Roanoke County, VA Building Safety: Building Permits (2026)

Sec. 7-16 adopts the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, as amended from time to time, and makes it controlling over the construction, alteration, removal, demolition, equipment, use, occupancy, location and maintenance of buildings and structures throughout the county, expressly including the Town of Vinton even though Vinton keeps its own town code for other subjects. Because the USBC doesn't reach every kind of structure, Sec. 7-17 separately requires a building permit from the building official's office for any structure that, due to its nature, falls outside the building code's coverage, though that permit doesn't give the official authority to force USBC compliance on a structure the code doesn't regulate.

Sec. 7-18 ties permit issuance to payment: no permit is issued until the board of supervisors' prescribed fees are paid, though a licensed contractor can arrange monthly billing with the building commissioner's advance approval. Sec. 7-71 explains how those fees are calculated: the square footage of the structure is multiplied by construction-value base rates the county's real estate valuation office adjusts annually, and an estimated cost of construction is used instead for work like interior or exterior alterations, roofing, siding or demolition that doesn't fit the square-footage formula.

Anyone who starts work before pulling the required permit pays double the normal fee under Sec. 7-18, and that surcharge doesn't excuse them from separate prosecution for building without a permit. Sec. 7-19 also requires the owner or purchaser to file a sworn statement of the completed construction's cost with the commissioner of revenue once the permit-triggered work is finished. Violating any part of the chapter, including the adopted building code, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine under Sec. 7-1.