City of Kokomo, Indiana Inspection Services Department

City of Kokomo, Indiana

city

100 South Union Street, Kokomo, IN 46901

Not required

Not required

The Permit Office is on the first floor of City Hall at 100 South Union Street, Kokomo, IN 46901, inside the Inspection Services Department. The department head is Jason Alexander; the office takes permit questions on 765-456-7362 and at [email protected], and the City switchboard is 765-456-7444 with hours given as 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Code Enforcement is a separate division at Fire Station 2, 508 East Center Road. The department issues building, electrical, sewer tap, demolition, street cut and driveway or sidewalk permits and Certificates of Occupancy, and describes itself as processing more than a thousand building permits a year. Its own fee schedule states the boundary of its authority in one line: "The City of Kokomo Inspection Services Department includes the City of Kokomo only." The application is a printable PDF and the City publishes a four-step route for it -- complete the form, print it, sign it, and fax it to 765-456-7577 -- with the alternative of posting it to City of Kokomo, 100 South Union Street, Kokomo, IN 46901. A residential application is to be accompanied by the Improvement Location Permit and a plot plan; a commercial one by the improvement location permit, a plan view, plumbing and electrical plans and specifications. The City states that plan review "requires at least 2 working days to complete", that status inquiries go to the permit clerk on 765-456-7362, and that all fees must be paid before a permit issues, with permits picked up at the Wastewater Utility Office on the first floor of City Hall. Where a job does need a permit, two sequencing points matter. First, the Building Permits page states that the Permit Office works closely with the Howard County Plan Commission and that the Plan Commission must be notified for an Improvement Location Permit before a permit is requested. That commission is a joint city-county body, the Kokomo-Howard County Plan Commission, at 224 North Main Street, 765-456-2330, [email protected]; its Improvement Location Permit is a zoning approval concerned with lot lines, setbacks, height, coverage and floodplain. Its fee runs at 1 dollar per 1,000 dollars of estimated cost up to a 1,000 dollar maximum, with a surcharge of 10 dollars per 1,000 dollars where a stop-work order is issued or notice is sent for a project already under construction without one. Confirm the minimum with the Plan Commission before budgeting it, because the two documents the commission publishes do not agree -- its city-and-county information sheet gives a 15 dollar minimum and its own fee schedule gives 100 dollars. Second, an application asks for the address of the work, a residential drawing or a set of commercial plans, the improvement location permit if one is required, the estimated cost, the total square footage and, for commercial work only, a State design release. Building permit fees run on construction cost -- 75 dollars up to 15,000 dollars, 150 dollars to 50,000 dollars, 200 dollars to 100,000 dollars, and 500 dollars above that plus 50 cents per 1,000 dollars thereafter -- with inspections and re-inspections at 100 dollars each and a permit extension at 25 dollars. Inspections are scheduled and the Building Permits page states that "A 48 hour notice is required." A permit expires if active work does not commence within 6 months of issuance, and work suspended or abandoned for 6 months after starting may only be recommenced under a new permit. Two more lines a roofing crew will meet in practice: a dumpster permit is 50 dollars and expires after 30 days, and Code Enforcement lists "Scattered Demolition/Construction Materials" among the common nuisances under the City code. A nuisance draws an abatement notice to the owner or occupier giving ten days to comply, after which the City may fine between 100 and 1,000 dollars a day while the violation continues and may send its own crews in and bill for the clearance. So plan the skip and the clean-up, not just the roof, and remember the notice goes to the homeowner rather than to you.

STATE CODE, AND KOKOMO PUBLISHES THE SAME ANSWER ITSELF. There is no Kokomo roofing code to look up. One- and two-family dwellings here are built to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings (first printing August 2017) and applies statewide. The rule was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in Article 14 of Title 675. The City confirms it from its own side: the Inspection Services Department publishes a Building Code Information page headed "Current Building & Electrical Codes" whose first line is "2020 Indiana Residential Code". That page also lists the other trades, which sit on older editions than the residential rule and are worth knowing before a job touches them -- 2014 Indiana Building Code (2012 International Building Code), 2014 Indiana Mechanical Code, 2009 Indiana Electrical Code (2009 NFPA 70), 2010 Indiana Energy Conservation Code, 2012 Indiana Plumbing Code, 2014 Indiana Fire Code and 2014 Indiana Fuel Gas Code. Note that the City stamps that block "* current as of May 11, 2018", so treat the list as the City telling you which family of codes it enforces rather than as a freshly-checked citation, and note that the residential line names an edition that post-dates the stamp. Indiana law means there is no edition year to negotiate with the City in any case. IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than those rules. IC 22-13-2-3(b) then provides that where a local ordinance does incorporate the state rules by citation to the Indiana Administrative Code, the reference "shall be construed to include all amendments as of the date that the reference is written and any later amendments to that provision, unless accompanied by a reference to a specific edition or supplement" -- so an Indiana local adoption by IAC citation tracks the state rule forward rather than freezing at its adoption date.

