About GetYourPermit

What this is

GetYourPermit is a free tool for California homeowners planning an accessory dwelling unit. It gives you a permit-fee estimate and a permit-process guide for your city. There is no account, no paywall, and no charge for the estimate.

How the numbers are put together

Our California design and permitting experience shapes which questions the site answers. The public fee data itself is separated into two evidence levels:

Published sources — city fee schedules, ADU pages, and permit portals. We link the applicable source when it supports a fee line or process statement.

City verification required — when an amount depends on valuation, parcel conditions, or a project-specific quote, we link the applicable official source instead of publishing a guessed value.

How we keep it current

Each permit-process guide shows a verification date and its source list. Fee pages will receive a reviewed date only after we independently check the applicable city schedule; until then they remain excluded from search indexing. Every page also carries a Report an error link so you can flag a number that looks wrong.

Editorial responsibility and corrections

The GetYourPermit editorial team is responsible for the research, writing, and review of every guide. Time-sensitive claims should link to the government page used and show the article’s latest update date. We distinguish a statutory deadline from a City service target or our own planning estimate instead of presenting them as the same thing.

When a source changes or a reader reports an error, we recheck the underlying City or State record before changing the public guidance. Corrections are reflected in the visible update date; material fee uncertainty remains labeled as an estimate rather than a government quote.

What we don’t do

We don’t issue quotes, make government fee determinations, or give legal advice. If we haven’t written a city’s permit guide yet, the page says so directly instead of copying a neighboring city’s process, which is often wrong in ways that cost you time.

For the full breakdown of sources and reference sizes, see our methodology. To report an error or ask a question, email hello@getyourpermit.app.