How to Obtain a Certificate of Occupancy (C/O) – Cobb County, GA

How to Obtain a Certificate of Occupancy (C/O) is the Cobb County Community Development Agency guide that walks commercial businesses through the steps required to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy for a new or existing commercial space in Cobb County, Georgia.

The guide says all commercial businesses require a valid C/O and cites Official Code of Cobb County, Chapter 18, Article VIII, Section 18-234. It offers two routes:

• Option 1: New C/O. You obtain a new Certificate of Occupancy with a new business name, starting with step 1 of the guide.
• Option 2: Information Change. If no changes are made to the interior or exterior of a tenant space (other than cosmetic), the occupant load, or the business type, you may be eligible to submit an Information Change Form (ICF) to the Fire Marshal's Office (FMO) instead.

The five steps are: complete a Commercial Permit Application (CPA); get Cobb County Water System (CCWS) approval; contact Cobb & Douglas Public Health, which is not required for all businesses; obtain Fire Marshal review and approval; and, once all applicable final inspections are passed, obtain the C/O from the Community Development Agency.

The guide is explicit that an Occupation Tax Certificate (Business License) is not a C/O. The two are separate documents, and the guide says to display or store your C/O and Business License in an easily accessible location. It also states that verifying compliance with the county and state departments it lists is the applicant's responsibility.

Commercial businesses opening in a commercial building, new or existing, need a valid Certificate of Occupancy; the guide says all commercial businesses require one. A business moving into a space with a new business name follows Option 1 and begins with the Commercial Permit Application.

Tenants may instead qualify for the Information Change Process when all four criteria are met:

• a valid C/O exists for the space being moved into;
• the tenant space has the same occupant classification as the previous occupant;
• no changes to the occupancy are proposed;
• no work without a permit was performed.

Not all businesses are eligible. The guide lists common reasons for ineligibility: no previous C/O available; any construction, including mechanical, electrical or plumbing (cosmetic work such as painting is acceptable); drawings that do not match previous floor plans; a significant change in furniture layout, especially for restaurants; and a change of use that modifies the occupant load, such as an insurance business becoming a tutoring business.

Businesses serving food have an extra step with the CCWS. A general contractor hired for the project must also supply certain licenses, as described in the required documents. This guide does not replace a business license, which is a separate Occupation Tax Certificate.

Start the process when you are opening a new business in an existing commercial building, or when a tenant space changes business name, because the guide says all commercial businesses require a valid C/O. The first step is the Commercial Permit Application.

The C/O itself is obtained only after all applicable final inspections, including building, FMO, arborist, CCWS and special inspections, have been completed and passed. The guide says Fire Marshal plan reviews are generally scheduled within 2 weeks of when all documents are received. All CCWS fees must be paid before a building permit is issued, and the C/O fee is included at the time of permit issuance.

If general contractor bids are still being collected, the Building Department will accept the application without the contractor's information and the Authorized Agent form, but the hired contractor must submit them before a permit is issued. The guide sets no other deadline for this process.

The process runs through several Cobb County offices, mostly online, by email and by phone. The guide gives these channels:

• Commercial Permit Application: located at www.cobbcounty.org/comdev. Questions: (770) 528-2071 | [email protected]. If your plans are larger than 20MB, request a "shared folder" in the application submittal.
• Cobb County Water System: plan review may contact you during permitting. (770) 419-6324 | [email protected]. Food service businesses also submit a food service establishments (FSE) application, found at https://www.cobbcounty.org/water/compliance/grease-management/fse.
• Cobb & Douglas Public Health: (770) 435-7815 | https://cobbanddouglaspublichealth.com/environmental-health/. Not required for all businesses.
• Fire Marshal's Office (FMO): submit the Commercial Permit Application and all drawings online at www.cobbfmo.org; inspections are scheduled through the 'Mobile Eyes Contractor Portal'. (770) 528-8310.
• Certificate of Occupancy: after all final inspections pass, obtain it by email from the Community Development Agency at [email protected].
• Information Change Form: at www.cobbfmo.org, select 'Certificates of Occupancy/Plan Review', scroll to Plan Review Resources and select 'Information Change Form'. The FMO contacts you by email after submission.

Fees apply at several stages (permitting, CCWS, FMO, possibly Public Health, and the ICF). The guide gives no amounts, so ask each office. FillingPDF lets you fill out and download the PDF; submission follows the channels above.