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

Section 8-114 makes it unlawful for any public utility company or rural electric cooperative to make a new connection of electrical energy to a building or mobile home requiring a permit until such permit is acquired for the construction or improvement of the building, or for the occupancy of the mobile home, and a release for power is granted by the building codes department. The section also requires any utility or cooperative that fields a connection request from an owner without a permit to report the request to the codes director, and it clarifies that no company or cooperative has to determine the cost or value of the building being constructed or improved, meaning the burden of proving the $1,000 improvement threshold in § 8-111 falls on the applicant and the codes department, not the power company.

Because § 8-115 also blocks permit issuance until the county treasurer certifies that property taxes are paid in full, an electrical hookup on new construction in the unincorporated county effectively waits on three things in sequence: the building permit itself, the treasurer's tax certificate, and the codes department's separate release for power. C. Code 1976, § 4-25-250 as the enabling authority for the connection restriction.