Permits, HOAs and the paperwork nobody warns you about

You signed the contract in March. It is now late May and there is no hole in your back yard. Nothing has gone wrong. This is what the process looks like, and the reason it surprises people is that nobody describes it to them in advance.

So here it is, in order.

Stage one: drawings, four to eight weeks

Before anyone can review anything, someone has to draw it. For an addition, casita or RV garage that means a site plan with dimensioned setbacks, floor plans, elevations, a foundation plan, framing and structural drawings sealed by an Arizona-registered engineer, electrical and plumbing layouts, wall sections, and energy code documentation.

The structural engineering is usually the long pole. Engineers work on their own queue, and a set that comes back needing revision goes back into that queue rather than to the front of it.

This is also the stage where changing your mind is free. Move the wall now, not in July.

Stage two: HOA architectural review, two to eight weeks

If you are in a master-planned community (Verrado, Vistancia, Sun City, Sun City West, Anthem, and most newer West Valley subdivisions) there is an architectural review committee, and it has opinions about exterior materials, colors, roof pitch, height, and sometimes whether your project is permitted at all.

Two things people underestimate here. First, most committees meet on a fixed schedule, monthly is common, so missing a submittal deadline by two days costs you a month, not two days. Second, most Valley cities want the HOA approval in the permit package, which means HOA review is not parallel to city review. It is in front of it.

Worth noting for casitas specifically: Arizona's 2025 ADU law limits what cities can require, but it does not override private HOA covenants. See the ADU guide for how that plays out.

Stage three: city plan review, four to twelve weeks

The submittal goes to the jurisdiction and lands in front of several reviewers: building, structural, planning and zoning, and depending on scope, fire, engineering and utilities. Each reviews independently. Each can issue corrections.

Corrections are normal. A first-round comment list is not a sign anything is wrong; it is how the process works. What matters is turnaround: a correction set that goes back the same week keeps you in the queue, while one that sits for three weeks on someone's desk resets your position in it.

Review times vary meaningfully across the Valley, and they move with workload. A jurisdiction that was running three weeks last spring may be running eight this summer. We will tell you what your city is running when we submit, not what it ran last year.

Stage four: permit issued, and then inspections

Permit in hand, work starts, and pauses at each inspection hold point. Footing before the pour. Rough framing, electrical, plumbing and mechanical before insulation and drywall. Insulation before drywall. Final before occupancy.

Inspections are scheduled, usually a day or more in advance, and there are days when the trade is done and the next trade cannot start because the inspector has not been out. That is one source of the "why is nobody here today" gap days on a job.

The other thing about inspections: they are working for you. A rough electrical inspection is a licensed third party checking that the wiring in your walls is right, at no cost to you. This is exactly the value that disappears when someone skips permits to save you money.

Realistic timelines, end to end

How to lose the least time

• Start the HOA submittal early. Repeated because it is the most common avoidable delay.
• Answer questions the day they are asked. A selection you sit on for a week does not cost a week. It costs however long that product takes to arrive.
• Do not change the drawings after submittal. A revision during plan review generally sends you back to the start of the queue.
• Order long-lead items at permit, not at framing. Windows, doors and cabinets have lead times that outrun the schedule if you wait for certainty.
• Do not let anyone talk you out of permitting. The time you save is borrowed from your resale, at interest.