Is there a legal deadline for plan check?

Not in the Energy Code. For ADUs, state ADU law requires a completeness decision within 15 business days and a decision on a complete application within 60 days where there is an existing dwelling.

Does a Title 24 report slow plan check down?

Missing or mismatched energy documents add correction rounds. A complete report that is registered where required and matches the plans avoids them.

Can the plan checker ask for my energy model file?

Yes. Section 10-103(a)2C lets the department require the supporting documentation, including the electronic input file for the compliance software.

How Long Does Title 24 Plan Check Take?

There is no statewide figure: review times are set by each building department, and the Energy Code sets none. What you can influence is how many rounds the energy documents take, and that comes down to whether they are complete, registered where required and consistent with the plans.

Choose your report
Upload your plans
Pay securely
Permit-ready report by email

Why nobody can quote a number

The Energy Commission writes the Energy Code; city and county building departments enforce it. Part 6 and the administrative rules in Part 1 say what a department must confirm before it issues a permit. They do not say how long it may take. Workload, staffing, how energy documents are routed and how many correction rounds a project needs all vary, so the only reliable figure is the one your department gives you.

Plan check time is also not the same thing as report turnaround. Turnaround is how long the report takes to prepare; see how long a Title 24 report takes. Plan check is the department's review after you submit.

Where state law does set a clock: ADUs

For accessory dwelling units, state ADU law sets deadlines, which HCD's ADU Handbook summarises. The permitting agency must decide whether an ADU or JADU application is complete within 15 business days and say in writing what is missing if it is not. Where there is an existing dwelling on the lot, it must approve or deny a complete application within 60 days. Details are on our page on California ADU rules.

What the examiner checks on the energy side

a certificate of compliance for the scope of work, signed by the documentation author and the person responsible for the design (Section 10-103(a)1 and (a)2A)
registration with an ECC provider data registry where field verification is required, with the registration number displayed (Section 10-103(a)1B)
a project name and location that match the rest of the plans (Section 10-103(a)1Aii)
plans that conform to the features on the certificate, from insulation to equipment efficiencies (Section 10-103(a)2B)
the right code edition: the one in force on the application date (Section 10-103(d)1)

The department may also ask for the supporting documentation behind the certificate, including the electronic input file from the compliance software (Section 10-103(a)2C).

What adds rounds

Each gap in that list becomes a correction, and each correction is another pass through the department's queue. The usual suspects are an unregistered CF1R where registration applies, window sizes or U-factors that differ between the certificate and the window schedule, equipment on the mechanical sheets that is not what was modelled, and a report run under the wrong edition. Our guide to Title 24 mistakes lists fifteen.

Design changes during review reset the energy side too. Section 10-103(a)2B requires amended plans and certificates to be submitted for approval whenever a change may take the building out of compliance.

How to keep it short

Have the report prepared from the final drawings, not an early draft.
Submit the registered CF1R with the first package. Where the department wants plans, the certificates are incorporated into the plan set, as registered copies where registration applies.
When comments come back, send the correction letter itself to whoever prepared the report. See plan check corrections.