A Los Angeles re-roof permit is about four times as likely as a Miami-Dade County one to have no approved inspection on record. Of the 32,066 re-roof permits the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) issued for one- and two-family homes in 2022–2024, 3,697 (11.5%) show no approved inspection as of October 2026. Among Miami-Dade County’s 29,883 residential re-roof permits from the same three years, the share is 2.7%.
Counting by permit status widens the Los Angeles gap: 20.8% of those permits never reached “Permit Finaled.” 6,247 still read “Issued” and 419 read “Permit Expired.” Almost half of those (2,969) had an earlier inspection approved and then stopped short of the final. Either kind of record is the roof permit to ask about before you buy a house.
Roof permits with no approved inspection: Los Angeles and Miami-Dade side by side
“No approved inspection” means no inspection on the permit was ever approved, whether sheathing, framing or final. It is the one measure both places’ data supports. Miami-Dade’s data records the date of the last approved inspection without naming its type, so the final can be identified only in Los Angeles.
| Measure | Los Angeles (LADBS) | Miami-Dade County |
|---|---|---|
| Residential re-roof permits issued 2022–24 | 32,066 | 29,883 |
| No approved inspection recorded | 11.5% (3,697) | 2.7% (796) |
| Last inspection result not approved | 3.5% (1,119, “Corrections Issued”) | 0.9% (262) |
| Median days from issue to the closing record | 23 (to “Permit Finaled”) | 34 (to the last approved inspection) |
The two medians measure slightly different end points, as the last row shows, but both say the same thing: a finished re-roof usually closes within about a month. The Miami-Dade figures come from our Miami-Dade roof permit timeline, which also breaks them out by roof type.
Permit expiration rules in Los Angeles and Miami-Dade
The data records what happened, and the rules explain what a stalled permit means today. LADBS says an express permit expires two years after it is issued, or earlier if no work starts within six months (LADBS FAQ). In Miami-Dade, Florida Building Code section 105.4.1.3 keeps a permit valid for 180 days after each approved inspection, as the county’s June 30, 2026 Board and Code memo explains.
The Los Angeles status field lags behind that rule. Every 2022 permit that still reads “Issued” is past its two-year term. By issue year, 12.2% of 2022 re-roofs have no approved inspection, against 12.9% for 2023 and 9.7% for 2024.
Which Los Angeles roof permits stay open
- Nearly all are Express Permits: 31,841 of the 32,066 (99%) were issued without plan check, and their no-final share, 20.8%, matches the total.
- New sheathing: 23.5% of permits that included new sheathing (6,948) have no final, against 20.0% for re-roofs over existing sheathing.
- Job value: jobs valued at $10,000–$20,000 had the highest no-final share, 26%, against 19% at $5,000–$10,000.
- Year issued: 21.7% for 2022, 21.8% for 2023 and 19.1% for 2024.
Most Los Angeles re-roof permits describe the job by weight class and squares instead of naming the roofing, so a tile-versus-shingle comparison like Miami-Dade’s isn’t possible here. Among the 6,046 permits that do name composition shingle, 20.5% have no final. Finished permits moved quickly: 86% of those that reached “Permit Finaled” did so within 90 days of issue.
Checklist: the same five checks on a roof permit in either place
- Find the permit with the right office. In Los Angeles, use the LADBS Permit & Inspection Report; in Miami-Dade, the county permit search covered in our Miami-Dade permit search guide. Addresses in another city, such as Miami or Santa Monica, keep their permits with that city.
- Read the inspection list, not only the status. In Los Angeles the closeout is “Permit Finaled” on the Final line; “Corrections Issued” on a Final means the inspector found something to fix.
- Note the issue date against the expiration rule: two years in Los Angeles, 180 days after the last approved inspection in Miami-Dade. A 2022 Los Angeles permit still reading “Issued” is past its term.
- Match the permit to the roof on the house: squares, new or existing sheathing, and material where it is named. A permit that describes a smaller or different roof points to another job.
- If the permit never closed, ask the seller or roofer to schedule the final or renew the permit, and get the answer in writing before closing.
To sort a long list of permits at one address, paste the rows into our permit status decoder. If you are hiring a roofer rather than buying, our roof replacement permit check covers what to settle first, and our analysis of unfinished renovation permits in Los Angeles and Chicago shows how other home jobs compare.
Hiring a roofer in Illinois? The state licenses roofing contractors; our Illinois roofing contractor license lookup shows how to check one.
Los Angeles counts are our calculations from LADBS Building Permits (permit type Bldg-Alter/Repair, 1 or 2 Family Dwelling, issued 2022–2024, work description containing “re-roof”) and LADBS Building and Safety Inspections, matched by permit number. Miami-Dade counts come from the county’s Building Permits Issued by Miami-Dade County data. All were pulled October 24, 2026. More analyses are on our permit data page.