California permit glossary

Every term here is general California guidance. When a definition affects a real filing, your city's building department — the AHJ — is the authority. New to the process? Start with the California permit basics.

AHJ

Authority Having Jurisdiction — the office that adopts, interprets, and enforces the building codes for a specific location. For building permits that's the local building department for the project's address. If general guidance and the AHJ disagree, the AHJ wins; two neighboring cities can read the same state code differently.

Title 24

The California Building Standards Code, the state's family of construction codes (Building, Residential, Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical, and the Title 24 Part 6 energy standards). It's the shared statewide floor; cities administer it and may adopt local amendments, so meeting Title 24 is necessary but the local process still varies.

Plan check

Also called plan review — the stage where a reviewer checks your submitted plans and documents against the adopted codes before a permit is issued. Trade work usually goes through plan check; some minor like-for-like work is issued over the counter without it. How long it takes is set by the jurisdiction's queue, not by statute.

Correction cycle

The back-and-forth when plan check finds something missing or inconsistent: the application is returned with corrections, you revise and resubmit, and it can repeat. Each round adds calendar time. Most avoidable permit delay lives here — a complete, consistent first submittal is the contractor's biggest lever.

Submittal

The package you file: the application, scope description, plans, and supporting documents (load calcs, single-line diagrams, Title 24 forms, equipment cut sheets, site plans — depending on the trade). "A complete submittal" means it has everything that jurisdiction's checklist requires, in the format it accepts. Incomplete submittals trigger the correction cycle.

Changeout

Replacing existing equipment with new — most commonly an HVAC AC, furnace, or heat pump, or a water heater. In California a changeout is generally permitted work and often triggers Title 24 energy documentation (and sometimes third-party HERS verification), even though it can feel like a simple swap. See the permit guides for the trade specifics.

C-10

The CSLB Electrical contractor license. Pulls and performs electrical permit work — panels, circuits, service changes, EV chargers, PV interconnection. A B (General Building) contractor may perform it within a larger project under CSLB rules.

C-36

The CSLB Plumbing contractor license. Pulls and performs plumbing permit work — water heaters, repipes, gas, sewer and water service, fixture work.

C-20

The CSLB HVAC license (Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning). Pulls and performs mechanical permit work; note many HVAC changeouts also require an independent HERS rater, who is separate from both the contractor and the city inspector.

C-46

The CSLB Solar contractor license, for solar energy systems. Solar PV is commonly installed under a C-46 or a C-10; battery storage adds electrical scope and often a main panel upgrade.

C-39

The CSLB Roofing contractor license. Pulls and performs re-roof and roof-covering work; code limits how many roofing layers may be overlaid before a full tear-off is required, and Title 24 cool-roof rules apply to certain re-roofs.