Guide
Fire marshal reinspection fees — how to research your city
When a fire inspector writes a deficiency on the hood or exhaust path, the next bill is often the reinspection — not the cleaning. Fees are set by your local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). They are not a national NFPA 96 price list. This page is a research method plus labeled examples from public fee pages. Amounts change; verify before you budget.
Short answer
Start with the deficiency notice (deadline + inspector contact). Then search your city/county fire department for “fee schedule,” “reinspection,” or “fire prevention fees.” Confirm whether kitchen hood follow-ups are billed under general fire reinspection, a commercial cooking hood line, or a construction/permit path. Read the schedule yourself — secondary blogs can lag. Pass the first reinspection: several cities escalate fees on 2nd/3rd visits. Not legal advice; your adopted fire code and current published fees win.
Research method (do this in order)
| Step | Where to look | What you want |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Read the notice | Paper or email left by the inspector | Cited items, correction deadline, office phone, whether cooking must stop |
| 2. Name the AHJ | City fire marshal / fire prevention bureau (not always the county or state) | Correct agency for your street address — cities inside counties often differ |
| 3. Pull the fee schedule | City website: “fire prevention fee schedule,” “fire code fees,” municipal code § fees | Reinspection / follow-up lines; any commercial cooking hood inspection line |
| 4. Match the fee type | Same PDF/page | Routine violation follow-up vs. construction/permit reinspect vs. after-hours inspector time |
| 5. Call to confirm | Number on the notice or prevention bureau | Current amount, payment method, how to schedule, what docs to bring |
Public examples (city-specific; verify current)
These are examples of how fees appear in public documents — not a national rate card and not advice for other cities.
| Jurisdiction (example) | What the public source shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas, TX | Dallas Fire Code reinspection schedule in a city ordinance PDF: 1st $171; 2nd $200; 3rd and each subsequent $255 (OCR of published amendment; confirm live code) | Official ordinance PDF (American Legal / city) |
| Phoenix, AZ | Phoenix Fire Prevention Fee Schedule (effective 1/20/2026): reinspection fee may be assessed when corrections aren’t made, access fails, or extra visits are required; schedule shows minimum $195 (1 hour) for reinspection fees | Official city PDF |
| Durham, NC | City Fire Prevention permits/fees page: follow-up re-inspections (routines) escalate (e.g. 1st / 2nd / 3rd tiers as of 7/1/24 column); separate commercial cooking hood inspection and follow-up lines per hood | Official city webpage |
| Fernandina Beach, FL | Municipal fire fee schedule lists fire re-inspection and additional unprepared re-inspection lines, plus after-hours inspection rates | Official city webpage |
Secondary industry write-ups also summarize Dallas-style escalators and note that Houston, Austin, and other metros each publish their own schedules through their fire marshal offices — use those as pointers, then open the city’s own PDF.
Good research habits
- Save the PDF or screenshot with the date you pulled it
- Ask whether the first follow-up is free or billed (policies differ)
- Bring the original deficiency notice + cleaning/suppression docs to the return visit
- Schedule the reinspection only after hardware and paperwork are actually ready
- Check metro pages here for local AHJ hooks (e.g. NYC, Houston) then still verify fees with the city
Common mistakes
- Assuming another city’s fee applies to yours
- Budgeting only the cleaning and forgetting the reinspection / possible 2nd fail
- Confusing health-department food reinspection fees with fire-code reinspection fees
- Showing up without the written cleaning report / service label the notice implied
- Treating a blog paraphrase as the legal fee schedule
Field checklist (send yourself this list)
- Search strings — “[city] fire department fee schedule”, “[city] fire reinspection fee”, “[city] fire prevention fees”, “[county] fire marshal commercial cooking”
- Document hunt — look for PDF titled Fire Prevention Fee Schedule, Fire Code Fees, or municipal code Chapter on fees
- Line-item match — reinspection / re-inspection / follow-up; commercial cooking hood; after-hours inspection
- Confirm live — call the number on the deficiency notice; ask if the PDF you found is current
- State fallback — if city page is thin, use US Fire Administration state fire agency contacts to find the right office, then still get the local schedule
- Correction file — stickers, reports, suppression tags, before/after photos ready before you pay for a return visit
Who it’s for / not for
- For: operators with a deficiency notice in hand, multi-unit managers budgeting AHJ follow-ups, anyone comparing cleaning cost to the cost of failing the return visit
- Not for: inventing a fee for a city without a public schedule, or treating this page as legal advice / a substitute for your AHJ
Sources
- Dallas City ordinance PDF — Fire Code reinspection fee (Am. Legal hosting) (official; §107.7 schedule 1st/2nd/3rd — verify current code)
- Phoenix Fire Department — Fire Prevention Fee Schedule (eff. 1/20/2026) (official; reinspection conditions + minimum hourly framing)
- City of Durham, NC — Fire Prevention permits and fees (official; follow-up re-inspection tiers + commercial cooking hood follow-ups)
- Fernandina Beach, FL — fire fee schedule (official; re-inspection and after-hours inspection lines)
- Facilitec Southwest — failed fire marshal inspection walk-through (secondary; process + Dallas fee table paraphrase; points operators back to local AHJ)
- U.S. Fire Administration — state fire agency points of contact (official; find state/local fire offices when the city page is unclear)
Next step
Pull your city’s fee schedule PDF today, highlight the reinspection line, and call the inspector’s office to confirm the amount and scheduling rules — then finish corrections before you book the return visit.