Roof Permits in Baldwin County vs Mobile County

Which office issues your re-roof permit is decided by your address, not by which county you live in — and on the Gulf Coast that trips up more homeowners than any other part of the process. A house in Fairhope, a house in unincorporated Baldwin County outside Foley, a house in Midtown Mobile, and a house in unincorporated Mobile County on the west side of Mobile Bay are permitted by four different departments, with four different applications and four different sets of requirements. Getting that wrong costs a week at the worst possible moment, which is usually right after a storm.

Here is the actual map, drawn from each department's own published material.

Baldwin County: county, town, or city

The Baldwin County Building Department issues permits and inspects construction throughout the county's building-permit jurisdiction. That jurisdiction covers most unincorporated areas of Baldwin County plus the towns of Elberta, Magnolia Springs, and Perdido Beach.

Two wrinkles worth knowing:

• Silverhill and Summerdale currently permit within their police jurisdictions, which extend past their city limits into otherwise unincorporated area.
• Everywhere else inside a municipality — Fairhope, Daphne, Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Spanish Fort, Bay Minette, and the rest — the city's own building department governs, and you contact that office directly.

The county's advice on the boundary question is to look the parcel up on the map before assuming. If the parcel is not inside a city limit or another permitting jurisdiction layer, the county permits it.

Does a re-roof need a permit here?

Yes. Baldwin County lists roof repairs and replacements explicitly among the categories requiring a permit, with manufactured homes handled under separate rules. The county applies its adopted International Residential Code and International Building Code with local amendments, and its permit information cites the 2024 IRC.

Applications go through the county's CitizenServe portal, or in person at a Building Department office. The county also publishes re-roofing permit and inspection information alongside its building codes.

Mobile County: city or county, and they are not the same office

Inside the City of Mobile, permitting runs through Build Mobile, and the city publishes a dedicated Re-Roofing Permit Application rather than folding re-roofs into the general building permit. That form asks for the construction type, the number of squares, and the material — shingles, metal, or other — and requires a contract or signed estimate on letterhead.

Two requirements on that form deserve attention:

1. Initial residential re-roofs must meet the minimum requirements of the Coastal Construction Code supplement. Commercial re-roofs are held to the 2021 International Building Code.
2. Photographs are required at all intervals of the roof construction, sent to the city for review and approval before a final inspection can be scheduled. The pictures must include the permit card or another identifier showing the address and permit number.

That photo requirement catches out-of-town crews constantly, because it means somebody has to be documenting the work as it happens rather than reconstructing it afterward.

The form also notes the standard code rule that a permit becomes invalid if the authorized work is not commenced within 180 days of issuance, or if it is suspended or abandoned for 180 days.

In unincorporated Mobile County, Mobile County Inspection Services regulates construction, demolition, alteration, and repair — plan review, permitting, and inspection under the adopted building codes and the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. The county publishes its own permit information sheet and its adopted-codes history, with the current adoption effective July 1, 2026. Mobile County's amendments also state plainly that the property owner, the installer, and the contractor are mutually responsible for obtaining a permit — each has a duty to verify a valid permit exists.

Other municipalities in Mobile County — Saraland, Satsuma, Semmes, Citronelle, and the rest — run their own departments.

What both counties agree on

Licensing. Both jurisdictions point at the Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board. Baldwin County's permit information states that a contractor repairing or replacing a residential roof above the state's cost threshold must hold a home builders roofers license, or an unlimited home builders license. The threshold figure and its citation live on how to choose a roofing contractor — and you can confirm any contractor's record yourself in about two minutes using the state licensee search.

The homeowner exemption, and its price. Alabama's licensure law lets a property owner act as their own builder on a residence they occupy. Both counties publish the terms. What the forms make explicit is the trade: by claiming exempt status the owner waives protections under the Home Builders Licensure law, including the ability to make demand on the Homeowner's Recovery Fund in litigation arising from the permit. It is a real option and it is not free.

Flood zones change the paperwork. Both counties administer floodplain requirements, and a property in a mapped flood zone can pull in elevation certificates and additional review. That is worth asking about early rather than at submittal.

Why the permit matters after you forget about it

A permitted re-roof leaves a dated public record with the building department. That record is exactly what a carrier or a buyer asks for later, and it is the cleanest way to prove the age of a roof when underwriting comes calling. We cover why that field carries so much weight in roof age and insurance and what to do when the letter arrives in the non-renewal timeline.

An unpermitted re-roof is the reverse: no record, no proof of year, and a question at closing. It also tends to correlate with the crews that leave the coast after the season, which is the subject of storm-chaser red flags.

How we handle it

We confirm which department has jurisdiction over your specific address before quoting, we pull the permit, and we build to the code that jurisdiction has adopted — that last part varies across this two-county market and it is not a detail. If a FORTIFIED designation is on the table, the sequencing has to be settled before tear-off; see building code vs FORTIFIED and FORTIFIED roofing.

If you want the jurisdiction question answered for your address before anything else happens, that is a phone call — start here, or read what a roof replacement actually involves from tear-off to final inspection.