How To Get A Building Permit

By Maria Julia Giron Hernandez, Nov 2006

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When you arrived to Panama and find out with a lot of never-ending steps to purchase a building permit, results really frustrating, come true the dreams that we want to become a reality, even do a commercial or a residential project.

But, what it is exactly a Building Permit? Besides, that it is one of the firsts words that you are going to add to your vocabulary, when you arrived to our country, is the permit that let you, as an owner, make a building project in the way that you want, and for that you need to pay and amount in different institutions and accomplish with certain amounts of requirements, which I am going to tell you….

• Hire an architect or an engineer to do the full set of plans of the project that you are going to make. That plan has to have the stamp and the signatures of all the professionals involved in the making of the project.
• Go to the Fire Department to get the approval, and by the way, it is not the same thing as the Building Permit, because before you get the permit the full set of plans have to be approved for the Fire Department and the Municipality, and this step take between one and two days; because it have to be check the electricity and also de plumbing.
• After that, you have to take the plan to the Health Department, because they have to check the plumbing and the location of the septic tank, blind hole and oil tramp. This step takes between 2 and 3 days, because usually is one of the entities, that counts with the biggest amount of work.
• This plan have to be take it to the municipality, for the first approval, in which one, it have to have the following requirements:
  - Fire Department and Health Department Stamp.
  - Lot Plan.
  - All the rights signatures.
  - Deeds of the property and the Society (If the owner is a Corporation).
  - Soil and Percolation Test, if your project has more than one floor.
  - Technical Calculations (as requires).
• Then, this approved set of plans, have to go again to the Fire Department, where it have to pay the Building Permit, depending on what they think it is fair. Usually they base their estimates in the materials that you are going to use, this part of the step have to take one day only.
• The next institution that you are going to visit it would be again the Health Department, and, after you fill a form, the amount of money that you are going to pay is established for the person in charge.
• Then, you go again to the Municipality, where the Municipal Engineer says what is the cost of the Building Permit, which is in Boquete District, the 2 % of the value of the Project, but before determinates the value of the project and go to the Treasure Department and pay, you have to accomplish the following requirements:
  - Municipality good standing.
  - Social security good standing.
  - Copy of the Corporation Deeds and copy of the Finca.
  - Lot Plan.
  - Special permit of the Fire Department.
  - Special permit of the Health Department.

After you do all his paperwork, you can be sure that you are going to receive the most wanted pink paper, which let you do the construction of your project.

By Maria Julia Giron Hernandez, Nov 2006