Building without a permit in Maryland

What Maryland law says

In Maryland, penalties for building without a permit are set by each county and municipality, not by state building law. The Maryland Building Performance Standards adopt the IBC statewide, but the subtitle contains no fine, misdemeanor, or stop-work provision for unpermitted work. Instead, state law directs that each local jurisdiction shall implement and enforce the Standards and any local amendments, including issuance of building permits and inspections, and local amendments prevail over the state Standards. Fines, stop-work orders, and civil or criminal penalties for unpermitted work therefore come from your county or city code.

Cited from Md. Code, Public Safety 12-503, 12-504, 12-505: official text. Localities enforce these rules and may add their own fees and procedures on top.

Can you get a permit after the work is done?

Maryland state law does not spell out a single statewide after-the-fact permit process; the path runs through your local permit office, which decides how already-built work gets reviewed, opened up for inspection, or corrected. Start with your locality's office below.

The typical path, whatever your locality calls it: stop any ongoing work, contact the permit office before they contact you, apply for the permit describing what was actually built, and expect the office to require opening up or inspecting concealed work. Voluntarily coming forward generally goes better than waiting for a complaint or a sale to surface it.

Who can pull the permit

It depends on the trade and the county. Plumbing: state law exempts an individual who personally provides plumbing services in their own residence, but homeowners may not make final connections between the residence and public or private water supply or disposal systems, and Baltimore County plus the WSSC-area counties are largely carved out of the state plumbing title. Electrical: the Maryland Electricians Act prohibits providing electrical services for compensation without a license; it has no express homeowner exemption, so uncompensated work on one's own home falls outside the licensing prohibition, but each county decides whether it will issue an electrical permit to an unlicensed homeowner. Building permits are issued by local jurisdictions, which set their own owner-applicant rules.

Cited from Md. Code, Bus. Occ. and Prof. 12-301(b), 6-607(1); Public Safety 12-505: official text.

Your local permit office

Enforcement, after-the-fact fees, and the exact fix-it process are local. We cover these Maryland permit offices:

• Howard County
• Montgomery County

Official sources

• https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gps&section=12-505&enactments=false
• https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gbo&section=12-301&enactments=false
• https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gps&section=12-504&enactments=false
• https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gps&section=12-603&enactments=false