Shelby County, TN Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

Shelby County Code § 6-73 adopts the 2020 edition of the National Electric Code (NEC) by reference in its entirety for the unincorporated county. Section 6-74 layers on local amendments attached to Joint Ordinance No. 528, and § 6-75 incorporates the 2020 NEC, those local amendments, and a locally drafted Appendix A, Electrical Permit and Inspection Fees, by reference; together the NEC and these local additions are named the 2021 Memphis and Shelby County Electrical Code. Because Appendix A is the section that sets electrical permit and inspection fees, anyone doing wiring, panel or service work outside Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Millington, Arlington or Lakeland pulls an electrical permit under that adopted appendix rather than a stand-alone county ordinance.

Section 6-76 sets the effective date at December 31, 2021, contingent on concurring passage by the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners or, if the two bodies act on different dates, on the date of the later adoption. The code cross-references gas and electric utility services at Chapter 8, Article VIII. Inspections of electrical work fall to the county electrical inspector created under § 6-2, or to a contracted city electrical inspector serving as an ex officio county inspector under the same section.