Horry County, SC Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

Section 6-32 of the Horry County Code sets the floor for electrical permitting outside the county's municipalities. Any power service application, whether it's a new electrical service or a change of an existing one, carries a minimum permit fee of $100, and that minimum expressly extends to installations such as water pumps and electric fences, not just houses. The section also prices reinspections: after a contractor has already used two inspection visits, every additional visit costs at least $25. If an inspector arrives and the work isn't ready for inspection, if required repairs or corrections weren't made when the inspection was called, or if the inspector condemns faulty work, the reinspection fee jumps to a minimum of $100 per visit.

These fees sit alongside the county's broader adoption of the National Electrical Code under Section 6-2, which the building inspection department (Section 6-1) enforces for all construction outside Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Conway and the county's other municipalities. In fast-growing unincorporated areas like Carolina Forest and Little River, where there is no city hall to permit through, every service upgrade, whether it's a new panel, a well pump, or an electric fence around a pasture, needs this county electrical permit before an electrician energizes the circuit.