Permitting Authorities / Village of Malcolm - Village Clerk
Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Village of Malcolm, NE?
Adopted code
Village of Malcolm - Village Clerk
No — Village of Malcolm, NE does not require a permit for like-for-like roof replacement (Village of Malcolm - Village Clerk). Malcolm runs permits through the Village Clerk rather than a building department, and the Village describes the path on its Permits and Inspections page: "The Village of Malcolm will strive to assist you with your construction project in an efficient and accountable manner. The Village Clerk is responsible for processing all construction permits and plans for review by the Planning Commission and Village Board for approval. Inspections will be scheduled throughout the building process for all construction-related permits." Because the Planning Commission and the Village Board sit in the approval path, the practical lead time on a Malcolm permit is set by the meeting calendar rather than by a counter. The Village adds that forms can be downloaded from the same page "or give us a call and we will be happy to provide you with the necessary forms", on 402-796-2250. For a roof, the document to read before anything else is the Village's own Memorandum on Policy and Procedure for Re-Roofing Projects, published on that page as the Re-Roofing Policy - it is one page, it names the codes Malcolm has adopted, it confirms the permit exemption for roofing and it sets the Village's own underlayment, ice barrier and flashing requirement. The Village office is at 137 East 2nd Street, with a mailing address of PO Box 228, Malcolm, Nebraska 68402.
Jurisdiction
Village of Malcolm, Nebraska
Address
137 East 2nd Street, Malcolm, NE 68402
Contact
- url: https://www.malcolm.ne.gov/permits-and-inspections
- phone: 402-796-2250
Roofing permit required
Not required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
- state_level: STATEWIDE AND UNAVOIDABLE. Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-2104(1), in the Contractor Registration Act, provides that "Before performing any construction work in Nebraska, a contractor shall be registered with the department." The department is the Nebraska Department of Labor. A roofer sits well inside the statutory definitions rather than at their edge. "Construction" means "work on real property and annexations, including new work, additions, alterations, reconstruction, installations, and repairs" under 48-2103(2), and "Contractor" means a person or firm "engaged in the business of the construction, alteration, repairing, dismantling, or demolition of buildings ... and every other type of structure" under 48-2103(3). There are two exemptions and both are in 48-2104(1) - work on one's own property, and "any person who earns less than five thousand dollars annually for construction services." Registration is with the State, and it applies to a Malcolm reroof even though the Village asks for no permit for one.
- village_level: THE VILLAGE POSITION WAS NOT ESTABLISHED FOR THIS RECORD AND IS NOT ASSERTED EITHER WAY. Malcolm publishes its municipal code through municipalcodeonline.com, whose content endpoint refused every automated request made here, so the chapters that would carry a contractor registration or licensing scheme have not been read. That is an unread document rather than a finding of absence. What the Village does publish is a Licenses and Permits page and a Permits and Inspections page, and the latter describes the process rather than any credential: "The Village Clerk is responsible for processing all construction permits and plans for review by the Planning Commission and Village Board for approval." Ask the Village Clerk on 402-796-2250 whether anything is required of a contractor working in Malcolm before starting, and note that a roofing job there will usually involve no Village permit at all, so the question may never come up on paper.
Permit process note
Malcolm runs permits through the Village Clerk rather than a building department, and the Village describes the path on its Permits and Inspections page: "The Village of Malcolm will strive to assist you with your construction project in an efficient and accountable manner. The Village Clerk is responsible for processing all construction permits and plans for review by the Planning Commission and Village Board for approval. Inspections will be scheduled throughout the building process for all construction-related permits." Because the Planning Commission and the Village Board sit in the approval path, the practical lead time on a Malcolm permit is set by the meeting calendar rather than by a counter. The Village adds that forms can be downloaded from the same page "or give us a call and we will be happy to provide you with the necessary forms", on 402-796-2250. For a roof, the document to read before anything else is the Village's own Memorandum on Policy and Procedure for Re-Roofing Projects, published on that page as the Re-Roofing Policy - it is one page, it names the codes Malcolm has adopted, it confirms the permit exemption for roofing and it sets the Village's own underlayment, ice barrier and flashing requirement. The Village office is at 137 East 2nd Street, with a mailing address of PO Box 228, Malcolm, Nebraska 68402.
Adopted code
Malcolm does not write its own technical code. Its Memorandum on Policy and Procedure for Re-Roofing Projects, approved by Village Board Chair David Rohe and adopted effective January 8, 2020, opens: "The Village of Malcolm has adopted by reference the building codes of the City of Lincoln, which include, but are not limited to, the 2012 International Building Code (IBC) and 2012 International Residential Code (IRC). In accordance with these codes and their respective amendments, any re-roofing project must comply with Chapter 15 of the IBC and Chapter 9 of the IRC, both of which address re-roofing." Two features of that sentence matter to a roofer and are reported here without being resolved. First, Malcolm adopts another city's codes, which means Lincoln's amendments travel with them - the memorandum says so, in the words "and their respective amendments" - so a Malcolm roof is built to Lincoln's version of the model code rather than to the model code as published. Second, the editions named are the 2012 editions and the memorandum was adopted in January 2020, while the phrase "include, but are not limited to" leaves the list open. Whether Malcolm's adoption follows Lincoln forward as Lincoln changes edition, or is fixed at what it named, is not stated in any document opened for this record. Check the current position with the Village Clerk on 402-796-2250 before quoting a section number, because the edition decides several roofing answers. THE VILLAGE CODE ITSELF COULD NOT BE READ FOR THIS RECORD. Malcolm publishes its municipal code through municipalcodeonline.com, whose content endpoint refused every automated request made here, so Village Code chapter 9 has not been read and nothing on this page rests on its text except where the Village's own memorandum quotes or cites it.
