Home / Roofing by City / Chester, Pennsylvania

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Chester, PA, issued by City of Chester - Bureau of Licensing & Inspections. The City of Chester's Bureau of Licensing & Inspections lists replacement roofs as permit work in its fee schedule. The City's residential Building Application Permit Fee Schedule, linked from the Licenses and Inspections page (read October 6, 2026), lists "REPLACEMENT WINDOWS, SIDIING, DOORS, AND ROOFS" at $200.00 for one item and $210.50 for two or more items, a fee line that is not limited to any class of roof work. The City Code, read for this record, names no roof work either way. Under state law, Act 45 says the Act "shall not apply to" "Alterations to residential buildings which do not make structural changes or changes to means of egress, except as might be required by ordinances in effect pursuant to section 303(b)(1) or adopted pursuant to section 503" or to "Repairs to residential buildings, except as might be required by ordinances in effect pursuant to section 303(b)(1) or adopted pursuant to section 503" (section 104(b)(5) and (6)), and of a municipal ordinance that adds to the code, section 503(c) says "An ordinance under this subsection shall not be effective nor enforceable unless subsections (d), (e), (f), (g), (h) and (i) have been satisfied." This record does not decide whether the municipality's requirement is one adopted under section 503 or kept in effect by section 303(b)(1). In practice, expect the Bureau to treat a reroof as permit work, as its fee schedule states. Its Building Permit Instructions say "All permits must be displayed," "Stop Work Order will be placed on site if permits not visible from street," and "Stop Work Order fine is double the permit fee." The application says a contractor on the project "must have an active City of Chester License and be registered with the City"; Section 199-7 of the City Code says "no person shall act in the capacity of general contractor, subcontractor, specialty contractor or home improvement contractor unless authorized to do so by a valid license issued in accordance with the provisions of this chapter," and Section 199-6 sets an annual licence fee of $60. Applications go to the Licenses and Inspections front desk at City Hall, 1 Fourth Street; the clerks' phone is 610-447-7751, and the instructions say "Contact 610-717-6367 to schedule final inspection." Read for this answer: Chapter 174 of the City Code, Building Construction, Article I (Sections 174-1 to 174-7, use and occupancy permits) and Article II (Sections 174-8 to 174-12, Uniform Construction Code), in full; Chapter 199, Contractors, Licensing of, in full; a search of the whole City Code for "roof," whose results name no permit provision for roof work; the Building Permit Application, the Building Permit Instructions and the residential fee schedule. Article II names no code edition and has no clause on house repairs. The fee resolution the Licenses and Inspections page also links, Resolution No. 42-2021, is a scanned image that was not read. This hub aggregates roofing permit and contractor-registration requirements for Chester, Pennsylvania, along with sourced roofing material references — every fact linked to its directory record.