Volusia County’s building inspections office is under scrutiny after an internal audit found improperly issued permits, missing approvals and a backlog of thousands of permits that expired without final inspections. Three employees resigned during a related human resources investigation, turning a paperwork problem into a personnel shake-up. The audit also flagged roughly $400,000 in potential annual revenue loss, though county officials say that figure needs some unpacking.
The Volusia County Council addressed the findings publicly Tuesday for the first time. The county audit, completed June 5, reviewed 33,705 inspections conducted during fiscal year 2025 and tested 100 reports, including randomly selected and higher-risk cases.
The sharpest finding centered on a permit issued to the county’s then-chief building inspector for a 5,000-square-foot metal accessory storage building. Auditors found that fees were recalculated three times without documentation, occupancy and construction classifications changed repeatedly, and the final fee dropped from $1,691.78 to $388.88; the report said the permit file also included an inspection entry for “siding” on a building described as having no siding.
Thousands Of Expired Permits Remain Unresolved
The audit found 8,448 building permits had expired between 2008 and September 2025 without a final inspection, including 4,637 involving electrical, mechanical or structural work classified as life-safety systems. County procedures did not require staff to contact permit holders, conduct field visits, verify whether work was completed, or escalate questionable cases to code compliance.
The backlog has grown much faster in recent years, with an average of 823 permits expiring annually from 2022 through 2024 compared with 83 per year from 2008 through 2011. The report said the county’s system automatically sends warning notices before expiration, but permits can otherwise remain open-ended in the system without follow-up.
The $400,000 Figure Comes With A Disclaimer
Auditors estimated that inconsistent inspection-result categories, outdated fee classifications, and undocumented fee waivers could cost the county more than $400,000 annually. But as reported by ClickOrlando, Councilman David Santiago said much of the figure reflects a policy choice to keep reinspection fees low rather than money that definitively disappeared through misconduct.
The audit found that inspectors sometimes used categories such as “partial fail” instead of a result that would trigger a reinspection fee, partly because the definitions were not clearly documented. In 11 of the 100 inspections reviewed, auditors found unclear deficiency-category selections.
County Plans New Controls After Resignations
The county manager is reviewing the findings and is expected to propose new protocols for the inspections office. Recommendations include annual conflict-of-interest disclosures, better documentation of inspector assignments, tighter controls over access to the AMANDA permitting system, permit-lifecycle tracking and a formal quality-assurance review process.
The audit also recommends standardized inspection-result definitions and mandatory documentation whenever fees are canceled or removed. Santiago said county officials had not been told that the conduct connected to the resignations could lead to criminal charges, leaving the immediate fallout focused on personnel changes and rebuilding the office’s controls.