Required — REQUIRED AT BOTH EAVES AND RAKES, AND IT IS A STATE ANSWER RATHER THAN A KOKOMO ONE. The Indiana State Building Commissioner publishes a guidance document titled "Ice/Water Shield & Metal Drip Edge in Class 2 Construction with Asphalt Shingles", issued by the Indiana Department of Homeland Security over the signature of Craig E. Burgess, Indiana State Building Commissioner, dated February 25, 2020. It sets out the operative text as adopted in Indiana. Section R905.2.8.5 Drip edge provides that "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Adjacent segments of drip edge shall be overlapped not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall extend not less than ¼ inch (6.4 mm) below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the rood deck at not more than 12 inches (305 mm) o.c. with fasteners as specified in Section R905.2.5 Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." The words "rood deck" are how the State Building Commissioner printed it and are reproduced here rather than corrected; read it as the roof deck. The requirement is unconditional -- unlike the ice barrier, it does not depend on which Indiana county the house is in and it does not depend on the shingle manufacturer's instructions. Indiana does not amend this section: 675 IAC 14-4.4 was read in full and its only edits in this part of the code delete single words from the attachment and flashing sections next to it. Kokomo adds nothing to it, and the same guidance says the state code governs regardless of local enforcement practice. Note that the drip edge is a code obligation on the roofer whether or not the job needs a City permit, and on the City's own published guides an ordinary Kokomo reroof does not. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN HOWARD COUNTY, BUT THAT IS ONLY HALF THE ANSWER, AND THE OTHER HALF CATCHES A LOT OF KOKOMO JOBS. In Indiana the ice barrier is a county-by-county question rather than a statewide one. The state throws out the model climatic table and substitutes its own: 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 directs "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows," and the substituted table runs one row for each of the 92 counties. The Howard County row, numbered 34, reads No in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required." Kokomo lies wholly within Howard County, so there is only one row to read. Only 27 Indiana counties read Yes and they are the northern tier; Howard is not one of them, but Cass, Carroll and Miami all are, so a crew that works across the county line to the north or west can be on the other answer on the same week. The second half comes from the Indiana State Building Commissioner, in published guidance on ice/water shield and drip edge: "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it (per Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1)." Those three sections require roof assemblies and roof coverings to be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions, so in Howard County an ice barrier becomes mandatory the moment the shingle you are installing calls for one in its written instructions. Read the instructions for the specific product before deciding. Where it is required, the same document gives the extent: the barrier "shall consist of not fewer than two layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet shall be used in place of normal underlayment and extend from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches (610 mm) inside the exterior wall line of the building," and on roofs of 8:12 or steeper it must also run not less than 36 inches measured along the roof slope from the eave edge, with an exception for "Detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." Kokomo imposes nothing extra of its own. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO ROOF STAGE IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE, AND ON AN ORDINARY KOKOMO REROOF THERE IS NO INSPECTION AT ALL. Everything the City publishes about inspections was read: the Inspection Services page, the Building Permits page, the Building Code Information page, the Residential and Commercial Permit Guides, the building permit application including its disclosure statements, and all four pages of the 2025 Permit Schedule Fees. None of them names a roof, tear-off, sheathing, deck or in-progress roofing inspection. What the fee schedule does publish is a required number of inspections by permit type -- a new house four, a new garage three, a new commercial or industrial building six, a billboard two, a swimming pool or hot tub two, remodeling four, and a porch or carport two -- and there is no roofing entry on that list because Kokomo has no roofing permit type. Inspections and re-inspections are 100 dollars each. Note the honest limit of that: the City does not publish a list of the inspection stages themselves. The Residential Permit Guide says only that "The approved building permit provides information regarding the necessary inspections and how to schedule them," so on a permitted job the schedule of stages arrives with the permit rather than in advance. Remember the permit line before reading too much into any of this. On the City guides an ordinary tear-off and reshingle needs no building permit, so it is neither permitted nor inspected in Kokomo. Where a job does cross into structural work it runs as a Residential Remodel, the Building Permits page states that inspections are scheduled and "A 48 hour notice is required," and the joint Plan Commission guidance notes that the City building and electrical inspectors will inspect each phase of the project -- so ask, when the permit is issued, which phases those are for your job and whether the deck is to be looked at before it is covered. Call the Permit Office on 765-456-7362.

