What it costs in government fees to build a home in Lake County, Florida
Every impact fee, water and sewer connection charge, and building permit for a new
single-family detached home in unincorporated Lake County — itemized, sourced, and dated.
Total government fees$17,998Single-family detached, 2,000 sq ft heated/conditioned, 4BR, 3/4" water meter, county water and sewer, unincorporated area. Ranges from $15,328 (West transportation district)
to $18,426 (Northeast/Wekiva or South transportation district).
Check the utility provider before you rely on thisLake County's Board of County Commissioners does not own, operate, or charge for any water or wastewater utility. There is no county connection fee, capacity charge, or meter fee, because there is no county utility. Service comes from PSC-regulated private utilities, the Florida Governmental Utility Authority, municipal utilities extending outside city limits, or — for much of the rural county — private well and septic. The figure shown is the Florida Department of Health well and septic permit cost.
Impact & mobility fees
Fee
Amount
School
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · pp.2-3 · sourceOrdinance 2023-39. The school fee steps every October 1; county fees step every January 2.
$11,247.00
Roads — Central & North Central district
Eff. Jan 2, 2026 · pp.2-3 · source⚠ Ranges from $1,258 (West) to $4,356 (Northeast/Wekiva and South) for the identical house. Ordinance 2024-5.
$3,928.00
Fire
Eff. Jan 2, 2026 · pp.2-3 · sourceOrdinance 2023-53 as amended by 2024-5.
$536.00
Parks
Eff. Jan 2, 2026 · pp.2-3 · sourceOrdinance 2023-52.
$263.00
Library
Eff. Jan 2, 2026 · pp.2-3 · sourceOrdinance 2023-51.
$263.00
Impact Fee Administrative — 3% capped at $100
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · p.31 · sourceF.S. 163.31801.
$100.00
Subtotal
$16,337
Water & sewer — None — Lake County operates no water or sewer utility
Fee
Amount
Private Residential Potable Well Construction — Florida DOH in Lake County
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit J, pp.22-24 · sourceLake is one of 42 Florida counties where the onsite sewage program is still administered by the county health department.
$100.00
OSTDS New System (septic) — Florida DOH in Lake County
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit J, pp.22-24 · source⚠ No site evaluation line appears in Exhibit J, though F.S. 381.0066(2) contemplates one at $40-$115. The true out-the-door septic cost may exceed $75.
$75.00
Subtotal
$175
Building permits, surcharges & other
Fee
Amount
Residential Building Permit — includes administration, plan review and inspections
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit B, pp.4-9 · source$0.26 per sq ft of area UNDER ROOF. Shown at 2,600 sf. Impact fees use living area; the permit uses under-roof area — two different square footages in one stack.
$676.00
Zoning Permit — single family and accessory dwelling unit
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · p.34 · source
$110.00
Residential Trade Permit — Electrical
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit B · source$0.03/sq ft with a $100 minimum. The minimum binds for any home under 3,333 sf under roof.
$100.00
Residential Trade Permit — Plumbing
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit B · source
$100.00
Residential Trade Permit — Mechanical
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit B · source
$100.00
Residential Site Development Final Inspection
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · p.44 · sourceDo not also add Code Enforcement's $78.50 landscape compliance inspection — Public Works absorbed it into this fee.
$100.00
Residential Site Development Review
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · p.44 · sourceThis Public Works block is the county's stormwater and drainage charge for a single lot, required for MS4 compliance.
$90.00
Residential Site Development Pre-Grade Inspection
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · p.44 · source
Residential Trade Permit — Low Voltage
Eff. Oct 1, 2025 · Exhibit B · sourceAppears on essentially every new home but sits among change-out items on the schedule with nothing tying it to new construction.
DBPR surcharge, F.S. 468.631 (1.5%)
Eff. Invalid Date · source⚠ Inferred from statute. The surcharges appear nowhere in Lake County's 54-page fee schedule, permit application, or checklist, and the public permit database's fee field excludes them.
$15.24
Building Code surcharge, F.S. 553.721 (1.0%)
Eff. Invalid Date · source⚠ Same caveat as above.
$10.16
Subtotal
$1,486
Transportation benefit district
Four districts. Only the road fee varies, and it ranges 3.5x — a $3,098 swing, 23% of the total stack.
District
Fee
West
$1,258
Central & North Central
$3,928
Northeast / Wekiva
$4,356
South
$4,356
Fees Lake County does not charge
Verified absent, so you don't go looking for them.
No county water or sewer utility of any kind — verified four independent ways including the county's own permit application, which makes the applicant declare a third-party water and sewer provider or select well and septic.
No law enforcement, police or sheriff impact fee — the county adopted roads in 1985, schools in 1991, fire in 1996, and library and parks in 2004. A law enforcement fee was never adopted.
No county stormwater utility fee or stormwater impact fee; no separate residential plan review fee; no residential certificate of occupancy fee; no mobility fee.
No prorated assessment at CO — fire rescue and solid waste are annual assessments on the property tax bill.
What we could not verify
These are reported as gaps rather than estimated. The total above is a floor.
State surcharge collection is inferred from statute, not documented by the county. The 2.5% appears in no Lake County document and the permit database's fee field reconciles exactly without it.
Service availability charges for the private utilities that actually serve new subdivisions — Southlake Utilities, Sunshine Water Services, North Lake County Water & Sewer. Their sites block automated access and the only filings surfaced were from 2001-2003, which were excluded as too stale to publish.
The septic fee may be incomplete — Exhibit J has no site evaluation line though state law contemplates one at $40-$115
A successor impact fee schedule effective October 1, 2026 is expected on the county's two-schedules-per-year pattern but has not been published
Why this number is easy to get wrong
Exhibit S of the fee schedule is titled 'Water Resources' but is a laboratory-analysis and mosquito-control schedule. Anything scanning exhibit titles for utility fees lands here and reports lab fees as utility fees.
The county website is an Angular single-page app — every plain fetch returns the same empty shell. The content lives behind an undocumented CMS API, without which the impact fee page is invisible.
District labels in the impact fee PDF are rotated 90 degrees and extract as reversed gibberish. Rendering to image is not optional when one district is 3.5x another.
A 5% electronic-permitting discount is advertised in the fee schedule but appears in none of 24 issued permits examined — the posted fee equals the undiscounted formula exactly every time.
How to use this. Every figure is transcribed from an official
Lake County or Florida Statutes document, linked inline, with its effective date. No third-party
legal-code mirrors were used — in testing, one returned impact fees off by 2.4×. Built for screening
and pro-forma work; confirm with the county before you sign anything.