Oconee County, SC Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Section 6-46 adopts 'the 2021 International Plumbing Code with South Carolina modifications and its respective administration sections contained in Chapter 1' by reference into Chapter 6 of the Oconee County Code, making Oconee County the applicable jurisdiction for the qualification, duties and administrative procedures of the plumbing inspectors under that code. Section 6-82 then imposes the county's own permit-application duty: any owner, authorized agent, contractor or other party who wants to erect, install, enlarge, alter, remove, convert or repair 'any electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system' regulated by the adopted codes must first apply to the building official and obtain an appropriate permit before starting work, with a limited emergency-repair exception letting repairs begin immediately if a permit follows afterward.

The permit, once issued, must be kept at the jobsite and made available to the building official or codes department staff on demand. Section 6-83 lets county council set and revise a permit and fee schedule by resolution, and any fee or code revision must be published in a newspaper of general circulation for two consecutive weeks before taking effect ten days later. The county codes department, established under Section 6-81 and headed by a building official, accepts permit applications, reviews plans, performs required inspections and issues the plumbing permits and certificates.

Section 6-86 separately bars any public utility from making a new connection to a building regulated under this chapter until the building official releases it and issues a certificate of occupancy, tying plumbing and utility hookups together administratively.