Public-domain personality instruments
...you can use them for free -- no need to ask for permission!
Three varying-length versions of QB6 (24- or 36- or 48-item questionnaire for the Big Six model of personality attributes, using items from International Personality Item Pool), developed in 2009, preliminary instruments based on factors that most tend to emerge in inclusive-selection lexical studies in multiple languages that may exceed the Big Five in predictive capacity (Saucier, 2009, Journal of Personality; Thalmayer, Saucier, & Eigenhuis, 2011, Psychological Assessment; Thalmayer & Saucier, 2014)
Mini-Markers (40-item adjective measure of Big Five), developed in 1994, a relatively simple Big Five inventory with a fine track record
You can't use the NEO-FFI for free, but if you already have NEO-FFI item responses you can rescore the items into subcomponents for free, as follows:NEO-FFI subcomponents (from 1998 article in Journal of Personality Assessment): Norms and scoring key