Who pulls the permit? Your contractor does. That’s the answer for almost every remodel, and in Wilkes-Barre it’s close to the only answer the city will accept.
The question comes up because a contractor asked you to pull it yourself, usually framed as a favor: faster, cheaper, less hassle. It isn’t any of those things. Whoever’s name goes on the permit application becomes the party the code office holds responsible for the work and the inspections, and that’s a job you’re paying someone else to do.
There’s one sentence on the city’s own permits page that settles this for most Wilkes-Barre homeowners, and it has nothing to do with who’s better at paperwork.
What the City Actually Allows
Wilkes-Barre publishes the rule in plain language. Building permits can be applied for by approved Wilkes-Barre City licensed contractors, and by homeowners only for their primary residence.
Two conditions, not one. You have to own the property, and it has to be the home you live in. A rental you own across town doesn’t qualify. Neither does a property you’re fixing up to flip.
The city adds a second rule that closes the usual workaround: journeymen can’t apply for permits with the intention of working under a contract with the homeowner. That’s aimed squarely at the arrangement where a tradesperson does the job and the homeowner’s name goes on the paperwork.
And the homeowner route is narrower still. The city’s code enforcement rules let an owner do electrical, plumbing and general construction work on a structure they own and occupy as their primary residence, provided they don’t employ or engage for compensation any person to assist them.
Read that last condition twice. The homeowner permit is for work you’re actually doing yourself. Pull one and then hire a crew, and you’ve stepped outside what the route was written for.
Which Work Needs a Permit at All
Wilkes-Barre requires permits for electrical, building (framing, roofing, sheet rock, siding), plumbing, HVAC, and driveways and curb cuts.
That list covers most of a real remodel. A bathroom that moves a drain line, a kitchen that adds circuits, a basement that gets framed and rocked, a siding replacement, a roof: all permit work in this city. If you’re still deciding whether your project qualifies, what triggers a permit and what a code review looks at walks through it.
What “Responsible for All Work and Inspections” Means
The city’s wording is direct: a homeowner who applies for a permit for their primary residence is then responsible for all work and inspections performed on the household.
That’s a sentence with weight. Day to day it means:
- Scheduling every inspection yourself, at the stages the code official requires, and being available when the inspector comes
- Standing behind work you didn’t do, because if the rough in fails, the correction is on your permit and your record, whatever your contract says about who fixes it
- Carrying the compliance obligation, since the permit holder is who the code office contacts, warns and, if it comes to it, cites
- Owning it permanently, because the permit record sits with the property and follows you to the closing table years later
The contractor, meanwhile, has no name on the document at all. If the relationship goes bad halfway through, you’re the one holding an open permit on a half finished job.
Why a Contractor Would Ask You to Pull It
There are only a few real reasons, and it’s worth knowing which one you’re looking at.
They aren’t licensed here. This is the most common reason and the least sinister sounding. Pennsylvania has no state general contractor license, only HICPA registration, so a contractor can be perfectly legitimate statewide and still not hold a Wilkes-Barre city license.
The city runs its own exam, its own categories and its own insurance requirement. A contractor from a neighboring township genuinely cannot pull a permit here without one.
They don’t want the record. Permits tie a contractor’s name to a job and to the inspections that follow, and a contractor with a history of failed inspections has a reason to keep their name off new ones.
They want the liability on you, because if the permit is in your name, the code office’s questions come to you rather than to them.
None of these is a reason to say yes. The first one has an honest fix: hire someone licensed here, or ask the contractor to get the one time project license the city issues for exactly this situation. The other two are telling you something about the contractor that you should believe.
Who Pulls the Permit Is a Liability Question
Signing a permit application isn’t an administrative act. You’re telling the municipality that you’re the responsible party for this work: that it will meet code, that it will be inspected at the right stages, and that you’ll answer for it if it doesn’t.
When your contractor signs it, they’re making that statement about their own work, which is exactly where it belongs.
There’s a second exposure people miss. A worker injured on your property is a problem you want sitting behind somebody’s insurance certificate, not yours. That’s independent of the permit question, but the two travel together, because a contractor who won’t pull a permit is often a contractor whose coverage won’t survive a phone call. Fifteen minutes with the free state lookup and a call to the insurance carrier tells you which kind you’re dealing with.
The Pennsylvania and Wilkes-Barre Licensing Layers
Homeowners get confused here because there are two separate systems and neither is called what they expect.
Statewide there’s no general contractor license. Pennsylvania registers home improvement contractors under HICPA, and anyone doing more than $5,000 of home improvement work a year has to register.
The HIC number has to appear on their advertising, estimates, contracts and receipts. Registration is not a skills test. It’s a registry.
In Wilkes-Barre there’s a city license on top. Contractors sit an exam held twice a year, on the last Saturdays of March and September, with a $150 non refundable test fee due at least six weeks beforehand. Licenses run in categories: Master Electrician, Residential Electrician, General Contractor, Jobbing Contractor, Roofing and Siding, Swimming Pools and Specialty. They all renew on June 30, and the city requires a certificate of insurance naming the City of Wilkes-Barre as certificate holder.
For an out of town contractor with a single project here, the city issues a one time license: $350 including the test fee, plus two letters of recommendation from architects, engineers or building code officials in the area where they’re licensed, and proof of insurance.