Not required — NO IMPACT-RESISTANCE OR HAIL-RATING MANDATE APPLIES IN KOKOMO, AT EITHER LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT. The state rule that governs roofing here, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code at 675 IAC 14-4.4, was read in full and contains no UL 2218 requirement, no Class 4 or Class IV impact rating and no FM 4473 reference; its only amendments to the roof assemblies chapter delete single words from an asphalt-shingle attachment section and two flashing sections and delete one sentence from the rooftop photovoltaic section, and none of them concerns impact resistance. On the City side, the Inspection Services Department publishes the state codes as the codes it enforces and names no local amendment of any kind, and neither of its two permit guides, its permit application nor its fee schedule mentions roofing products at all. Kokomo could not impose an impact requirement in any case: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state building rules, which is a stricter ceiling than most states set. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurer-driven upgrade in this market, not a code obligation, and an insurance discount is never a code mandate. Two cautions when reading paperwork on a Kokomo job. A Class A, B or C designation, or a reference to ASTM E108 or UL 790, is a FIRE rating and says nothing about hail, and ASTM D3161 or D7158 is a WIND rating; only UL 2218 or FM 4473 answers impact. And in Indiana the phrase "Class 2 construction" that appears on state roofing guidance is a class of STRUCTURE, meaning a one- or two-family dwelling, not a rating of any roofing product.

NO DOLLAR FIGURE, NO SQUARE COUNT, AND NO ROOFING PERMIT TYPE AT ALL -- BUT TWO CITY DOCUMENTS PULL IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AND YOU SHOULD KNOW BOTH BEFORE YOU START. The City answers the question directly in two published guides. Its Residential Permit Guide is a flowchart: it asks first whether you are adding a new structure or expanding an existing one, and then, if not, whether the work involves any mechanical, electrical, plumbing or structural alteration. Where the answer to both is no, the guide says "You most likely do NOT need a permit. Work such as flooring, painting, or replacing shingles or siding does not typically require a permit." Its Commercial Permit Guide is blunter still. Under the heading "DOES MY WORK REQUIRE A BUILDING PERMIT?" it prints two columns, YES and NO, and "Roofing" is the fourth entry in the NO column, alongside painting, carpeting and siding. Nothing on the City building-permit pages, the building permit application or the fee schedule names roofing as a permit type. The application form, revised March 2026, lists twenty-five kinds of work across four sections -- new construction, additional construction, electrical and miscellaneous -- and roofing is not one of them; the closest residential box is Residential Remodel. The fee schedule likewise sets a required number of inspections for new houses, garages, commercial and industrial buildings, billboards, pools and hot tubs, remodeling and porches or carports, and carries no roofing line. The other direction is the fee schedule itself, whose opening block states that permit fees apply to all new construction and all alterations, repairs and remodeling, and then says in terms that "NO PERSON, COMPANY OR CORPORATION SHALL PERFORM OR CAUSE TO BE PERFORMED ANY WORK ON OR WITHIN CITY LIMITS WITHOUT OBTAINING IN ADVANCE A PERMIT FROM INSPECTION SERVICES." Read literally that sweeps in a reroof; read as the fee document it is, it is a preamble about when fees attach, and its own penalty sentence speaks of proceeding "WITHOUT A REQUIRED PERMIT". This record does not pick between them. The practical line for a roofer is the one the flowchart draws: a like-for-like tear-off and reshingle sits on the no-permit side, and the moment the job becomes a structural alteration -- opening up and replacing framing or a substantial part of the deck, changing the roof structure, adding a dormer -- it moves onto the permitted side and runs as a Residential Remodel. Where a job is near that line, settle it with the Permit Office on 765-456-7362 or at [email protected] before starting, because the fee schedule warns that penalties may be imposed where a person proceeds without a required permit. If a permitted remodel is what you end up filing, the building permit fee runs on construction cost -- 75 dollars up to 15,000 dollars, 150 dollars to 50,000 dollars, 200 dollars to 100,000 dollars, and 500 dollars above that plus 50 cents per 1,000 dollars thereafter -- with inspections and re-inspections at 100 dollars each.

