Owner- Builder Permitting

The City of Fort Walton Beach's Building department is ready to help you with your building ideas to promote the preservation, growth, and development within The City of Fort Walton Beach. 

We recommend that you contact us before you begin to make improvements or changes to your property. We can help you anticipate possible requirements and assist with the phases of your project so that you are in compliance with City Codes and the Florida Building Code. 

Qualifying

Per Florida State Statutes Chapter 489.103, owners may pull permits for their project as long as they meet the following requirements:

For residential properties (one- and two- family buildings), you must intend to use the property as your personal residence for at least one year after completion of your project. You may not build or alter such residence for sale or lease. 

For commercial properties that are for your personal business use only and are not for sale or lease, you may pull permits as the business owner on projects up to $75,000 in cost, However, the building must be owned in your name. An LLC is not accepted as an owner-builder. 

Jurisdiction

The first step in processing a permit is confirming jurisdiction to make sure your property is located in the City of Fort Walton Beach and not Okaloosa County. Please be advised that your mailing address may state Fort Walton Beach, but you could still be outside of the city limits. To confirm your projects jurisdiction, please visit the Fort Walton Beach GIS System.

When you enter in the address of a property if you are within City limits the number on your property will be yellow. If you are located in Okaloosa County the number on your property will be purple. If you are located in Okaloosa County, you will need to contact their Growth Management Department at (850)-651-7180. 

Documents

Permits require specific documents in order to be approved. 

All owner-builder permits require the owner to complete an Owner Builder Exemption Affidavit.

Some projects may require you to provide a copy of engineered drawings. These drawings must be uploaded to MGO. 

Projects with construction costs over $5,000 ($15,000 for HVAC changeouts) require a Notice of Commencement.

Please note this must be recorded with Okaloosa County prior to us receiving a copy. 

Other required documents may be found on our Building Department Forms page.

For more information, please contact the Building Division.

Plan Review

Any projects with engineered drawings, site plans or similar documents undergo plan review prior to being issued. This process typically takes between 1-2 weeks depending on the scope of work and which departments are required to view your documents. 

Plan review comments will be available for you to review through your MGO portal and will communicate whether the project is approved as submitted, if corrections are needed or if other documents are needed. 

Payment

Payments are processed via credit card through the MGO Portal. For instructions on how to pay online, please refer to their Customer Guide. 

Unfortunately, at time we cannot accept payments with American Express. 

If you need to pay by check, you can visit City Hall Annex located at 105 Miracle Strip Pkwy SW, Monday through Thursday 7AM to 3PM or Friday 7AM- 11AM. 

Requirements

Once you are able to view the permit on MGO, you will see a tab for Permit Requirements. Each tier of requirements must be completed to make progress on the permit. If your requirements do not appear to be in correct order, please email The Building Division prior to scheduling inspections, so we can look into it and help you with the process. 

Inspections

Through the MGO portal, you may view required inspections and request inspections when ready. Should an inspection fail, you may view results and notes from the inspector through the portal. You will also receive notifications about the inspection results. Once the notes have been addressed on-site, you may request another inspection when ready.