Home / Roofing by City / East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in East Lansdowne, PA, issued by East Lansdowne Borough - Municipal Building. East Lansdowne Borough's Code requires permits for residential alterations and repairs, and the Borough has published no exemption for a reroof. Section 5-1001 of the Borough Code, in Part 10, Supplemental Standards (Ord. 586, December 12, 2016, read October 12, 2026), says "In addition to the minimum standards contained within the Act, the Borough shall also enforce the International Residential Code of 2015, as it applies to the alteration and repair of residential buildings, and property owners shall be required to obtain permits for all such alterations and repairs." It names no roof work and states no exemption. The clause reaches both words, "alterations and repairs," and the Borough has published no statement on reroofing, no exemption for it and no cap that a reroof stays under; the state regulation's "ordinary repair" relief (34 Pa. Code 403.62(d)) is undefined and uncapped, and the Borough has said nothing about applying it to a reroof. Where an office has published nothing on reroofs, the general clause supplies the answer, so a permit is shown as needed. The Borough's Application for Plan Review and Building Permit (read October 12, 2026, transcribed from the rendered page image) lists "Repair, replacement" and "Alteration" among its boxes for Type of Improvement and has no roofing line; its fee schedule reads "$50.00 - The First $1,000 of Permitted Work Cost." The Borough's Forms/Applications and Contact pages say nothing on reroofing or on work that needs no permit. 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). The Department of Labor and Industry's register of municipal code change ordinances lists an East Lansdowne Borough filing that "Requires a building permit for renovations / repairs consistent with the 2015 International Residential Code" with the status "Under review by L&I as of 7 / 15 / 2016" and a public meeting listed for 9/12/2016; the register shows no approval letter and no "Enacted" entry for it. In practice, expect to need a permit for a reroof; the sections read state no penalty for work done without a permit. East Lansdowne Borough administers the code itself: Section 5-901 of the Borough Code says "This Borough hereby elects to administer and enforce the provisions of the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act," and the Borough's own Application for Plan Review and Building Permit, posted on its Forms/Applications page and headed "Municipal Building," carries a Borough permit fee schedule and tells applicants "TO SCHEDULE YOUR INSPECTION" to call a code agency's number given on the form. Part 1 of the Borough Code adopts "the building code known as the "BOCA Basic Building Code, 1987 Edition,"" and Part 5 adopts the CABO "One and Two Family Dwelling Code, 1983 Edition"; Section 5-902 keeps building code ordinances adopted on or before July 1, 1999 "which equal or exceed the requirements of the Code" in effect. This record has not read either older code's text and does not decide how they bear on a reroof. Read for this answer: Part 9, Uniform Construction Code, Part 10, Supplemental Standards, Part 1, Building Code and Part 5, One and Two Family Dwelling Code of Chapter 5, Code Enforcement, and Chapter 4, Buildings, of the Borough Code; Section 27-1203 of the zoning chapter; every page of a search of the whole Borough Code for "roof" (17 results, none a permit provision for roof work) and for "reroofing" (none); the Borough's Forms/Applications and Contact pages; and the Building Permit and Plan Review Application. The Borough Municipal Building is open 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, Monday to Friday, at 610-623-7131; the code agency's inspection-scheduling number on the Borough's form is 610-566-7044. This hub aggregates roofing permit and contractor-registration requirements for East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, along with sourced roofing material references — every fact linked to its directory record.