Lafayette, LA Building Safety: Building Inspections (2026)

Section 26-149 bars anyone from knowingly using electrical power in "new, existing, altered or repaired installations" until the department has inspected, tested, and approved the work. Once all the electrical work on a job is finished and the contractor notifies the department, § 26-152 requires an inspection, and if the work is found correctly installed, an agent signs the final inspection approval card and dates it. If a rough or final inspection instead turns up faulty or incorrectly installed work, § 26-153 requires the department to notify the permit holder of the specific changes needed.

The permit holder then has 48 working hours under § 26-154 to begin the ordered corrections and must keep working until they're finished; once done and the reinspection fee required by § 26-155 is paid, the department reinspects and signs off if the work now complies. Repeated bad reinspections carry their own consequence under § 26-156: the department collects an additional reinspection fee, and if the required changes still aren't made within a reasonable time, the department can refuse to issue that person any further permits until the faulty work is corrected and approved.

Multi-contractor jobs get their own inspection checkpoint under § 26-148, when a second contractor takes over after another contractor's rough-in work, the department must inspect the first contractor's installation before issuing the second contractor's permit, and issuing that second permit cancels the first with no refund.