How long does a solar permit take in Los Angeles?
In Los Angeles, the typical solar permit took 62 days from application to issue, across 294 permits issued from September 2024 to September 2026. After the permit, the typical finished solar installation took about 8 months (236 days) from permit to final inspection (155 finished of 208 permits issued from September 2022 to September 2024; 25% had no final inspection on record by September 2026).
8 monthsfrom permit to final inspectionMiddle half: 57 days to 15 months
The two steps
The numbers behind the chart
| Step | Median | Middle half | Permits | Permits issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application to permit issued | 62 days | 6 days to about 7 months | 294 | September 2024 to September 2026 |
| Permit to final inspection | about 8 months | 57 days to about 15 months | 155 | September 2022 to September 2024 |
Solar installers with the most jobs in Los Angeles
| Rank | Contractor | Jobs | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solarcity Corporation Fremont, licensed 20 years | Call (844) 837-5201 | |
| 2 | Sunrun Installation Services Inc San Francisco, licensed 28 years | Call (415) 580-6857 | |
| 3 | La Solar Group Inc Van Nuys, licensed 14 years | Call (818) 317-8780 |
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Permit wait by year issued
| Year issued | Jobs | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 104 | about 3 months | 18 days to about 6 months |
| 2024 | 99 | 47 days | 9 days to about 8 months |
| 2025 | 150 | 90 days | 19 days to about 7 months |
| 2026 | 116 | 53 days | 5 days to about 6 months |
Why it takes this long
- 17% of permits were issued the day they were applied for, and 38% within 30 days (294 permits).
- 3 more permits issued in those dates carry no application date and are left out of the permit wait.
- The longer step is building and inspection: 62 days for the permit against about 8 months from permit to final, at the median.
- 32% of finished jobs passed final inspection within 90 days of the permit.
- Of the 208 permits issued from September 2022 to September 2024, 53 (25%) had no final inspection on record by September 2026. They may still be under way, dropped or never inspected; the records do not say which. They are left out of the build time; any of them that finishes will have taken more than two years, so counting them would make the typical time longer.
Days are counted between the dates on each city permit: submitted_date, issue_date; final: status 'Permit Finaled' or a certificate, dated by cofo_date or status_date. Median and middle half: half of the jobs took longer than the median; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A figure is shown only when it rests on 30 or more permits. Kinds of work are sorted by the same rules as our contractor lists. Source: City of Los Angeles, Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present, read 2026-09-24. The same figures as data: solar.json.