What Are Deferred Submittals?

The building code explicitly allows deferral of submittal documents for portions of the design that aren't ready when the main permit application goes in. Classic candidates: steel connection design (which follows the steel fabricator's detailing), fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems (designed by specialty contractors), curtain wall and storefront systems, and certain prefabricated components. The main permit is reviewed and can be issued with the deferred items noted as pending. Three conditions apply. The building official must approve which items are deferred — you propose, they dispose. The deferred items must be identified on the construction documents, so everyone knows they're coming. And each deferred submittal must be designed, reviewed, and approved before that portion of the work is installed. Deferral moves the paperwork in time; it never removes the engineering.

You request deferral at permit application, listing the items and the reason — typically that the specialty design depends on a contractor or fabricator not yet selected, or on long-lead procurement. The building official evaluates whether the deferral is appropriate: the deferred work must be genuinely separable, and the main permit review must be able to proceed without it. Once approved, the deferred submittals follow their own mini-permitting track: prepared by the specialty engineer or contractor's engineer, reviewed by the engineer of record for conformance with the overall design, then submitted to the jurisdiction for review and approval. The EOR review step is mandatory and meaningful — it's where coordination failures get caught before they become field failures.

Deferral doesn't dilute responsibility — it distributes it explicitly. The specialty engineer stamps the deferred design; the engineer of record reviews it for general conformance with the building's structural and design intent. Both stamps mean something, and the jurisdiction holds both parties to their roles. The risks are misuse and drift. Misuse is deferring items that should have been in the main package to fake schedule progress — reviewers see through it, and it poisons the working relationship. Drift is the deferred design evolving away from the base building assumptions without anyone reconciling them. Both are managed the same way: list deferred items explicitly, track them as deliverables with owners and dates, and hold the EOR review as a real gate, not a rubber stamp.

• Typical candidates: steel connections, fire sprinklers/alarms, curtain walls, prefab components
• Requires the building official's approval — proposed by you, decided by them
• Deferred items must be listed on the permit documents
• Engineer of record reviews every deferred submittal for design conformance
• Track deferred items as deliverables — drift between deferred and base design is the risk