Florida’s governor has signed House Bill 803 into law, dropping building permit requirements for construction work valued at $7,500 or less.
The law takes effect July 1.
“A local government that issues building permits shall exempt an owner of a single-family dwelling or the owner’s contractor from the requirement to obtain a building permit to perform any work valued at less than $7,500 on the owner’s property,” the bill reads. The exemption does not apply to property in a flood hazard area.
A sponsor of the changes said it was designed to help speed up minor projects, such as fences and decking. But it should raise concerns for residential property insurance companies because more construction projects are likely to be done by unlicensed firms and work will not be inspected, one longtime roofing contractor said.
The bill also directs the Florida Building Commission to adopt a statewide commercial building code and a residential building code by July 2027.
The measure also puts new emphasis on the use of private building inspectors, and ties the hands of local governments to some degree.
“The local building official may only perform building inspections of construction that a private provider has determined to be compliant with the applicable codes if the local building official has knowledge that the private provider did not perform the required inspections,” the bill reads.
The final bill also bars local governments from adopting zoning rules or other regulations that treat offsite-built homes differently from factory-built structures.
But unless a bill moving through Congress becomes law, that money could be taxed as income, taking big bites out of their payments and possibly disqualifying them from other government benefits.
“There was this terrifying disbelief,” Bree Jensen, communications director for the Eaton Fire Long-Term Recovery Group, said of informing fellow residents about the tax.
Thousands more who are suing the utility face the same prospect, as well as fire survivors in Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon after a tax exemption on wildfire-related compensation expired at the end of 2025.
In recent years, Congress has shielded wildfire settlements from taxes, but legislation to do so was short-lived and a struggle to pass, leaving gaps between laws that risk saddling some survivors with a possible tax burden on their compensation. A bipartisan House bill to extend the tax relief passed out of committee last month, but the timeline for bringing it to a floor vote and when the Senate will take action are unknown, leaving survivors in financial limbo.
