Short answer: more often than homeowners expect. Longer answer depends on exactly what you are changing.
Usually needs a permit
Anything that alters plumbing, including moving a sink or adding a line. Anything that alters electrical, including new circuits, relocated outlets or recessed lighting. Structural work such as removing or opening a wall. Gas line changes. Replacing windows or exterior doors.
Usually does not
Purely cosmetic work. Painting, replacing cabinet doors, swapping a faucet on an existing line, or laying new flooring where nothing structural changes.
The grey area is wider than that summary suggests, and it varies between Pinellas and Hillsborough and between individual municipalities. That is a good reason to ask a licensed contractor rather than guess.
Why it is worth doing properly
An unpermitted remodel is a problem you inherit, not one your contractor does. It surfaces when you sell, when the appraiser or the buyer's inspector finds work with no record behind it. It can surface with your insurer after a claim. And it can mean opening up finished work to satisfy an inspector after the fact, which costs far more than the permit ever would.
There is also a simpler point. The inspection is a free second opinion on whether the work was done correctly, paid for by the permit fee. That is on your side, not the contractor's.
Who files it
We do. As a Florida certified building contractor, CBC 1267053, pulling permits and scheduling inspections is part of our contract, not an errand handed back to you. If a contractor asks you to pull an owner-builder permit for work they are performing, treat that as a warning rather than a convenience.
