Department of Permits and Inspections

We are a small Class A Contractor and Plumbing company. We had to get our first permit in Portsmouth recently for a family that had a whole house sewer back up due to a bad pipe. Angela with the city was super helpful in assisting with getting the permit timely and setting up the inspection. She made getting permits easy. We just want to say thanks to Angela, the plumbing inspector and the City of Portsmouth.

Excellent service.

I don't know why they wasted money on phones for this building. Nobody ever answers them. BUT, when I went in person, they were very helpful. May not be the most cheery bunch, but they are helpful and keep things moving.

Lol every time I call I get a sweet lady who answers my questions. Never have I been put on hold

Portsmouth Dept. Of Permits and Inspections Staff is uneducated, they have zero consideration for the citizens. The receptionist was talking in her cell phone with a friend “not work related” talking about the previous evening. Compared to other cities, this office felt like the dark ages…. Just terrible ….!!

Very high turnover rate of employees. Depending on the person, some are rude and some will tell you to your face they don't care. I personally have been in touch with 4 different inspectors and have not made any progress. Had to withdraw the permit just to have them tell me I need to let them know if I am doing something simple like updating my toilet. Never, ever have had these problems with other cities in the area.

They will find the smallest issue and give you a notice and if you don’t “fix” it yourself they will make someone come out and clean your yard and make you pay for it. They always give me a notice about WEEDS that aren’t big at all even overgrown, they should worry about the branches they leave on the side of the road for weeks !

They are very difficult to work with. Have very little knowledge of their own codes and like to find their chests with the little bit of power they have been given.

Not a great experience, came here for residential permitting and continuously waited almost 3 hours, and they replied back that we have multiple applications ahead of you,. So we can't process it today

HOLD TIMES ARE HORRIBLE. THEY ASK YOU TO HOLD AND THEN YOU HOLD FOR 30 MINS PLUS UNTIL YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO HANG UP. WHAT A WAY TO SPEND TAX PAYERS MONEY!!

The customer service in the area that handle the permits are AWEFUL. They are rude and so unwilling to help. Whomever runs this area should be replaced because they obviously either dont know or dont care what's going on.

The people who work the front desk are some of the rudest people I’ve ever talked to. How do these people work for the city?