Nassau County does not issue your building permit. If you are renovating a home in Nassau County, the permit comes from your town or, if you live inside one of the county’s 64 incorporated villages, from your village. The county government handles county roads, sewers, planning and health-care facilities — not your kitchen.
This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding in Nassau renovation. Homeowners call the county. Contractors unfamiliar with Long Island file with the wrong authority. The application comes back, and weeks are gone before a single cabinet is ordered.
Who Actually Issues Your Permit
Nassau County has three layers of local government, and only two of them will ever issue you a residential building permit.
| Where you live | Who issues your permit |
|---|---|
| Inside one of the 64 incorporated villages | Your village building department |
| In an unincorporated part of a town | Your town building department |
| In Glen Cove or Long Beach | The city — these are separate from the towns |
| Anywhere in Nassau County | Never the county, for ordinary residential work |
The Town of North Hempstead states the boundary plainly. Its building department administers state and town codes:
“… within the unincorporated areas of the Town.”
— Town of North Hempstead, Department of Building, Safety, Inspection & Enforcement
If your address sits inside a village, the town has no jurisdiction over your permit. Village boundaries do not reliably match mailing addresses. A letter addressed to Port Washington may be in the Village of Manorhaven. Confirm which you are in before anything is filed.
What Nassau County Actually Handles
The county is not irrelevant — it is just relevant to different things. Nassau County’s own building and zoning guidance covers:
- Construction on or near county-owned roads
- Road openings and curb cuts, through the Department of Public Works
- Sewer connections and industrial waste discharge into county lines
- Dumpsters placed on county roads
- Scavenger waste and cesspool hauling
- Zoning and planning administration — Economic Development and the Planning Commission
- Certificate of Need applications for health-care facilities
The county’s guidance is explicit that when county roads are involved you contact both the municipality and the county DPW. For a kitchen, bathroom, dormer or extension that touches no county road, the county never enters the picture.
Do I Need a Permit to Remodel a Kitchen or Bathroom?
In almost every case, yes. The exception is genuinely cosmetic work — paint, cabinet doors, a like-for-like appliance swap that moves no plumbing, gas or wiring.
Anything that touches structure, plumbing, electrical or gas requires a permit and inspections. The Town of Oyster Bay’s published list of work requiring a permit includes:
- All houses and buildings, and all additions to them
- Any interior alterations
- Any change or rearrangement in structural parts or exit facilities
- Swimming pools 18 inches deep or greater, cabanas, pool heaters and hot tubs
- Any fence more than four feet high
- Demolition of any structure
“Any interior alterations” is the phrase that catches people. A full kitchen gut is an interior alteration. So is finishing part of a basement. Villages go further still — New Hyde Park requires a permit to replace existing plumbing fixtures in kind, and Sea Cliff requires one for any plumbing work involving cutting, soldering or connecting pipes.
The Three Town Building Departments
If you are in an unincorporated area, this is where your permit comes from.
| Town | Building Department | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Hempstead | One Washington Street, 2nd Floor Hempstead, NY 11550 |
Town line 516-538-8500 Permits and forms are handled through the Online Permit Center |
| North Hempstead | Dept. of Building, Safety, Inspection & Enforcement 176 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY 11030 |
516-869-7660 Office 7:00 a.m.–4:45 p.m. · Inspectors 7:00 a.m.–2:45 p.m. |
| Oyster Bay | Building Division, 74 Audrey Ave, Oyster Bay Annex: Town Hall South, 977 Hicksville Rd, Massapequa |
516-624-6200 ext. 1 |
A practical note on Hempstead. Its inspectors are reachable only in a narrow window before they go out on field inspections — building inspectors from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., plumbing inspectors from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Miss it and you wait a day. Scheduling around that window is the difference between a smooth inspection sequence and a stalled one.
