sun City Center, Balm | Hillsborough County |
| 33592 | Thonotosassa, almost all unincorporated | Hillsborough County |
| 33598 | Wimauma, unincorporated, with a small piece across the Manatee County line | Hillsborough County (Manatee County for that piece) |
| 33563 | Mostly inside Plant City | City of Plant City, County for the rest |
| 33566 | Split, about 40% Plant City by land | City of Plant City or Hillsborough County |
| 33567 | Plant City address, almost all unincorporated | Hillsborough County |
| 33811 | About half City of Lakeland by land; the rest unincorporated Polk, including Medulla | City of Lakeland or Polk County |
| 33860 | City of Mulberry plus a much larger unincorporated area; roughly four in five homes are outside the city | Polk County, or the City of Mulberry inside city limits |
How to confirm it by street address
For a split ZIP, look the parcel up on the county property appraiser’s site (Hillsborough or Polk) and see whether it sits inside a city, or call the building department with the street address. Here’s where each office takes applications and posts its records:
| Office | Portal | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| City of Tampa Construction Services | Accela Citizen Access | (813) 274-3100, option 1 |
| Hillsborough County Development Services | HillsGovHub | (813) 272-5600 |
| City of Plant City Building | Online permitting portal | (813) 659-4254 |
| City of Lakeland Building Inspection | iMS | (863) 834-6012 |
| Polk County Building Division | Accela Citizen Access | (863) 534-6080 |
| City of Mulberry Building Department | Accela Citizen Access | See the city’s building page |
| City of Temple Terrace | Ask the city’s building office |
When a roof job needs a permit
Re-roofs are on the permit list in every one of these offices. Where they differ is the small stuff and the new $7,500 exemption:
| Office | Small repair with no permit |
|---|---|
| City of Tampa | New covering, recover, re-roof or repair of 500 square feet or less |
| Hillsborough County | No size cutoff on the County’s exemption list; see the $7,500 note below |
| City of Plant City | No roof exemption posted; re-roofs and roof-overs are on its permit list |
| City of Lakeland | Minor shingle repair under 25 square feet total. Other roof repairs need a permit |
| Polk County | Minor repairs under 25% of the roof, as judged by the building official; call before assuming |
| City of Mulberry, Temple Terrace | Ask the city before work starts |
About the $7,500 exemption. A state law that took effect July 1, 2026 makes building departments exempt work valued under $7,500 on a single-family home. It doesn’t apply in a flood hazard area, to structural work, or to a job split up to get under the line, and the owner or contractor has to file a written exemption request with the contract or scope. Offices read it differently for roofing. Hillsborough County lists non-structural roof repair or replacement as work that may qualify, through an exemption application in HillsGovHub. Plant City’s exemption page uses siding and soffit work as its examples; roofing isn’t named. Ask the building department before assuming a job is exempt.
A repair that keeps growing can also change which code the whole roof has to meet; that’s the 25% rule for older roofs.
What gets inspected, and when
City of Tampa
The city requires a mid-job BLD-Roof Dry In inspection on every tile roof and on any roof permit pulled by a homeowner. On shingle and other non-tile roofs, a contractor can upload a roof mitigation statement or attestation instead. Every job ends with a ROF-Final. Residential roofing inspections in the city are virtual only, through the Vu-Spex app, so the inspector judges the job from the photos and video. Ask the roofer how they’ll document the dry-in before it gets covered.
Unincorporated Hillsborough County
At application, the roofer accepts an attestation that the decking, underlayment and roof covering will meet the Florida Building Code. Partway through, the County runs a Progress Check to confirm the roof deck attachment was strengthened as the code requires. It can happen on site or virtually, from photos and video. A Roof Mitigation Verification Statement uploaded to HillsGovHub can stand in for that visit. Then a final roof inspection.
Plant City, Lakeland, Mulberry and Polk County
Plant City’s posted pages don’t lay out its roof inspection sequence, so ask the roofer or the building department. A Lakeland application has to list product approval numbers for both the roof covering and the underlayment, and include a structural integrity letter signed by the contractor, an engineer or the owner-builder. Mulberry lists a Re-Roof Affidavit among the forms for a permit. Unincorporated Polk adds an in-progress inspection on the day of the work and a notarized affidavit at the final; the steps are on the south Lakeland page about Polk County roof inspections.
In a historic district, a Certificate of Appropriateness can be needed before the permit. The City of Tampa rules are on the Tampa page with the historic districts, and Plant City’s historic district rules reach even roof repairs.
Underlayment and flashing get documented or inspected before the roof covering hides them. Photo: Ctd 2005, CC BY 2.0.
The NOC on jobs over $5,000
When the contract is over $5,000, the permit office needs a copy of a recorded NOC, the lien-law notice that a job is starting, before the first inspection. It has to be recorded with the county clerk and posted at the job, not just signed. The notice is void if work doesn’t start within 90 days of recording, and it runs out a year after recording unless it states a different date.
The permit card carries a warning in capital letters that failing to record it may mean paying twice for the work. That’s the reason to collect lien releases before the final payment, which the contract questions to ask a roofer walk through.
Permit cards get posted at the job, and Florida’s carries the warning about recording the NOC. Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Who pulls the permit
The roofer does. Florida requires the contractor’s license number on the permit application, and the County has the contractor accept the code attestation, so the permit is how the license gets attached to your job. You can pull one yourself as an owner-builder, but you take on the roofer’s legal role when you do. The risks are on the page about checking a roofer’s license.
A roofer who says a full re-roof doesn’t need a permit should be able to show you the building department’s exemption in writing. Without a permit there’s also no record of the new roof’s date, and an insurer or a buyer may go looking for one.
The roofer’s license number goes on the permit application, which ties the license to the job. Photo: David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0.
Looking up a roof’s past permits
Insurers count roof age from the last time the whole roof was replaced to code, and the permit record is often the quickest proof of that date. If you don’t know when your roof went on, look it up:
- Unincorporated Hillsborough: HillsGovHub holds permits from January 20, 2021 on. For 2005 through January 19, 2021, use the County’s Building Permit Reports search. For anything older, call Development Services.
- City of Tampa: search the address in Accela Citizen Access, or call Construction Services.
- Plant City, Lakeland, Polk County and Mulberry: each city or county portal in the table above, or a call to that office.
Look for the most recent permit described as a re-roof or roof covering replacement, and note the final inspection date. That’s the date the roof-age questions on roof certification for insurance start from.