Simi Valley, CA Building Safety: Electrical Permits (2026)

Simi Valley adopts the California Electrical Code, 2025 Edition, Part 3 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, as the primary electrical code of the City in § 8-12.01(a). Ordinance No. 1346 first adopted the chapter effective January 5, 2023, and Ordinance No. 1366 moved it to the 2025 edition effective December 18, 2025. Under § 8-12.01(b), one copy of the 2025 code is filed for public examination in the offices of the City of Simi Valley.

The permit duty is in § 8-5.01. No building, structure or building service equipment may be erected, constructed, enlarged, altered, repaired, moved, improved, removed, converted or demolished until a separate, appropriate permit for each building, structure or building service equipment has first been obtained from the Building Official. Electrical work therefore carries its own electrical permit. Section 8-5.03(b) repeats the point for work that escapes a building permit: separate plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits are still required for those items unless Title 8 exempts them. A one-story shed of 120 square feet or less and 14 feet or less in height skips a building permit only if it contains no electrical, mechanical or plumbing work.

Section 8-5.06 lists the work that needs no electrical permit: cord-and-plug portable motors and appliances, repair or replacement of fixed motors, transformers or appliances of the same type and rating in the same location, temporary decorative lighting, repair or replacement of current-carrying parts of a switch, conductor or control device, reinstalling plug receptacles (but not the outlets), replacing an overcurrent device of the required capacity in the same location (but never service equipment), taping joints, removing wiring, Class II and Class III low-energy circuits, and utility work in a serving utility's function. Wiring under 25 volts that cannot supply more than 50 watts is exempt except in hazardous (classified) locations. Section 8-5.02(b) adds that an exemption never authorizes work that violates the technical codes or any other law or City ordinance.

Section 8-12.02 requires a permit for portable wiring at carnivals, circuses, exhibits, amusement rides, traveling attractions and film shoots, including wiring in or on structures. Under § 8-12.03(a), temporary construction wiring comes out immediately when the work ends, and the main service cannot be energized to provide temporary lighting. Section 8-12.03(b) lets the Building Official authorize a conditional service connection when the standard process cannot be followed.