AB 253 (California Residential Private Permitting Review Act) creates a parallel, time‑limited path for residential building applicants to retain licensed private professionals to perform plan checks when local plan‑review timelines exceed specified thresholds. The law also requires cities and counties to publish residential permit fee schedules online and to expand annual reporting on permit reviews and staffing.
The measure narrowly targets small residential projects and builds procedural guardrails — affidavits under penalty of perjury, a 10‑business‑day local review window after a private report, and an indemnity that shifts construction‑risk exposure to the applicant — and it sunsets January 1, 2036. It applies statewide, including charter cities, and took immediate effect as an urgency statute.
At a Glance
What It Does
When a residential permit application is deemed complete, the city or county must give an estimated plan‑check timeframe. If that estimate exceeds 30 business days, or the agency has not found the application compliant within 30 business days, the applicant may hire a qualified private professional to perform the plan check. The private provider must deliver an affidavit and report; the local agency has 10 business days to act on the report or the permit may be deemed approved.
Who It Affects
Owners, small developers, and their design teams on residential projects of 1–10 units and lower‑rise buildings; local building departments that process residential plans; and licensed engineers and architects certified as residential plans examiners who may provide paid plan‑check services.
Why It Matters
The bill creates a market for private plan‑checking to sidestep local backlog while leaving final authority with jurisdictions — but it also shifts certain liability and administrative burdens onto applicants and private providers and requires jurisdictions to track use of the program and FTE staffing for permit processing.
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What This Bill Actually Does
AB 253 adds a new, temporary route for plan review on small residential projects intended to reduce delays without forcing local agencies to outsource. Once a residential building application is "deemed complete" under existing state law, the city or county must give an estimated timeframe to finish its compliance determination.
If that estimate is longer than 30 business days, or if the local agency has not determined compliance within 30 business days after completeness, the applicant can hire a private professional provider at the applicant’s expense to perform the plan check.
A private professional provider must be a licensed engineer or architect who also holds a recognized residential plans‑examiner certification and must not have a financial interest in the permit or the plans. The applicant must notify the jurisdiction within five business days of choosing a private provider.
The private provider must produce an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, stating whether the plans comply and must deliver a written report that includes any required modifications and any additional material the jurisdiction requests.After the city or county receives the private report, it has 10 business days to either issue the residential building permit or send a written notice identifying noncompliance and the corrections needed. If the local agency neither issues the permit nor sends a noncompliance notice within that 10‑day window and the affidavit attests compliance, the plans are deemed compliant and the permit is deemed approved.
If the jurisdiction notifies noncompliance, the applicant may resubmit corrected plans and the same timing rules apply to the resubmission.The statute also requires jurisdictions to post residential permit fee schedules online, mandates new annual reporting beginning April 1, 2027 — including counts of permits reviewed by the jurisdiction versus private providers and a separate FTE breakdown for plan‑review vs. final‑approval staff — and shifts certain liability rules: the applicant must indemnify the local agency for property damage or personal injury arising from construction built to plans approved by a private provider, and the law carves out governmental liability for issuance/denial acts tied to the statute. The entire private‑provider framework sunsets on January 1, 2036.
The Five Things You Need to Know
If a jurisdiction does not determine compliance within 30 business days after an application is deemed complete, the applicant may hire a private professional provider to perform the plan check at the applicant’s expense.
A private professional provider must be a licensed engineer or architect who holds a recognized residential plans‑examiner certification and must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury attesting whether the plans comply.
After receiving the private provider’s report, the city or county has 10 business days to issue the permit or provide a written noncompliance notice; failure to act plus a compliant affidavit results in the permit being deemed approved.
The applicant must indemnify the local agency for any property damage or personal injury arising from construction built according to plans checked by the private provider, and the statute narrows public‑entity liability for acts tied to issuing or denying permits under the law.
Starting April 1, 2027, jurisdictions must report the number of residential permits reviewed in‑house versus by private providers and separately report full‑time equivalent staff doing plan review and staff doing final permit approval.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Mandatory online posting of residential permit fee schedules
The bill amends §17951 to require any city or county that sets residential building permit fees to prepare and post a fee schedule on its website. The section keeps existing constraints that fees must be limited to costs and not general revenue. It also retains the existing refund rule where permittees can claim reimbursement of fees if the local agency fails to inspect permitted work within 60 days of notice of completion, and requires clear disclosure of that right on the permit or accompanying document.
