Montgomery County, VA Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

Under Montgomery County Code § 8-39, no repairs, alterations or additions to existing electric apparatus, and no new building wiring, may proceed without first obtaining the electrical inspector's approval and a permit. The rule exempts only emergency or minor repair work described as replacing switches and fuses, changing lamp sockets and receptacles, and taping bare joints and repairing cords. The application must be made by the person doing the work, and the permit issues to that applicant; maintenance by an employer's own regularly employed electricians, and utility, telephone and telegraph plant installations, are excluded.

Under § 8-38, the building official appoints the electrical inspector, who enforces this chapter and the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, keeps records of permits and inspections, and may neutralize or remove defective apparatus in an emergency at the owner's expense. The inspector can enter buildings, manholes, subways and poles at reasonable times to examine electric apparatus. A person aggrieved by a ruling has ten days from written notice to appeal, as a matter of right, to the board of building code appeals, with further appeal to the county circuit court.

Under § 8-40, once wiring work is complete the installer must notify the inspector, who inspects it usually within 24 hours and issues a certificate of satisfactory inspection before current may be turned on; concealed work must be inspected before it is covered. The applicant pays an inspection fee set by the board of supervisors, plus a reinspection fee for each rejected inspection. Section 8-37 exempts any incorporated town in the county, so this division reaches only the unincorporated area outside Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and never public utility generation, transmission or distribution equipment.