115 MPH UNDER THE STATE CODE -- BUT THE CITY PUBLISHES 80 MPH ON ITS OWN PAGE, AND YOU NEED TO KNOW BOTH NUMBERS EXIST. Indiana deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, county by county. The Howard County row, numbered 34, gives 115 under the column headed "Wind Speed (MPH)", and every one of the 92 county rows gives the same figure -- it is the one roofing number that is identical everywhere in Indiana. The column heading carries footnote a, which reads in full: "Wind exposure shall be determined on a site-specific basis in accordance with SECTION R301.2.1.4." So the figure is fixed but the exposure category behind it is not, and a sheltered street in the older part of the city and an open lot on the edge of it are not the same case. The rest of the Howard County row is not portable and should not be carried across county lines: Seismic Design Category A, ground snow 20 psf, frost depth 30 inches, winter design temperature 2 degrees Fahrenheit, decay Slight to Moderate, termite Moderate to Heavy, weathering Severe, ice shield underlayment required No, air freezing index 2000, mean annual temperature 49.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Now the local wrinkle. The City of Kokomo Inspection Services Department publishes its own three-line design block on its Building Code Information page, and it does not match: "City of Kokomo Snow Load is 20 lbs. per sq. feet", "City of Kokomo Wind Speed is 80 miles per hour", "City of Kokomo Seismic Risk is Zone 1". The snow load agrees with the state table. The wind figure does not, and "Seismic Zone 1" is vocabulary from an older generation of codes rather than the Seismic Design Category the current table assigns. The City stamps that whole block "* current as of May 11, 2018", which is more than a year before the 2020 Indiana Residential Code was filed. This record does not adjudicate between them and no roofer should either. What can be said plainly is that the house is built to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, that the code has one table of climatic and geographic design criteria for Howard County, and that the table says 115. If a wind figure is going to drive a fastening pattern, an engineered detail or a warranty submission on a Kokomo job, get the number confirmed in writing by the Permit Office on 765-456-7362 before you rely on either one.

NO CITY RULE AND NO STATE AMENDMENT, SO THE BASE CODE GOVERNS UNMODIFIED. Roofing in Kokomo runs on the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule was read in full, all 245 sections. It contains no amendment to the International Residential Code reroofing section, Section R908, which does not appear in it at any point, and its only amendments anywhere in the roof assemblies chapter delete the word "approved" from an asphalt-shingle attachment section and from a flashing section, delete the word "printed" from another flashing section, and delete one sentence from the rooftop photovoltaic section. Nothing in the state rule addresses layer limits, overlays or recovering an existing roof. Kokomo adds nothing of its own either, and could not: the Inspection Services Department publishes the state codes as the codes it enforces and names no local amendment of any kind, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules. The Indiana State Building Commissioner puts the same point from the state side, in published guidance on ice/water shield and drip edge: the 2020 Indiana Residential Code "is in full force and effect statewide. Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction, and its requirements, by law, must be followed." So the answer on a Kokomo job is the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof, in the 2018 edition, unchanged by Indiana and unchanged by the City. Read that rule out of the adopted edition, and confirm it with the Permit Office on 765-456-7362, rather than carrying an overlay allowance across from another state. One practical caution particular to Kokomo: an overlay avoids opening the deck, so on the City guides it falls squarely on the no-permit side, which means nobody at the City will be counting layers before the work starts. The obligation is still the roofer's.

7% statewide. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate with no county or municipal add-on, so there is no Kokomo or Howard County figure to add on top. The county-level taxes Indiana does levy are an income tax, an innkeeper's tax and a food-and-beverage tax, none of which reaches roofing materials, and the Department of Revenue says so on the very page that enumerates its county taxes: "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." How the tax falls on a roofing job depends on the shape of the contract rather than on the roof. Under a lump-sum contract the roofer pays the 7% on materials as the consumer and charges the homeowner no sales tax. Under a time-and-material contract, one that states the cost of materials and the cost of labor separately, the roofer buys the materials for resale and collects the 7% from the homeowner on the material portion, with separately stated installation labor not included in the taxable amount. Roofing is named by the Department of Revenue in its own definition of a contractor, so there is no question that a roofer falls inside this treatment.