To shave the bid price, or to save money, some foundation repair companies fail to include a building permit in the bid, and will not obtain a building permit to repair a foundation.

A few cities require no building permit, such as Rowlett Texas and Rockwall Texas.

In Fort Worth a building permit must be purchased and displayed prominently the day before any foundation repair work begins.

Permits aren’t cheap. In addition to the building permit price of $40 to $250, there is the cost of the foundation engineer’s pre repair and post repair reports, which adds another $500 to the cost of the foundation repair.

The problem with failing to get a permit when required is that each city has its own fine structure for the property owner and contractor.  And the city will stop a non-permitted foundation repair until all of the paper work is correct.