Short answer: yes. In Miami-Dade and Broward, replacing a window or an exterior door requires a permit — and that is true even when you are swapping a unit into an existing opening at exactly the same size. There is no exemption for a single window, and no exemption for doing the work yourself.
That surprises a lot of homeowners, because a window swap feels like a repair rather than construction. Under the Florida Building Code it is neither. It is a change to the building envelope, which is the part of your house that keeps a storm out, so it gets reviewed like one.
Why a window counts as structural here
During a hurricane, the most common way a house fails is not the roof coming off first. It is an opening breaking. Once a window or door gives way, wind enters and pressurises the interior, and that internal pressure pushes outward on the roof and walls at the same moment the storm is pulling on them from outside. The opening is what starts the sequence.
That is the reasoning behind the whole approval regime in South Florida. The permit is not paperwork about a window — it is verification that the thing standing between your living room and a category storm is rated, installed correctly, and anchored into something that will hold.
NOA, HVHZ, and design pressure
Three terms come up constantly, and they are worth separating.
HVHZ
The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties — those two, and no others. It exists because of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which exposed how poorly the building stock of the time performed against wind-borne debris.
Products approved for the HVHZ have to survive two separate tests. First a large missile impact: a nine-pound piece of lumber fired at the glass. Then thousands of cycles of positive and negative pressure that simulate a storm working the opening for hours. Plenty of products pass the impact and still fail the cyclic testing, which is why “impact resistant” printed on a brochure is not the same thing as approved for your county.
NOA
A Notice of Acceptance is Miami-Dade County’s approval of a specific product assembly. It is issued to a manufacturer for a named configuration and it lists the approved sizes, the design pressures the unit is rated for, the glass makeup, and the anchoring pattern required to achieve that rating.
Here is the part that causes the most failed inspections: the NOA covers the assembly, not the window on its own. If the installer uses different anchors, different spacing, or a substrate the approval never contemplated, what is now in your wall is no longer the approved assembly — regardless of the sticker on the glass. The window can be perfect and the installation can still be non-compliant.
Every NOA also carries an expiration date. What matters is a current approval at the time the permit is pulled, not one that was valid when the product left the factory.
Design pressure
Design pressure is how much wind load a specific opening has to resist, and it varies across a single house. An upper-floor window at a building corner on the windward side carries far more load than a ground-floor bedroom window on the sheltered side. Corner zones are worse than the middle of a wall. Height increases it. Exposure — whether there is anything nearby to break up the wind — changes it again.
This is why a quote that applies one specification to every opening is a warning sign. It means somebody is either overbuilding the protected openings or underbuilding the exposed ones.
What about Palm Beach and further north?
Palm Beach County sits outside the HVHZ. Products there are approved under Florida Product Approval rather than requiring a Miami-Dade NOA — though many manufacturers carry both, and an NOA-approved unit is generally accepted statewide.
Do not read that as “the rules are looser.” Design pressures along the Intracoastal and on the barrier islands still run high, and a permit is still required. What changes is the approval route, not the engineering.
What the inspector actually checks
The final inspection is not a look at the glass. An inspector is confirming that what got installed matches what was approved:
- The product matches the NOA or product approval submitted with the permit
- The unit size falls within the approved range for that configuration
- The anchor type, size, and spacing match the approval documents
- Anchors are set into sound substrate at the required embedment
- The opening was prepared and sealed correctly, including sill and flashing details
Anchoring is where most problems surface. It is invisible once the interior is finished, which is exactly why the inspection happens before that point.
What happens if you skip the permit
Nothing, at first. That is the trap — unpermitted work causes no problem at all until it causes an expensive one, usually years later.
- Selling the house. Unpermitted work turns up during title search and inspection. Buyers ask for it to be resolved before closing, and resolving it late costs more than permitting it up front.
- Insurance. A wind mitigation credit generally depends on documentation from a permitted, inspected installation. Without the record, there is nothing to submit.
- Claims. If an opening fails in a storm and it was never permitted or inspected, that becomes a point of dispute at the worst possible moment.
- Enforcement. The county can require the work be permitted after the fact, which can mean opening up finished interior and exterior work so an inspector can see the anchoring.
Permitting after the fact is usually possible. It is just slower, more expensive, and occasionally requires undoing work you already paid for.
How the process runs
A permitted replacement follows a predictable sequence:
- Measurement and product selection. Openings are measured and each one is matched to an approved configuration for its design pressure.
- Permit application. The application is submitted to the city or county with the NOA or product approval documentation attached.
- Product order. Manufacturing lead time applies unless the sizes are stocked.
- Installation. Old units out, openings prepared and repaired where needed, new units set and anchored to the approval.
- Inspection. The building department verifies the installed assembly against what was approved.
Timelines vary by municipality, and permit review in South Florida can take anywhere from days to several weeks depending on the jurisdiction and how busy it is. Ask for a realistic estimate before the project starts rather than after.
Questions worth asking any contractor
- Is the permit included in the quoted price, or billed separately?
- Who submits the application and who meets the inspector?
- Which NOA or product approval number applies to the units being installed, and is it current?
- Was design pressure calculated per opening, or is one specification being used across the house?
- What happens if the opening needs repair once the old unit comes out?
A contractor who cannot answer the third and fourth questions is not doing the engineering the county expects.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit to replace just one window?
Yes. There is no minimum-quantity exemption in Miami-Dade or Broward. A single like-for-like replacement in an existing opening still requires a permit and a final inspection.
Is “impact resistant” the same as HVHZ approved?
No. HVHZ approval requires passing large missile impact testing and cyclic pressure testing together. A product can be marketed as impact resistant and still carry no Miami-Dade approval.
How do I check whether a product has a valid NOA?
Miami-Dade County publishes a searchable product approval database. Look up the manufacturer and configuration, then confirm the approval is current and that it covers your size and design pressure.
Can a homeowner pull the permit themselves?
Owner-builder permits exist in Florida, but they shift responsibility for code compliance and inspection onto the homeowner. For impact openings — where the approval depends on anchoring detail that is easy to get wrong — that is a meaningful risk to take on.
What if my windows were installed without a permit?
It can usually be permitted retroactively. Expect it to cost more, take longer, and possibly require exposing anchoring that is now behind finished work.
The short version
In Miami-Dade and Broward, a permit is required for every window and exterior door replacement, no exceptions for size or quantity. The permit exists to confirm that an approved assembly was installed the way the approval requires — because in a storm, the opening is what fails first, and the anchoring you cannot see is what decides whether it holds.
If you are planning a replacement, our window replacement and hurricane impact window pages cover the product side, and the cost guide explains what moves the price. Get in touch and we will confirm what your address requires.