There are a variety of reasons that a contractor might ask you to get a permit for the work they will be doing at your property. In almost every instance it is an indicator that the contractor isn’t performing work in a way that is legal. For this reason you must ask yourself is the risk worth the effort, expense and problems that could occur if you allow this contractor to do the work at your home.
One of the main reasons that a contractor might ask you to get the permit is because they are not licensed. They may be licensed at the State level and they might even have insurance and run an orderly business but often small municipalities, towns or cities will require contractors to register and be licensed within their jurisdiction. For the contractor this can be a lot of extra paperwork and expense to do work within the town limits. On the other hand they may not be licensed at the State level or at all.
This is not something that you want to overlook because work performed by an unlicensed contractor may be rejected if you ever have an Insurance Claim because of their work. For instance electrical, gas line, plumbing, roofing and even simple carpentry jobs can be very dangerous if they are performed in a substandard way. If you were to have a situation your insurance company could deny your claim because the contractor wasn’t licensed to do the work.
Additionally if you have problems with the building official over the work that is done and they do not want to pass and finalize your inspection this could cause you to hire a different contractor that is licensed and any work that was completed in a substandard way would have to be done over from the beginning. Some contractors won’t even assume the risk of completing projects that they didn’t start. It would open them up for liability for work they did not perform or get paid for.
Another reason that a Contractor might ask you to pull the permit for the work they will do is because they were previously licensed but they had their license pulled for substandard work. This is often not the case but it is a possibility.
Finally there might be good reason that a Contractor tells you to pull a permit for the work that you will do and they will pull a permit for the work that they will do. If you are remodeling a kitchen or bathroom or performing other work yourself and you need help with a portion of the job such as running new plumbing or electrical then the contractor might tell you that you need a permit for the work you will perform and they will get the permit for the work that they will perform. They may even ask you to apply for the permit that they will perform but you are to use their name on the permit as the contractor that is performing the work. It will depend on your location and how your permit office wants to issue permits but in some limited cases this could be appropriate to save time to apply for all the permits and then use the name of the contractor when you are applying for the work that they will do specifically. This could reduce your overall cost because the contractor won’t charge you for the time of having to do this paperwork but they will be on record as the contractor who is responsible for the work. Honestly this is a pretty rare situation but because of delays with permits in the past couple years due to shutdowns it might be something that is suggested. Personally I would still rather pay the fee and have the contractor apply separately because they will be responsible for the inspection of their work.
Final Note
Not all work requires a permit even if it is substantial work being performed. Something like a Driveway being replaced or all of the deck boards being replaced on your deck is considered repairs of like kind. Things like replacing a water heater or faucet or even taring out an entire bathroom and putting in a new tub, toilet and vanity do not normally require a permit if you are keeping the electrical and plumbing in the same place.
Now some localities have different rules and they can be very strict so you might find that just replacing a water heater with the exact same type and size water heater and not converting from electric to gas or doing any other modifications will still require a permit to be pulled.
If a contractor is doing the work then they are responsible for knowing these things and if they are doing small jobs like this then the process for permitting and inspections is extremely quick.
But whenever a contractor is doing substantial work in your home and a permit is required it is really not a good idea to tell the building official / permit office that you are doing the work and hide the fact that the contractor is doing the work. It is just not worth the potential risk.
Ask the contractor why and then ask the permit office about the contractor and if there are any issues with them.
All States and localities are different but it is up to you to protect yourself especially if there is a large financial outlay or if the work is potentially dangerous or could cause a lot of damage if done wrong. A small leak in your roofing can cost many thousands of dollars of damage in your home. So be careful.