Clarifies local authority to contract for temporary plan‑checking
This amendment preserves and clarifies the existing authority for an enforcement agency to hire or contract with private entities on a temporary basis for plan checking, while allowing the local agency to decline if no qualified providers are available. It continues to permit charging applicants fees to defray the direct costs of contracting and keeps the statutory definitions for "enforcement agency" and "local agency." Practically, this leaves in place the traditional local‑led outsourcing option while AB 253 builds a separate applicant‑initiated pathway.
Applicant right to retain private plan‑checker and notice timing
This new subdivision ties the private‑provider option to the existing completeness trigger in Government Code §65913.3: once an application is deemed complete the jurisdiction must give an estimated timeframe; if that estimate exceeds 30 business days the applicant may retain a private professional. Alternatively, if the jurisdiction simply fails to determine compliance within 30 business days, the applicant can also retain a private provider. The applicant must inform the local agency of intent to retain a private provider within five business days of that triggering event. These timing rules set the contours of when applicants may opt into the private pathway.
Affidavit, report, local review window, deemed approval, and resubmissions
If a private professional provider conducts the plan check, the provider must submit an affidavit under penalty of perjury certifying whether the plans comply and must produce a report that includes required plan modifications and any jurisdictional information requests. The local agency then has 10 business days to act: issue the permit or issue a written noncompliance notice with corrective instructions. If the agency neither issues a permit nor notifies noncompliance within 10 business days and the affidavit states compliance, the plans are deemed compliant and the permit deemed approved. Applicants may resubmit corrected plans after a noncompliance notice, and those resubmissions restart the same timing rules.
Reporting requirements, definitions, scope, and sunset
Beginning April 1, 2027, jurisdictions must include in their annual general‑plan reports the number of residential building permits reviewed in‑house, the number reviewed by private professional providers, and separate FTE counts for plan‑review staff and final‑approval/issuance staff. The statute defines "private professional provider" narrowly (licensed architect or engineer with residential plans‑examiner certification and no financial interest) and limits covered permits to new construction or remodels of buildings with 1–10 dwelling units and no floors over 40 feet. The entire section sunsets on January 1, 2036.
Statewide application, no state reimbursement, and immediate effect
The Legislature declares the measure a statewide concern and applies it to charter cities. The bill states no state reimbursement is required for local costs and declares the statute an urgency measure that takes effect immediately. Those choices shorten the implementation window for local governments to adapt administrative systems and reporting.
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Explore Housing in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Small residential developers and homeowners submitting 1–10 unit projects — they gain a route to avoid prolonged local plan‑check delays and can accelerate permit issuance by contracting private examiners.
- Licensed engineers and architects with residential plans‑examiner certification — the bill creates a payment market for certified private plan reviewers and broadens demand for certified examiners.
- Cities and counties with chronic backlog — jurisdictions can preserve final review authority while using private reports to clear queues and count those reviews in staffing metrics to justify resource requests.
Who Bears the Cost
- Applicants and project owners — the law makes them responsible for hiring and paying private professional providers and requires them to indemnify the jurisdiction for construction built to those plans.
- Local building departments — they must change intake and tracking processes, review private reports within 10 business days, publish fee schedules online, and expand annual reporting to include FTE splits, all of which create administrative burdens.
- Private professional providers and their insurers — providers face exposure from perjury‑affidavits and potential malpractice claims arising from certified plan checks, which may raise professional‑liability insurance costs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
AB 253 trades centralized, public control of plan review for speed and capacity by letting applicants hire private examiners; the central dilemma is accelerating permit issuance to unblock housing supply versus preserving consistent local oversight and public‑safety accountability — a trade‑off that shifts financial and legal risk toward private actors and applicants while aiming to ease municipal backlogs.
The statute speeds permitting by shifting some plan‑check work into the private market, but that shift raises implementation frictions. Requiring a perjury affidavit pressures private providers to be conservative; in practice that may lengthen private reviews or deter participation if exposure and insurance costs are high.
The bill's indemnity clause transfers risk from local governments to applicants, but it does not squarely address how homeowners, subsequent purchasers, contractors, or third‑party claimants are protected if plans later prove faulty. Insurers and lenders will want clarity on whether indemnities and the limited public‑entity liability carve‑out affect coverage or underwriting.
Operationally, the 10‑business‑day local review window after receipt of a private report is tight for complex projects or jurisdictions with limited staff, potentially producing rushed decisions or more frequent deemed‑approved permits. The statute allows jurisdictions to recognize other certifications, which could produce uneven acceptance standards across municipalities.
Finally, the program's sunset in 2036 raises questions about long‑term accountability and whether temporary reliance on private reviewers will alter local staffing and institutional knowledge in a way that is hard to reverse.
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