Building without a permit in Nevada

What Nevada law says

Nevada has no single statewide dollar penalty for building without a permit because the state itself does not issue building permits. Once a county or city has appointed a building official under NRS 278.570, NRS 278.610 makes it unlawful to erect, construct, reconstruct, alter, or change the use of a structure without first obtaining a building permit, but that section sets no penalty of its own. Because no penalty is specified, NRS 193.151 makes the violation a misdemeanor by default, and NRS 193.150 caps a misdemeanor at a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 6 months in the county jail, unless a different penalty applies. Counties and cities hold their own separate building code authority (NRS 244.3675 for counties, NRS 268.413 for cities) and each may swap that criminal exposure for a civil penalty by ordinance instead: NRS 244.1503 lets a county board impose a civil penalty in place of a criminal one with no dollar cap stated in the statute, and NRS 268.019 caps a city's civil liability ordinance at $500, or $1,000 for a commercial property nuisance ordinance adopted under NRS 268.4122. A contractor who builds without holding the required state license faces separate exposure under NRS 624.700 and NRS 624.750: a first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,000 to $4,000 and up to 6 months in jail, a second offense is a gross misdemeanor punishable by $4,000 to $10,000 and up to 364 days, and a third offense is a category E felony punishable by $10,000 to $20,000 and 1 to 4 years in prison, on top of a Contractors Board administrative fine of $1,000 to $50,000 per violation under NRS 624.710.

Cited from NRS 278.610, 278.570; NRS 193.150, 193.151; NRS 244.3675, 244.1503; NRS 268.413, 268.019; NRS 624.700, 624.750, 624.710: 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?

No Nevada statute creates a state level after-the-fact or retroactive building permit, since permits themselves are issued locally once a county or city has adopted a building code and appointed a building official under NRS 278.570 together with NRS 244.3675 or NRS 268.413. Whether a building department will accept a late application and legalize finished work, and what extra inspection or plan review fees that triggers, is set by local ordinance and procedure, not state law. State law does give counties and cities parallel tools for unpermitted work that has become dangerous or a nuisance. A county may secure or summarily abate a structure that at least three code or safety officials determine in writing to be an imminent danger, billing the cost as a special assessment against the property (NRS 244.3601), or adopt a broader nuisance abatement ordinance under NRS 244.3605 that requires written notice, at least 30 days to cure, a hearing, and lets the county recover its costs and any ordinance-set civil penalty as a special assessment. For chronic nuisances, NRS 244.3603 lets a court impose a civil penalty of up to $500 a day for residential property or $750 a day for nonresidential property after notice goes unheeded. Cities hold the mirror image powers under NRS 268.4122 and NRS 268.4124, and a city may cap civil liability for a commercial property nuisance ordinance adopted under NRS 268.4122 at $1,000 under NRS 268.019(2). No state statute defines a stop-work order specifically for building permit violations; that tool, like the retroactive permit itself, is a creature of local building code ordinance.

Cited from NRS 244.3601, 244.3603, 244.3605; NRS 268.4122, 268.4124, 268.019(2); NRS 278.570, 278.610: official text.

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

Nevada licenses general contractors and the specialty trades together under one Contractors Board license in NRS chapter 624, and NRS 624.031(5) exempts an owner of property who is building or improving a residential structure on the property for the owner's own occupancy and not intended for sale or lease. Because Nevada does not license electricians and plumbers under separate chapters the way some states do, this same owner-occupant exemption also covers trade work done on the project, as long as it is for the owner's own home rather than resale. Selling or leasing the newly built structure, or even just offering it for sale or lease, within 1 year after completion creates a rebuttable presumption that the owner never intended to occupy it and built it to sell instead, which can defeat the exemption. An owner who wants to use the exemption must apply to the Contractors Board, which sets the requirements for granting it by regulation. The exemption only reaches the state contractor license requirement; it does not excuse the owner from the local building permit itself, which NRS 278.610 still requires from whichever city or county building official has jurisdiction. A separate, unrelated exemption in NRS 624.031(6) lets anyone, owner or not, do minor repair or maintenance work worth less than $1,000 without a license, unless a building permit is required for the work or the work is plumbing, electrical, refrigeration, heating, or air conditioning work.

Cited from NRS 624.031(5), 624.031(6); NRS 278.610: official text.

Selling or buying in Nevada?

• Selling a house with unpermitted work
• Buying a house with unpermitted work

How Nevada compares: building without a permit, state by state.

Your local permit office

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

• Clark County
• Henderson

Official sources

• https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-193.html
• https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-244.html
• https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-624.html