If You Live in a Village, None of the Above Applies
Nassau County has 64 incorporated villages, and nearly every one runs its own building department with its own code, its own inspectors, and in many cases its own zoning board, planning commission and architectural review board.
The differences are real and expensive:
- Great Neck requires a $2,500 escrow deposit for Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board site plan applications
- Manorhaven charges triple permit fees for work permitted after the fact, and allows no construction on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays
- North Hills accepts new applications online only
- Sea Cliff enforces construction hours and publishes a list of what does not need a permit
See the building department for all 64 Nassau villages — with verified contacts and permit requirements for each one we have documented.
Coastal Properties: FEMA Rules Sit on Top
On the South Shore and around the north-shore harbours, FEMA elevation and substantial-improvement rules apply in addition to the town or village code. The threshold that changes projects is the 50% rule: when improvements exceed half the structure’s value, the whole structure can be required to meet current flood-compliant standards.
That single number can redefine a renovation’s scope and budget. Read the FEMA flood zone guide.
What Happens If You Skip the Permit
- Stop-work orders and fines, which halt the job mid-build
- No certificate of occupancy for the completed work
- Problems at resale. Open or absent permits surface in a municipal search, usually at the worst possible moment in a sale
- Insurance exposure. Unpermitted work can complicate a claim
- Retroactive filing costs more — in Manorhaven, three times more
Unpermitted work rarely causes trouble while you live in the house. It causes trouble when you sell it.
How We Handle Nassau Permits
We are a licensed general contractor (Nassau County Home Improvement License #184594) and have been building on Long Island since 1976. Permits are part of the job, not an extra you chase separately.
- We identify the correct authority — village, town or city — before anything is filed
- We flag board review requirements up front, not after a rejection
- We prepare drawings to that municipality’s submission standard
- We schedule inspections and carry the project through to certificate of occupancy
Nassau County Permit Questions
Does Nassau County issue building permits?
Not for ordinary residential work. Nassau County handles county roads, road openings and curb cuts, sewer connections, planning and zoning administration, and Certificate of Need applications for health-care facilities. Your residential building permit comes from your town, your village, or the cities of Glen Cove or Long Beach.
Do I need a permit to remodel a kitchen in Nassau County?
In almost all cases, yes. Towns and villages require permits for interior alterations, and any work involving plumbing, electrical, gas or structure requires a permit and inspections. Purely cosmetic work such as painting or replacing cabinet doors generally does not.
Do I need a permit to remodel a bathroom in Nassau County?
Yes, in nearly every case. Bathroom renovations almost always involve plumbing, and several municipalities require a permit even to replace existing fixtures in kind. Confirm with your specific village or town before work begins.
How do I know whether I am in a village or an unincorporated area?
Village boundaries do not always match mailing addresses, so the address on your post is not a reliable guide. Check with the village you believe you are in, or with the town’s building department, before filing. Nassau County has 64 incorporated villages across the Towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay.
How long does a Nassau County building permit take?
It depends on scope and on whether the project needs review by a zoning board, planning commission or architectural review board. Board review is scheduled by meeting calendar and is usually the largest variable — often larger than staff review itself. Contact your town or village building department for current processing times.
What happens if work is done without a permit in Nassau County?
Unpermitted work can result in stop-work orders, fines, and difficulty obtaining a certificate of occupancy. It most commonly surfaces at resale, when a title or municipal search reveals open or absent permits. Filing retroactively is also more expensive — the Village of Manorhaven charges triple permit fees for it.
Planning a Renovation in Nassau County?
We handle the permit process as part of the project, with the correct authority, the first time. Free consultation and a written line-item estimate.
516-826-8054 · Licensed Nassau County #184594 · BBB A+ since 1991 · 14× Angi Super Service Award
Related:
Building permits in all 64 Nassau villages ·
Renovating in a FEMA flood zone ·
What a kitchen remodel costs on Long Island
Renovating in Suffolk instead? Suffolk County building permits — and when the county Health Department has to approve your project