It is the first question almost everyone asks, and it is the right one. The honest answer is that the sticker price is only half the picture. To understand what a private provider really costs, you have to net it against two things the statute gives you back: a mandatory permit fee reduction and a large amount of recovered schedule.
The direct cost
A private provider charges a fee for plan review, inspections, or both. The fee scales with the size and complexity of the project, the number of inspection phases, and the disciplines involved. A single-trade residential inspection is modest. A multi-phase commercial build with structural, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing review across several rounds costs more, because there is more work.
The most reliable way to get a real number is a short scoping conversation about your specific project, but the framework for thinking about it is the same regardless of size.
What you get back: the fee reduction
Florida law requires the building department to reduce your permit fee when a private provider performs the work, because the department is no longer doing it. For commercial projects under HB 803, the reduction is at least 25 percent of the portion attributable to those services when a private provider handles part of the qualifying work, and at least 50 percent when it handles all of it. That reduction comes straight off your permit cost and offsets a meaningful share of the private provider fee.
What you get back: the schedule
This is the part that does not show up on an invoice but usually dominates the math. Municipal plan review in Florida's busy markets runs four to six weeks, and inspection queues run one to three weeks. A private provider compresses that to a two-day plan review and same-day or next-day inspections. Across a full project that commonly saves six to seven weeks.
Put a dollar figure on those weeks for your own project: financing carry on the construction loan, crew and subcontractor downtime, and the value of delivering and occupying the building sooner. For most commercial and multi-phase residential projects, the schedule savings exceed both the private provider fee and the permit reduction combined.
The real calculation
The right way to evaluate cost is not "what is the fee" but "what is the net." Net the fee against the mandated permit reduction, then weigh that against the value of the weeks you recover. On projects where time has a cost, the answer is usually clear.
You can run the numbers yourself with our savings calculator, or call us and we will scope a real figure for your project.
Related resources
Work with Florida's Most Reliable Private Provider
Tew & Taylor provides private inspections, plan review, and permitting support across Florida under F.S. 553.791.
Get Started →