Florida Statute 553.791 Explained: The Private Provider Law

Florida Statute 553.791 is the law that lets building owners and contractors hire a licensed private provider to perform plan review and building inspections instead of waiting on the local building department. If you build in Florida, it is one of the most useful statutes you can understand. Here is what it actually says and why it matters.

Where the law came from

The private provider option was enacted October 1, 2002, and revised on July 1, 2006. The Legislature has continued to refine it since, most recently with HB 803 in 2026. The core idea has stayed constant: give owners a faster, accountable alternative to the municipal review process while keeping the Florida Building Code fully in force.

Who qualifies as a private provider

A private provider must be a Florida-licensed engineer or architect to perform plan review. Inspections may be performed by that licensed professional or by a licensed building code administrator or inspector working under the private provider's supervision. The point is that the work is always tied to a credentialed professional who carries legal responsibility for it.

What the law requires of building departments

This is the heart of the statute. When you use a private provider, the local building department must:

Accept the results. The building department is legally required to accept inspection and plan review results from a licensed private provider. It is not optional.

Respond within a set timeline. When a private provider performs plan review, the building department must issue the permit or respond within a defined number of business days. If it misses that deadline, the permit is deemed approved by operation of law.

Reduce the permit fee. The statute requires the building department to reduce permit fees when a private provider performs the work, because the department is no longer doing that work itself.

The timelines

The review windows have tightened over time. The long-standing baseline gave the building department 20 business days to issue a permit or respond when a private provider was used. For single-trade work on one and two-family dwellings, a 2025 change set a shorter window. As of HB 803, effective July 1, 2026, the commercial review window is 10 business days, and if the building official does not provide written notice of any deficiency within that window, the permit is deemed approved as a matter of law and must be issued on the next business day.

What this means for your project

The statute converts an open-ended wait into a defined, enforceable timeline, and it puts a licensed professional in control of your schedule. Combined with the mandatory fee reductions, it changes the math on nearly every project where time has a cost.

If you want to see how the most recent changes affect commercial projects specifically, read our breakdown of HB 803. If you have a project in front of you now, we are happy to walk through how the statute applies.

Related resources

• What HB 803 Means for Florida Developers and Builders
• What Is a Private Provider in Florida? A Plain-English Guide
• Plan review
• Contact.