Ice & water shield
Required — Malcolm imposes an ice-barrier requirement of its own, on top of whatever the adopted code requires, and it applies to every roofing project rather than only to jobs that need a permit. Item 5 of the Village's Memorandum on Policy and Procedure for Re-Roofing Projects reads in full: "For all roofing projects, the Village of Malcolm hereby requires the installation of underlayment, ice and water shield (i.e. 'ice barrier'), and any flashing at least 24 inches under any adjacent structure sides." Read that beside item 4 of the same memorandum, which sets the baseline: "All roofing projects must adhere to Chapter 15 of the IBC and Chapter 9 of the IRC, which require ice barriers and flashing under certain conditions." The difference between the two is the point of the policy. The adopted code requires an ice barrier under certain conditions; the Village requires underlayment, ice and water shield and flashing for all roofing projects. The memorandum states that it is issued to clarify the position "for owners, contractors, and insurance companies", which is a fair indication of the argument it was written to end. The twenty-four inch figure and the phrase "under any adjacent structure sides" are quoted here exactly as the Village wrote them and are not interpreted. Confirm the measuring point and the extent with the Village Clerk on 402-796-2250 before ordering membrane, and note that the underlying code requirements in the adopted Lincoln codes sit behind the ICC paywall and are not restated on this page. The memorandum was approved by Village Board Chair David Rohe and adopted effective January 8, 2020.
About ice & water barrierRepair permit threshold
Malcolm exempts roofing from permit and, unusually for a village of its size, has written down exactly what it means by roofing. Its Memorandum on Policy and Procedure for Re-Roofing Projects states the general rule and the carve-out in consecutive numbered items. Item 1: "A building permit is required for all construction, remodeling, repairs, or other work on real property, whether residential or commercial, unless otherwise exempted by the Village Code. See Village Code section 9-102." Item 2: "The Village Code provides an exemption for roofing projects. See Village Code section 9-102(d)." Item 3 is the one to keep: "By this policy, the Village of Malcom defines 'roofing' to include the removal and replacement of an existing roof system, including underlayment, ice and water shield (i.e. 'ice barrier'), and flashing." So a full tear-off and replacement, down to and including the underlayment, the ice barrier and the flashing, is inside the exemption and takes no Village permit. There is no square-footage floor, no dollar floor and no percentage-of-roof test. What the exemption does not cover is anything outside that definition - the memorandum's own words are "removal and replacement of an existing roof system", so work that goes beyond replacing what is there, such as re-decking that becomes structural repair, a change to the roof structure or an addition, falls back under item 1's general permit rule and should be put to the Village Clerk on 402-796-2250 first. And the exemption from permit is emphatically not an exemption from the code: item 4 of the same memorandum states that "All roofing projects must adhere to Chapter 15 of the IBC and Chapter 9 of the IRC, which require ice barriers and flashing under certain conditions", and item 5 adds a Village requirement of its own, set out under the ice-barrier entry on this page. The memorandum was approved by Village Board Chair David Rohe and adopted effective January 8, 2020.
Sales & use tax
6.5% combined, made up of the Nebraska state rate of 5.5% and a Village of Malcolm local-option rate of 1.0%, effective July 1, 2026, per the Nebraska Department of Revenue's Local Sales and Use Tax Rates schedule. Lancaster County levies no county sales tax. Dakota County is the only Nebraska county carrying a county rate on that schedule, and its 0.5% applies only outside a municipality that imposes its own local tax, so it never reaches a Malcolm job. Malcolm's 1.0% is lower than the City of Lincoln's local rate a few miles away, and lower than several of the other Lancaster County villages, so a contractor working both Lincoln and Malcolm out of one truck should source each sale to the job address rather than to the yard. Nebraska's local sales tax is state-administered rather than collected by the village, and Malcolm takes no separate construction or use tax deposit - it takes no building permit for an ordinary reroof at all. The rate here was read off the Department of Revenue schedule itself rather than from a lookup tool, and Malcolm's row on that schedule reads a 1.0% local rate and a 6.5% total.
Local roofing hub
Related guides
The permitting authority for the Village of Malcolm, a small Lancaster County village northwest of Lincoln. Permits go through the Village Clerk at 137 East 2nd Street, with plans reviewed by the Planning Commission and the Village Board. Malcolm is worth more to a roofer than its size suggests, because the Village Board has adopted a one-page policy memorandum that deals with re-roofing and nothing else. That memorandum settles three things most jurisdictions this size leave open: it confirms the Village Code exempts roofing from permit, it defines what "roofing" means for that exemption, and it imposes a Village requirement for underlayment, ice and water shield and flashing that applies to every roofing project regardless of the exemption. It also records that Malcolm has adopted the building codes of the City of Lincoln by reference rather than writing its own.
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