Chicago Permit Services

Mrs. Sofia, Maha & Kenga were great...Kenga did the plans and they were fabulous...Mrs. Sofia & Maha stayed on top of the permits & kept us informed....they are wonderful...

I don't usually write reviews, but Chicago Permit Services is more than deserving of an exception because of the money they helped me save. When my building was cited with a porch violation, I knew the job was beyond my scope and would need to get help from an experienced expeditor, someone who knows how to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of City Hall and the building department. I knew it was possible to repair the porch versus having to rebuild it because the violation read "PLANS AND PERMIT ARE REQUIRED TO **REPAIR** SOUTH PORCH". There was no mention of having to rebuild it. Almost all the outfits I talked to had the same story: "It's going to cost the same amount of money to repair as it will to tear down and rebuild so you might as well hire me to rebuild it buddy." I was already dreading the massive outlay of money I would have to make in order to rebuild when I decided to call the one expediting company left on my list, Chicago Permit Services. Luckily I called because Sofia at Chicago Permit Services was the only person out of the multitude of contractors and architects that said yes, the porch can be *REPAIRED*. I was admittedly skeptical at first after almost being brainwashed by countless fast talking contractor clowns, but visiting her office and seeing how the operation was run gave me the necessary confidence to go forward with architectural plans to "REPAIR", not rebuild. Once I received the architectural plans and permit from the city, I began my search for a contractor that would agree to repair the porch. I figured that with plans and permit in hand, I'd be able to tell any contractor "look, the plans and permit have been approved by the city, now do this". Any reasonable person would think that, RIGHT? Phase 2 of my adventure involved talking to another round of contractors. None of them would agree to use the architectural plans. HELLO...the drawings were approved by the city!?!.... It wouldn't have mattered had I received a blessing by mayoral decree, no contractor would agree to abide by the City's approved drawings. It was their way or the highway. The most brazen of them told me to flush my drawings down the toilet, nix the city's permit, and to get a permit to tear down and rebuild because the city inspectors think his company is great. He even had a contract ready for me to sign. A bit of advice to anyone thinking about hiring a contractor...don't give in to their hard sell tactics! The foregoing trials and tribulations left me with no choice but to call Sofia a second time. She listened to my sob story and found me a great contractor that "REPAIRED" the porch. He did a great job for a fraction of what it would cost me to tear down and rebuild. Thanks to Sofia, I was able to beat the army of greedy contractor/architects of the world.

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unknown

went great!  Mission accomplished!

Sofia and her staff at Chicago Permit Services are the BEST!  My wife and I were remodeling our kitchen, and even though our neighbors said that we were nuts, we wanted to follow the rules and get a building permit.  In Chicago you need a permit for almost anything, no matter how small the job.  The City claims that they have streamlined the permit process, but for a private citizen that may only pull a permit once in their lifetime, it couldn't be more confusing and inconvenient.  No wonder people don't bother getting a permit.

Based on the review of others, I hired Chicago Permit Services, and it was $400 very well spent.  Sofia was able to cut through all the red tape and get us a permit within days, but that was only the beginning of her outstanding service.  When requesting an inspection, I made a mistake that resulted in the City canceling the inspection on the day of the inspection.  When I contacted the Chicago Department of Buildings to rectify the issue, the response I received was "What do you want me to do?  You screwed up!". With the threat of my kitchen remodel coming to a screaming halt, I called Sofia for her help.  Within the hour, I received a call from the Chicago Department of Buildings saying that an inspector would be there the next day.  Without Sofia, my only recourse would have been to get my alderman involved, taking several days, and by then, the construction crew would have ran out of work and would have moved to their next job.

The lesson of my tale of woe is that when a permit is needed, HIRE CHICAGO PERMIT SERVICES!

unknown

Sofia was very patient in explaining to my husband and I what we had to think about in terms of both the design and the permitting process, and she worked extremely well with both our architect and our builder to address the questions/corrections we received back from the City Department of Buildings. She gave us great advice on what we needed to do to in order to comply with the requirements for permitting. We will definitely use Sofia again. As an aside, our architect and builder said she was the best (and most cost effective) permit expeditor they had ever used, and would be recommending her to all of their clients going forward.

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Sofia was very knowledgeable and helpful from the start.  We had a lot of difficulty trying to get a permit  with our architect's help.   Sofia jumped in and did what needed to be done to get the permit in a timely fashion.  She knows all of the ins and outs of getting a permit as well as what exactly the city wants to see on the architectural drawings. 
We would highly recommend using her to get an expedited permit.  If we hadn't already been working with an architect, I would have worked with Sofia on our drawings as well.