A Miami-Dade permit application for window or door replacement starts with a jurisdiction check: homes in unincorporated Miami-Dade County apply through the county's online EPS Portal, while homes inside a municipality such as Hialeah, Miami Beach, or Coral Gables apply through that city's building department instead. Once you know who your building authority is, the application needs three things: product approval documents (the Miami-Dade NOA), a plan showing every opening being replaced, and either a licensed contractor of record or a signed owner-builder disclosure. Review, fees, and inspections then run through the same portal you applied in.
This is one of the most routine permits in South Florida. The county building department issued 9,808 window and door permits in the 12 months ending July 2026, about 800 a month, based on our tracking of the county's public permit records, and the median declared job value was about $13,470. Applications that arrive complete move through without drama.
We pull these permits as the contractor of record on our Miami-Dade installs, so this walkthrough reflects how the process actually runs. Here is the whole sequence at a glance.
The Miami-Dade Permit Process at a Glance
| Step | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Confirm jurisdiction | Find out whether your address is unincorporated county or inside a city | Property Appraiser record or tax bill |
| 2. Gather documents | NOA or product approval, opening schedule, site plan, proof of ownership | Your contractor assembles these |
| 3. Submit the application | File the application online and upload the document package | County EPS Portal, or your city's system |
| 4. Pay the upfront fee | A non-refundable upfront fee starts county plan review | County e-payment portal |
| 5. Plan review | Reviewers approve the package or issue comments; you upload corrections | EPS Portal status page |
| 6. Permit issuance | Pay the remaining fees and receive the permit card | E-payment or Cashier Services |
| 7. Inspections and final | Schedule inspections online; the final approval closes the permit | County inspection scheduling |
Every jurisdiction sets its own fee schedule, which is why the jurisdiction check comes first.
Step One: Confirm Your Jurisdiction
The county portal only handles addresses where Miami-Dade County is the building authority: the unincorporated areas, where property folio numbers start with "30." Each of the county's municipalities has its own building official who issues permits inside that city's limits. A Hialeah job goes to Hialeah; a Miami Beach job goes to Miami Beach. A mailing address tells you nothing, since "Miami, FL" postal addresses cover enormous stretches of unincorporated county.
The reliable check takes two minutes: look up your address on the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's property search and read the municipality field. "Unincorporated County" means the county portal is yours; a city name means you apply through that city.
One wrinkle: a municipal job can still need county-level sign-offs, for things like water and sewer, environmental review, impact fees, or fire. Those file as a county Municipal Permit Application with its own "M" process number. A few cities, including the City of Miami, route that county piece over electronically. Either way, you start with the city.
What a Window or Door Application Needs
Whoever the jurisdiction is, a window and door package in Miami-Dade contains the same spine of documents.
Product approval. Every product going into the openings needs a valid Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) or an equivalent approval accepted for the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, and the approval's installation details govern how the product must be anchored. You can confirm any product's status through the county's Product Control search. Our guide to Miami-Dade HVHZ requirements covers what qualifies a product in the first place, and our NOA lookup walkthrough shows how to read and verify one.
Opening schedule and site plan. The application maps each opening: location on an elevation or site plan, size, the product going in, and the design pressure it must meet. Reviewers check the schedule against the NOA's tested sizes and pressures line by line.
Who pulls the permit. Most jobs run under the installing contractor's license, and the contractor of record is responsible for the application, the inspections, and the workmanship. Florida's owner-builder exemption (section 489.103(7), Florida Statutes) does let you pull your own permit for a home you occupy, but you must personally sign a disclosure and provide direct onsite supervision of unlicensed work. Selling or leasing the home within a year of completion creates a legal presumption you built for sale. For an impact-window job, where the anchoring is the whole point, we think the contractor's license belongs on the permit.
Proof of ownership. The county verifies the applicant against the property record. Condo and HOA approvals are a separate, private matter; the permit does not stand in for them.
Applying Through the County EPS Portal
For unincorporated addresses, the EPS Portal is the county's plan status and application submittal system. An account gives you a My Applications page that lists your submissions and their status. You fill out the online application, choose the plan type, and upload your documents. The upload receives a UP number; once staff accept the package, it becomes a process number beginning with C, N, or M.
After you pay the upfront fee, the package goes into plan review, which the county quotes at anywhere from 24 hours to 10 business days. If a reviewer issues comments, you upload corrections through the same application rather than starting over. Once every discipline approves, you pay the remaining fees and the permit is issued. The status page shows where an application sits at any point, which is also how you keep your contractor honest about "waiting on the county."
Permit Fees, Briefly
The county bills window and door permits in two rounds: a non-refundable upfront fee when you submit, then the balance when the permit is issued. The amounts come from the county's posted building fee schedule, which the county revised effective October 1, 2025, its first increase in more than 17 years, so older fee quotes floating around forums are stale. Exact change-outs and resized openings can price differently, and every municipality runs its own schedule entirely.
City-by-city numbers are a topic of their own: our Florida impact window permit cost guide covers what jurisdictions charge and how value-based schedules grow with job size.
Inspections and Closing the Permit
Issuance is the halfway point, not the finish line. Window and door permits carry at least a final inspection, and depending on the job an in-progress check of the anchoring may be required before openings are sealed up. Whoever holds the permit requests inspections online through the county's inspection tools or by phone, and results post back to the permit record.
At the final, the inspector verifies the installed products against the permit: labels matching the NOA, anchoring per the approval's installation detail, and the openings on the schedule actually done. Passing the final closes the permit. Two cautions from the field: a permit becomes invalid if work stops for 180 days with no inspection, and an issued-but-never-finaled permit lingers on the property record where every future buyer's title search will find it.
Miami-Dade Permit Search: Checking a Contractor or a Past Job
The county's permit search is public and requires no login. You can pull records by permit number, address, folio number, process number, or a contractor's qualifier number, and the results show project status, inspection history, holds, and fees.
That makes it a vetting tool, not just a tracking tool. Before hiring, search a contractor's number and see their real permit volume and inspection record in the county. Before buying a house with newer windows, search the address and confirm a permit exists and was finaled; if the glass looks new but no permit shows, our guide to telling whether windows are impact-rated helps you judge what is actually in the wall.
Next Steps
- Look up your address on the Property Appraiser's site and note the municipality field; that decides where you apply.
- Run your address through the county permit search to spot any open or unfinaled permits already on the property.
- If you are in the unincorporated county, register an EPS Portal account so you can watch your application move.
- Ask every bidder who pulls the permit, who schedules the final, and whether their quote includes both.
- Get a free estimate from us. We handle the application, the NOA package, and the inspections on every impact window job we install, and the permit closes before we consider the work done.