Neighboring municipalities run their own systems. Hanover Township, for example, handles building, electric, plumbing and HVAC as four separate applications with separate inspectors, and licenses trades separately. The contractor who’s licensed in one is not automatically licensed in the other, which is why the answer to “are you licensed?” needs to be “licensed where?”
When Pulling It Yourself Is the Right Call
There’s a real case for the homeowner permit, and it’s narrow: you own the home, you live in it, and you are personally doing the work with no paid help.
That’s the situation the route exists for, and it works well. You apply, you pay the fee, you schedule your own inspections, and the inspector becomes a free second opinion on your own work. Pennsylvania gives the code official 15 business days to grant or deny a residential application before it’s deemed approved, so the wait is bounded. The permit fee schedule and realistic timeline covers what to budget.
The moment money changes hands for labor, that case evaporates.
How to Settle It Before You Sign
One phone call handles this. Ask, in this order:
- “Will you pull the permit in your name?” The answer should be an immediate yes, with the fee already in the estimate. Hesitation is the whole answer.
- “Are you licensed in the municipality where my house is?” Not the state, the municipality. Wilkes-Barre, Hanover Township and Kingston each run their own.
- “What’s your HIC registration number?” It should be on the estimate already. If it isn’t, that’s a HICPA problem before it’s a permit problem.
- “Which inspections does this job need, and who schedules them?” A contractor who does this work regularly will rattle them off.
- “Is the permit fee in the estimate or extra?” Either is fine as long as you know. What matters is that the number is named before you sign.
- “Can I see your certificate of insurance?” Then call the carrier on the certificate, not the number the contractor gives you.
If a contractor answers question one by explaining why you should pull it instead, you have your decision. And if the work has already started without a permit, the consequences and the order to fix them is the next thing to read.
The Short Version
If you’re hiring someone to do the work, the permit goes in their name. If you’re doing the work yourself, in the home you live in, with nobody on your payroll, the permit goes in yours. There is no third case that’s good for you.
570 Remodeling is licensed and insured, we work in Wilkes-Barre and across Luzerne County every week, and we pull the permits on our own jobs because that’s where they belong. Call us at (570) 938-4541 or request a free quote, and the permit answer is on the estimate before you sign anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is supposed to pull the permit, me or my contractor?
Your contractor, on any job where you’re paying someone to do the work. The permit applicant is the party the code office holds responsible for compliance and inspections, and that responsibility belongs with the people performing the work. In Wilkes-Barre, permits are issued to approved city licensed contractors, or to homeowners applying for their own primary residence.
Can a homeowner pull a permit for work a contractor is doing?
Not in Wilkes-Barre. The homeowner route is limited to your primary residence, and the city’s rules condition it on the owner not employing or engaging anyone for compensation to assist with the work. The city also states that journeymen can’t apply for permits intending to work under a contract with the homeowner. Other municipalities word it differently, so check yours, but the pattern is the same across Luzerne County.
Is it a red flag if a contractor asks me to pull the permit?
It’s one of the clearest ones. Sometimes there’s an innocent explanation, usually that they’re licensed in a neighboring municipality but not in yours. That has a legitimate fix: the city issues a one time project license for out of town contractors. If they’d rather have you sign than solve it, that tells you how the rest of the job will go.
Does pulling the permit myself save money?
Barely, and never enough. The fee is the same either way, since Wilkes-Barre prices permits off the value of the work, starting at $59.50 for jobs under $2,500 plus a $4.50 state fee. What you’d be saving is whatever the contractor charges to handle the paperwork, against taking on responsibility for a job you’re not performing. It’s a bad trade at any price.
What happens if my contractor never pulls the permit?
The work becomes unpermitted, and that condition attaches to your house rather than to the contractor. Expect a stop work order if it’s caught during the job, and problems at appraisal, insurance and sale if it isn’t. The correction usually means opening finished surfaces so an inspector can see what’s behind them.
Who has to be there for the inspection?
Whoever pulled the permit is responsible for scheduling and for making the property available. If your contractor holds it, they arrange it and meet the inspector. If you hold it, that’s your afternoon, and your problem when the inspector needs access to something only the crew understands.
Can a contractor pull a permit after the work has already started?
Yes, and they should, immediately. It’s usually cheaper and simpler than waiting to be found. Pennsylvania even allows emergency equipment repair or replacement to proceed as long as the application is filed within three business days. What you can’t do is finish the job, cover everything up, and hope.
Does the permit have to be posted at the job?
Posting the permit where it’s visible from the street is standard practice, and it’s what lets an inspector confirm a job is permitted without knocking. If a crew is working on your house with nothing posted, ask why before the next payment.
What if my contractor is licensed in another town but not mine?
Then they can’t pull a permit for your job as things stand. The clean fix is the city’s one time license, which costs $350 including the test fee and requires two letters of recommendation and proof of insurance. Any contractor who works across municipal lines knows this process. Being asked to sign the permit instead is not a fix.
Do I need a contractor license to work in Wilkes-Barre?
Contractors do. The city runs an exam twice a year, on the last Saturdays of March and September, with categories including General Contractor, Master Electrician, Residential Electrician, Jobbing Contractor, Roofing and Siding, Swimming Pools and Specialty. Licenses renew every June 30 and require a certificate of insurance naming the City of Wilkes-Barre as certificate holder. Homeowners doing their own work on their own primary residence don’t need one, but they do need the permit.
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