Aberdeen
City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department
In short
City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department issues 4 permits we publish for Aberdeen, last verified 2026-09-14. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contractor Licenses by Class | City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department | By class: a residential contractor license is $200.00 for a new license and $150.00 to renew, each covering three years. A sewer and water contractor license is $300.00 and requires a $10,000.00 bond. A sidewalk contractor license is $150.00. An excavation license is $210.00. A sign hanging license is $150.00 and requires a $10,000.00 bond. | three years for a residential contractor license; as set by class for the others | 2026-09-14 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department | No fee | one-time, issued after final inspection | 2026-09-14 |
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department | A valuation table starting at a $35.00 base fee, with the fee rising by valuation band. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits are issued and charged separately. Plan review and re-inspection charges apply as set in the Revised Ordinances. | as set in the adopted building code | 2026-09-14 |
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department | $NaN per sign permit | one-time, per sign | 2026-09-14 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Contractor Licenses by Class
Aberdeen licenses by the kind of work rather than by a single contractor category, so a firm doing several kinds holds several licenses — a contractor putting in a service line, pouring a walk and hanging a sign needs the sewer and water license at $300.00, the sidewalk license at $150.00 and the sign hanging license at $150.00, with $10,000.00 bonds on two of the three. The bonds are the part most likely to delay a start date, because they are secured from a surety rather than paid at a counter. The residential contractor license's three-year term matches Sioux Falls's triennial residential license and makes its effective annual cost modest. For the classes listed here, these municipal credentials are the licenses the City requires.
Certificate of Occupancy
No fee for the certificate itself is published in the Revised Ordinances' building fee provisions, which points to it being covered by the building permit fee rather than waived by ordinance — no zero fee is asserted here, and a prospective occupant should confirm with Building Inspection. The requirement reaches a change of occupancy classification as well as construction, so a shop becoming a restaurant or a warehouse becoming a fitness studio needs one even where no structural work is done. That classification change is also what can trigger sprinkler, exit and restroom upgrades under the building code, which is why the certificate is worth raising with the department before a lease is signed rather than after.
Commercial Building Permit
The $35.00 base is the entry point of a valuation table rather than a flat fee, so a small tenant improvement is inexpensive and a full fit-out is not. The contractor doing the work must hold the Aberdeen license for the class of work before the permit issues, which is the most common sequencing problem for an out-of-town firm. For a restaurant the order that works is building permit and trade permits first, then final inspection and certificate of occupancy, then the state food service establishment license — the Department of Health will expect a finished kitchen. The fee mechanism and its base are recorded here rather than every band, because the Revised Ordinances table is the controlling document and supersedes any figure quoted elsewhere.
Sign Permit
A flat $50.00 regardless of sign size or type, which is simpler than the graduated schedules in Sioux Falls and cheaper than most comparable cities covered here. The cost that is not flat is the installer: hanging a sign in Aberdeen requires a sign hanging license at $150.00 with a $10,000.00 bond under the contractor provisions, so the business pays $50.00 and its sign company carries the licensing burden. Confirming that the installer holds a current Aberdeen sign hanging license before ordering is the practical step this record exists to prompt. Chapter 42 also sets size, height, placement and illumination standards by district, and those — not the fee — are what most often force a redesign.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Aberdeen
- Phone
- (605) 626-7013
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Building Inspection — the department's own current page for building permits, contractor licensing by class, inspections and the permit fee basisCity of Aberdeen Building Inspection Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Revised Ordinances of the City of Aberdeen — Chapter 14 (Businesses and Business Regulations, including Article II licence procedure, §14-128 home day care licences and §14-135 special exception), Chapter 12 (Buildings and Building Regulations, including contractor licensing and building permit fees), Chapter 42 (Signs), Chapter 60 (Zoning), Chapter 24 (Fire Prevention and Protection), Chapter 38 (Peddlers, Solicitors and Itinerant Merchants — §38-1 definitions, §38-29 transient and itinerant merchant applications and §38-34 fees) and §50-77 (municipal gross receipts tax)City of Aberdeen, codified by Municode · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
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