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

Sec. 7-42(a) makes it unlawful for anyone to engage in, or offer to engage in, electrical, plumbing or building-related mechanical work for the general public for compensation without a certificate of qualification issued under Division 2 of Article III. 1, or to a person certified through a Virginia Apprenticeship Council-approved apprenticeship program (Sec. 7-42(b)). Violating the certification requirement is a Class 3 misdemeanor under Sec. 7-42(c). Certification comes in two levels: Level One covers installing, repairing and maintaining specific equipment, while Level Two adds supervising that work and planning installation layouts to Virginia USBC specifications (Sec.

7-43). An applicant needs four years of practical experience, a completed apprenticeship, or an associate's or bachelor's degree paired with one or two years of experience (Sec. 7-44, 7-45), and must pass a building-official-administered exam by answering at least seventy-five percent of the questions correctly (Sec. 7-46), for a fee of fifteen dollars at Level One or thirty dollars at Level Two (Sec. 7-47). Beyond the worker's own certification, the electrical installation itself still needs a trade permit: Sec. 7-72 bases the fee on the same construction-value calculation used for building permits, with a percentage factor for the use group and trade, a minimum of thirty dollars, and seventy-five dollars plus four dollars per additional thousand once the valuation passes five thousand dollars.

Sec. 7-2 separately gives the building official authority to order electrical service disconnected from any wiring, device or material found defective, until the correction is made and the building official confirms the premises are safe; Sec. 7-3 lets the property owner appeal that shutoff to the building code board of appeals within five days.