What is a Third Party Plan Review Program?
In order to help building permit applicants who want to expedite their plan review process, a number of municipal Building and Safety Departments have established a “Third Party Plan Review” process where an applicant may contract with a department-approved third party plan review firm. The Building Department will accept third party approvals by these firms for the specific purpose of issuing a building permit.

This service is offered for the convenience of the applicant, who would pay a fee charged by the third party firm. The third party firm’s fee does not generally replace any fee charged by the Building Department. Any errors and/or omissions discovered on the plans when received by the Building and Safety Department shall not be deemed to waive or modify any code requirements.

The Procedure
Permit applications must be submitted to the City or County Building and Safety Department before an applicant contracts with a third party firm. The third party firm will not accept the plans, if this is not done first.

Typical Submittal
Typically two complete sets of plans (architectural, site plan, engineering, energy calculations, and truss calculations, if applicable) stamped with the Building and Safety Department’s application/plan check number is provided to the third party reviewer. After the review is completed, the plans and list of comments are returned to the applicant. The applicant makes the requested corrections and clarifications. Plans are revised accordingly and re-submitted to the reviewer for a second review. Generally the plans are approved on the second review if the applicant adequately addresses the comments; however, the approval may take additional reviews if the comments are not properly addressed.

Click here to view and/or download a copy of the Third Party Plan Review Agreement provided by BDS.