Do You Need a Permit for That? A Plain-English Guide for NWI Homeowners
Permits are the part of a home project people most want to skip and most regret skipping. The cost is rarely the problem. The problem is that unpermitted work surfaces later — at resale, during an insurance claim, or when the next contractor refuses to build on top of it.
Start here: there is no single Northwest Indiana answer. Permitting is handled at the municipal level. Crown Point, Valparaiso, Michigan City and unincorporated county land all run their own building departments with their own thresholds and their own fee schedules. A project that needs a permit in one town may not in the next one over.
Treat everything below as the shape of the rule, not the rule itself. Confirm with your own building department before work starts — it is a phone call.
Almost always needs a permit
These change the structure, the envelope, or a life-safety system:
Structural changes — removing or altering a load-bearing wall, new headers, changes to framing.
Additions and new square footage — including enclosing a porch or finishing a basement into living space.
Electrical service work — new circuits, panel changes, service upgrades.
Plumbing that moves or adds fixtures — not a faucet swap, but relocating a drain.
Decks above a certain height — the threshold varies, and it is often lower than people expect.
Roof replacement — many jurisdictions here require one for a full tear-off.
Window or door openings that change size — a new opening in a wall is structural.
Detached structures over a size threshold — sheds and garages.
Usually does not
Painting, wallpaper, and finish work.
Flooring over an existing subfloor.
Cabinet and countertop replacement with no plumbing or electrical relocation.
Like-for-like fixture swaps in the same location.
Drywall patching and repair.
Gutter cleaning, and generally gutter replacement in the same configuration.
The grey middle, where people get caught
Siding, fences and driveway replacement are the three that most often surprise homeowners. Fences run into setback and height rules and sometimes an HOA layer on top. Driveway work can trigger a right-of-way or curb-cut approval if it touches the apron. Siding is sometimes exempt and sometimes not, depending on whether sheathing is disturbed.
Who pulls it — and why you should care
On permitted work, the contractor normally pulls the permit and is the one the inspector deals with. Be cautious if a contractor asks you to pull it as the homeowner. It can be legitimate on genuinely owner-performed work, but it also shifts liability for code compliance onto you and can indicate they are not registered in that jurisdiction.
Reasonable questions to ask before signing anything:
Does this job need a permit in this town?
Who pulls it, and is the permit fee inside the quoted price or on top of it?
Which inspections are required, and roughly when?
Are you registered or licensed to work in this jurisdiction?
The real cost of skipping it
Three ways it lands. A stop-work order halts the job mid-build, sometimes with the house open. At resale, unpermitted work shows up in disclosure and inspection, and buyers discount hard for it or demand it be brought up to code on your dime. And an insurer investigating a claim traced to unpermitted work has grounds to deny it.
None of that is common. All of it is expensive enough that the permit fee is not the number that should be driving the decision.
Contractors in the MLIVM network are expected to handle permitting on work that requires it and to tell you plainly when a job does not need one. If a quote is silent on permits for something on the first list above, ask.
Not sure which list your project falls on? Describe it and ask. You can describe the job and get it in front of the network from the MLIVM home screen — photos and access notes included.