Start a small property record
Keep the street address, property owner's name for the inquiry, and parcel identifier if available from an existing property record. Add a plain description of the work: replacing equipment in an existing room, altering interior piping or repairing an outside service connection. An office can respond more usefully to that description than to “general plumbing.”
Do not post the full property file or unrelated financial documents publicly. Supply only what the verified authority needs. If a provider is making the inquiry, ask it to preserve the response and identify which address and scope were discussed.
County departments have different jobs
Lake County Planning, Building and Development forms are explicitly organized for unincorporated properties. Public Works' permit page concerns its water and sanitary-sewer service areas and lists exclusions, including interior plumbing, wells and septic systems. The Health Department has separate well and onsite wastewater resources.
That distinction does not determine the process for your address. It explains why the first office you contact may refer a portion of the question elsewhere. Keep the referral and ask the next office to confirm its own responsibility rather than treating the transfer as an approval.
Ask a question that can be answered
Try: “For this address, who determines permits and inspections for this described work, and what information is needed before a decision?” If the answer is that no permit is needed, record the scope and authority behind that answer. A statement about one small task should not silently expand to a later alteration.
Before work proceeds, agree on who applies, schedules inspections and keeps completion records. The permit-planning notes turn those answers into a project checklist. The provider's willingness to take the job and the government's approval process remain separate confirmations.