Homeowners in San Antonio are allowed to pull their own building permits and hire licensed trades to do the work.  This is only recommended if you have experience or knowledge of construction.  A licensed general contractor can help guide your project a lot quicker since they have access to subcontractors and experience with building permits and building inspections.  If your contractor tells you that a permit is not required, use caution.  When in doubt, call the City of San Antonio and find out for yourself.  Here is a list of How & When to Get Permits for Work in Your Home.

The City of San Antonio has gone to great lengths to protect homeowners from contractors that aren’t reputable and don’t do good work.  The city now requires a FBI National Background Check will be required for a Home Improvement Contractor license to be issued.  It used to be that a local background check with the San Antonio Police Department was done, but with the hail storms a few years ago, there were lots of out of town contractors that came in and were gone just as quickly with people’s money.

How Can I check to see if there are open permits on my home in San Antonio?

It is very simple to check to see if your home has open permits in the City of San Antonio.  Open trade or building permits could mean a bunch of different things.  We definitely recommend having all open permits cleared our or closed.  Sometimes contractors forget to close out permits or forget to pay inspection fee’s.  You also want all permits closed before purchasing a home so you aren’t left with a mess to clean up when you go to pull new permits on construction you plan to do on our home.