Montgomery County, MD FY27 permit fee schedules take effect

Montgomery County, Maryland’s Department of Permitting Services replaced its FY26 fee schedules with new FY27 versions effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The county issued separate updated PDFs for each permit category, including Residential Construction and Electrical/Mechanical, all adjusted upward per the Council-approved FY27 budget. For homeowners, a common example is the permit fee for an open, unenclosed deck of 500 square feet or less, which is $223.87 under the new schedule. Larger decks and other project types are billed at per-square-foot or percentage-based rates instead of a flat fee, so homeowners should check the specific schedule for their project type before applying.

The FY27 numbers for common projects

Montgomery publishes to the cent, which makes it one of the easier schedules to plan against:

• Deck, open and unenclosed, 500 sq ft or less: $223.87. Above 500 sq ft it becomes $0.8830 per square foot.
• Shed, priced as an accessory building: $136.80 for 200 sq ft or less, then $0.8830 per square foot.
• Fence: $89.54 flat. A pool’s own perimeter fence is bundled into the pool fee rather than charged again.
• In-ground pool: $360.68, fence included. Pool electrical is a separate permit.
• Rooftop solar: $261.18, with a reduced $130.59 for refer-backs.
• Electrical: $111.94 minimum for a one or two family dwelling, on top of itemised equipment fees.
• EV charging station: $62.19, charged in addition to that $111.94 electrical minimum.
• Mechanical: $80.84 minimum plus per-unit equipment fees, such as $28.61 per 100 MBH of heating or per five tons of cooling.

Two projects Montgomery does not charge for

Replacing a roof covering needs no permit in Montgomery County, so there is no fee. Structural roof changes are a different matter and are priced under the residential construction schedule.

A ground-level concrete or paver patio needs no permit either. Put a permanent roof or cover over it and it becomes a building permit.

The fee you will not find on the county’s schedule

Plumbing is not a Montgomery County fee at all. Plumbing permits, including water heater replacement, are issued by WSSC, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, and priced on WSSC’s schedule rather than the county’s.

This is a recurring trap and it is not confined to Maryland. A homeowner searching the county fee schedule for a water heater fee finds nothing and reasonably concludes no permit is needed. The permit exists; it is issued by a different body. We have found the same pattern with state labour departments, county health departments, power utilities and, in one case, a private inspection company.

The comparison that says the most

Howard County, also in Maryland, also working from the same state code, charges $50 per structure for a deck. Montgomery charges $223.87 for the same project.

Neither county is wrong. Montgomery prices by structure size with a schedule that runs to the cent; Howard prices most accessory structures at one flat figure and adds a 10 percent technology fee. They are different answers to the question of what a permit fee is for, and they produce a four-fold difference on the most common backyard project in the state.

It is the clearest illustration we have of why a statewide permit fee estimate is not a useful number.