Pender County, NC Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Section 8-19 adopts the state building code, including all appendices and subsequent amendments published by the state building code council and the state department of insurance, as the building code for unincorporated Pender County, with one copy filed in the office of the director of inspections. Section 8-42 explains why: G.S. 143-138(e) requires the state building code to apply statewide, so the county created an inspection department to enforce it, drawing on all current volumes approved by the building code council and the department of insurance.

Section 8-43 places that Inspection Department under the county director of inspections, and Section 8-44 directs the Board of Commissioners to fund enough inspector positions to handle the workload; Section 8-45 adds a dedicated fire inspector/fire marshal for fire-code inspections. Permit fees are set under Section 8-64, which lets the Board of Commissioners adopt and periodically revise a fee schedule kept on file at the Inspection Department and the county clerk's office. A code footnote cross-references G.S. 153A-357 et seq., the state building-permit statute the county administers locally through the director of inspections.

Because Chapter 8 does not set a chapter-specific penalty, a violation of the § 8-19 permit and compliance requirement falls back to Pender County Code § 1-13, the Code's general penalty section, which channels enforcement through G.S. 153A-123 and treats each day of continuing noncompliance as a separate offense. Contact the Pender County Building Inspections Division, part of Planning and Community Development, at the county administration complex in Burgaw before starting any covered construction.