Obtaining an Owner-Builder Permit with a Trust Agreement

A common method of owning property within Pinellas County is via a trust agreement, in which the trustee may or may not have legal title to the property. This has raised some issues for owners who want to apply for an owner-builder permit if their property is owned in a trust.

An owner-builder permit allows the owner of a property to be responsible for construction and improvements made to their property when not hiring a licensed contractor to assume responsibility. Issuing this permit becomes challenging for a building department as they will not know whether the trust is for equitable title or legal title.

Section 489.103, Florida Statutes has several requirements to obtain an owner-builder permit. Below is a non-exhaustive list of some of these requirements:

• The owner is to permanently reside on the property.
• The owner must personally appear at the building department to sign the permit.
• The owner may not sell the property within one year of pulling the owner-builder permit.
• The owner may not rent the property within one year of pulling the owner-builder permit.
• The owner must sign a disclosure statement attesting to all other rules related to the owner-builder permit.

As the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s responsibilities include determining the legal or equitable ownership and permanent residency of certain properties held in trust, we are able to assist property owners who have trust ownership when applying for an owner-builder permit.

We have developed a “Trust Ownership Verification” letter which we will produce upon request from the property owner or their jurisdiction’s building department. This document will verify the owner of record for the real property on which the owner-builder permit is being applied. Please note, the “Trust Ownership Verification” is limited to information held in the public record and/or provided to us by the owner.

Please check with your jurisdiction’s building department prior to making this request to determine if they will accept this verification letter. For your convenience, please visit  How Do I... Find my Building Department to locate your building department contact information.

Please send requests for a “Trust Ownership Verification” to research@pcpao.gov. Thank you.