Building permits — Malabar, Florida

The Town of Malabar Building Department issues building permits for work inside town limits from its office in Town Hall at 2725 Malabar Road (Town of Malabar).

Chapter 6 of the Malabar Code of Ordinances makes the permit mandatory: no building, structure or component regulated by the town may be erected, moved, added to or altered without a permit issued by the building official (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-4). Work that needs a permit and starts before one is issued costs double the permit fee or $100, whichever is greater, and that penalty is paid before that permit or any other permit at the same Malabar address is released (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-7).

The construction standard itself is state law. Section 6-1 of the Malabar code states that as of December 31, 2023, the Florida Building Code supersedes all local building codes, and the town lists the 2023 8th Edition volumes from Residential and Energy Conservation to Plumbing, Mechanical and Fuel Gas, along with the 2020 National Electric Code (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-1). The most recent amendment to that section is Ordinance 2024-01 of April 2024.

The office keeps a four-day week. The Malabar Building Department lists phone 321-727-7764, fax 321-727-9997 and hours of Monday through Thursday 8:30 am to 5 pm, so Friday is not among its posted hours (Town of Malabar). Last verified: October 13, 2026, on the Town of Malabar website.

Every Malabar permit application is filed in the town's online permitting portal, because the Building Department no longer accepts emailed applications and stopped taking paper ones on May 1, 2024 (Town of Malabar).

The Malabar Building Department page spells out the portal steps. An applicant opens the portal, scrolls to the Building Permit Application section and selects Building Permit, and the next screen issues an Application/Permit number; land fill and land clearing permits sit under the Land Use Application section instead (Town of Malabar). Later searches use that number or the property address, and the View screen shows status, scheduled inspections, inspection results, notes, uploaded files and fees, which can be paid there by credit or debit card (Town of Malabar).

Uploads and inspection requests in the Malabar portal ask for an access code, which is sent to the email address the town has on file; anyone who never receives it is asked to email the Building Department and name the address the code should have reached (Town of Malabar).

Contractors must be current with Malabar before their name appears on an application. The Building Department warns that without an up to date business tax receipt, general liability, workers compensation and contractor license on file at the Town of Malabar, a permit cannot be issued (Town of Malabar). A contractor registers by filing a building permit under the class of work CONT-Contractor Registration and uploading the registration form with those documents, and the registration fee of $40 is a one-time payment (Town of Malabar FAQ).

The Malabar Building Permits and Forms page lists the companion documents a file may need, including a Brevard County Notice of Commencement, an owner-builder disclosure form, a notice to homeowner on use of a private provider, a pool barrier affidavit, a roof nail-in affidavit, product approval affidavits and a single family residence checklist, plus separate culvert-driveway, demolition, fill, road improvement and site plan applications (Town of Malabar).

Malabar building permit fees from October 1, 2026 follow Resolution 12-2026 and are no longer calculated from project cost; applicants pay processing fees plus the town's actual contracted plan review and inspection costs (Town of Malabar).

The Malabar fee page ties the change to Florida House Bill 399, which it describes as banning fees based on a percentage of construction cost or project valuation and requiring fees to match the reasonable direct and indirect costs of processing (Town of Malabar). Resolution 08-2026 revised the administrative and permit fees, and Resolution 12-2026 set the revised schedule effective October 1, 2026 (Town of Malabar).

Pass-through fees cover plan reviews, permit comment periods, requests for additional information, revisions, inspections and other steps handled by contracted services, and fees will be passed through to the applicant at the Town of Malabar's actual contract rates. Building Official and engineering time is tracked by permit number and billed lump sum or hourly, rounded up in quarter-hour increments (Town of Malabar).

Refunds in Malabar are narrow. The code allows no refund of permit fees after 30 calendar days from the date of issuance shown on the permit, and administrative and plan review fees are not refundable under any condition (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-6). The card convenience fee and the payment points in the table come from the town fee page (Town of Malabar).

A complete Malabar application can be approved in as little as 7 to 10 days, because the Building Official reviews submittals on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Town of Malabar FAQ).

State law sets the outer limit for Malabar. Section 553.792, Florida Statutes, gives a local government 30 business days after a complete and sufficient application to approve, approve with conditions or deny a permit for residential units under 7,500 square feet reviewed by its own plans reviewer, and it must tell the applicant within 5 business days what information is still needed (Florida Statutes). The Malabar FAQ puts the rule more simply, saying permits go out within 30 days once every required document is in and the permit is paid (Town of Malabar FAQ).

Inspections in Malabar are strictly held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The request is made in the portal by finding the permit and choosing Request Inspection, and when the needed type is not listed the Building Department asks for the closest type with the work described (Town of Malabar). Results appear in the Inspections section of the permit record on the Malabarfl.Portal.Iworq.Net site (Town of Malabar FAQ).

The Town of Malabar publishes an inspection card for each common job, among them roof, shutters, window and door, HVAC change out, pool, pool resurface, screen enclosure, solar install, fence, driveway, culvert, water heater, garage door and tree removal, plus a Single Family Residence Inspection Guide and a Certificate of Occupancy checklist (Town of Malabar).

Malabar plans must show the survey and deed, lot dimensions, existing and proposed buildings, the well, sewer or disposal system and drainage, with one- and two-family floors at least 18 inches above the street crown (Malabar Code).

Section 6-4 of the Malabar code also requires a permit before fill is placed on any property within the town, engineer's sealed plans for all aluminum structures and swimming pools, and copies of all required outside agency permits. Before the foundation inspection, a registered land surveyor must provide a foundation survey showing compliance with the setbacks in Article III of the Malabar Land Development Code (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-4).

Builders and owners must repair any damage their work causes to Malabar roads, sidewalks, drainage facilities or other public rights-of-way, and the town may refuse further development permits to the responsible party until the damage is repaired (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-4). Driveway culverts and road improvements each have their own Town of Malabar application (Town of Malabar).

No new or altered building in Malabar may be used until the building official issues a certificate of occupancy, and a refusal after all final inspections pass must be explained to the owner in writing (Malabar Code, Sec. 6-9). Under Chapter 11, contractors certify in writing before a Malabar permit is issued that they will arrange cleanup and legal disposal of construction trash (Malabar Code, Sec. 11-9).

Two rules in the Malabar FAQ apply to common projects. A fence or wall between abutting parcels cannot be built, replaced or altered without a town permit, although periodic repair and maintenance of an existing fence needs none; and a trailer used during construction may stand only after a building permit is released and must be removed within ten days after construction ends (Town of Malabar FAQ).

The Town of Malabar's 2025 utilization report counts 535 building permit applications, 445 permits issued or approved and 1,079 inspections and reinspections conducted (Town of Malabar).

Section 553.80, Florida Statutes, requires a local government with a building fee schedule to post a building permit and inspection utilization report drawn from its most recently completed financial audit, and to update it before adjusting fees (Florida Statutes). Malabar's report lists six personnel dedicated to enforcing the Florida Building Code and 170 inspections conducted by a private provider (Town of Malabar).

Adding the two cost lines in the Malabar report, $253,969.74 for personnel and $45,702.78 for operating expenses, gives $299,672.52, against $209,228.38 in revenue from permit fees and $0 in fines; the report also shows $179,458.86 carried forward (Town of Malabar).