News · May 11, 2026 · Hillsborough's FY 2026-27 fee schedule, adopted May 11, 2026, sets $1,326 per permit for like-for-like kitchen or bathroom work with no wall changes, before other fees and taxes. [1][2]
A like-for-like kitchen or bath remodel in the Town of Hillsborough that changes no walls now has a permit line of its own: $1,326 per permit [1]. Other fees come on top, and the permit brings state rules that reach rooms you aren't touching [3][4].
How much is a Hillsborough kitchen or bath permit?
The town's building fee schedule for fiscal 2026-27 lists "Kitchen / Bathroom Permit Like for Like - No Wall Changes" at $1,326 per permit. For fiscal 2025-26, the same line reads "Valuation Based" [1]. San Mateo lists $719.58 for each combination permit for a minor kitchen or bath remodel, before other fees [5]; our 12-city comparison has the rest.
The schedule doesn't define "like for like" or "wall changes." The same line lists $261 for "Each Additional," down from $382, without saying what is counted. It doesn't say whether plan check is added [1].
If the town counts your work as a wall change, the $1,326 line doesn't apply. The schedule's other way to price a building permit is by valuation, and the Building Official can set the final valuation. For a job valued from $50,001 to $100,000, that base fee rose from $795.90 to $2,277.77 [1].
What fees come on top?
Mandated fees and taxes are added, most figured from the job's value, such as a construction vehicle impact fee of 0.83% [1]. Permits valued over $50,000 also carry a completion deposit of 2% of valuation [1]. The town refunds it if the work is done in time: 12 months from the permit for work valued $50,001 to $200,000. The clock stops at the town's final inspection and approval. After a 30-day grace, late work costs $200 a day, rising to $1,000 [6].
Does the permit still bring state fixture and alarm rules?
In a house built on or before January 1, 1994, state law makes replacing every toilet, showerhead and indoor faucet over the old water limits a condition of final permit approval for any alteration to a single-family home, with narrow exceptions [3]. Eighty percent of Hillsborough's housing was built before 1980, the town's housing element says [7]. Any alteration that needs a permit also brings smoke alarms wherever a new home would have them [4]. The town's kitchen and bath handouts, updated for the 2016 codes, say final inspection requires working smoke detectors in and outside the bedrooms, and carbon monoxide detectors on each level [8][9].
The same final inspection stops the completion clock [6].
Remodeled area counts toward two 1,500-square-foot rules
Two town rules ask how much you remodel, not whether walls change. As the town publishes its code, in an existing house over 2,000 square feet or more than two stories, a fire sprinkler system is required once permitted additions and alterations exceed 1,500 square feet, or 20% of a house over 7,500 square feet [10]. A room counts as altered when half or more of its wall or ceiling covering is removed or replaced, and rooms altered within two years of the last job's close are added together [10]. Remodeling more than 1,500 square feet also brings an evaluation of the sewer lateral, the pipe to the public sewer, and its repair or replacement if needed [11].
Ask the town before you settle the layout
The $1,326 line turns on words the schedule doesn't define. Ask the Building Division, in writing:
whether your plan counts as "Like for Like - No Wall Changes";
what "Each Additional" counts, if the permit covers more than one room;
whether plan check applies, and which other fees, taxes and deposit do;
how much of your plan counts toward the sprinkler and sewer-lateral rules.
Amiari Construction remodels kitchens and bathrooms on the Peninsula.
How we checked this: In October 2026, Amiari Construction read Hillsborough's adopted 2026-27 fee schedule and May 11, 2026 minutes, the town's building, sewer and completion-deadline codes, its kitchen and bath handouts and housing element, the state's fixture law and residential code, and San Mateo's 2026-27 fee schedule.
