Residential electrical work in Fairfax County is permitted through Land Development Services as an electrical trade permit (ELER), filed online in the county's PLUS portal. A licensed contractor — or the homeowner, though the county recommends the contractor be the responsible party — applies under the Building tab, pays the fee in PLUS, and schedules inspections in the same portal; a request submitted before 11:59 p.m. can get a next-business-day inspection.
Everything an electrician needs to pull a residential electrical permit in Fairfax County, in the order it actually happens — checked against the county's own Land Development Services pages, with links to the source at every step. Bookmark it; the county rearranges its website more often than it rearranges the process.
When you need an electrical permit here
Per the county's residential electrical (ELER) permit page: new residential electrical service, new electrical equipment or fixtures, replacement of electrical equipment or fixtures, and EV charging station circuits and outlets. In practice that covers the bread and butter — panel swaps, service upgrades, new circuits, EV chargers, generator connections. When you're not sure a scope crosses the line, the permit library page is the authority, not the guy at the counter of the supply house.
Who can pull the permit
Two answers, one recommendation. Property owners may pull permits in their own name for their own house — but the county itself strongly recommends the licensed contractor pull the permit as the responsible party, because that puts a license on the hook the county can act against if the work is defective. For contractors, that means a valid Virginia contractor license with the right classification — verify yours or anyone else's through DPOR's license lookup. If someone files on behalf of the owner or contractor, the county wants a Permit Authorization form with the application; if no licensed contractor is listed at all, the owner signs a License Exemption Affidavit.
Filing in PLUS, step by step
- Register a PLUS account. PLUS is the county's central online permitting portal — applications, fees, status tracking, and inspections all live there. First-time users register once and use the same account for every job after.
- Apply under the Building tab. Residential electrical files as an ELER record. If the electrical work rides on a bigger project, the trade permit issues after the associated building permit; standalone electrical jobs with no parent building permit file with the county's coversheet instead.
- Attach what applies — which is usually nothing. Trade permits don't require plans for typical residential work. The exception is heavy services: at 600 amps and up, plans must include a service riser diagram with conduit and trough sizes, conductor sizes, and overcurrent protection details — designs a Virginia Master Electrician or Class A contractor can produce up to 800 amps, above which a Registered Design Professional's seal is required. Properties in the towns of Clifton or Vienna also need town approval documentation.
- Pay and download. Fees follow the Land Development Services fee schedule — amounts change (the county adjusted fees as recently as July), so don't trust a number from a forum post; pull the current schedule from the LDS site. Once reviews are approved and fees are paid, the permit card downloads straight from PLUS.
- Do the work to code. The standard is the National Electrical Code as adopted by the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code — Virginia amendments included, which is not always the NEC edition your code book assumes.
- Schedule inspections in PLUS. Details below, because this is where jobs lose days.
Inspections: how it actually goes
It is the permit holder's responsibility to call for inspection when the work reaches a stage that requires one — concealment before anything gets covered, final at completion. Per the county's inspections page, the mechanics that matter:
- Next-business-day service exists. Submit the request in PLUS before 11:59 p.m. and you can be on the next day's inspection list. That cutoff is the difference between a one-day gap and a two-day gap on every stage of every job.
- Related inspections get bundled. Fairfax runs combination inspections — related inspections for a project are expected to be scheduled on the same day, and missing the bundling can mean a failed inspection and a reinspection fee. If a scope involves multiple trades, coordinate before anyone books.
- Rescheduling is cancel-then-rebook. There's no "move" button: cancel the existing request first, then schedule the new date.
- Virtual inspections are available by request. Type the request into the comments field when scheduling; you'll walk the inspector through on a phone camera. At the inspector's discretion, and not every job qualifies — but for a straightforward swap it can save a site wait.
- Not ready costs money. Work that isn't complete when the inspector arrives can draw a reinspection fee. Cheaper to cancel the night before.
What draws corrections in Fairfax housing stock
None of this is county data — it's what pulling permits in this county looks like from the truck. Fairfax's stock skews older than its neighbors: whole neighborhoods of 1950s–70s ramblers and split-levels in Annandale, Springfield, Falls Church. Predictable consequences at inspection time: ungrounded circuits and two-prong receptacles surfacing the moment a scope touches them; aluminum branch wiring in houses from the late '60s and early '70s that turns a simple device swap into a remediation conversation; panel change-outs that uncover the obsolete brands every NoVA electrician knows on sight; and the modern-code items — GFCI and AFCI coverage when circuits get extended, bonding brought current during service work. Scope and price for the era of the house, not just the line items, and the inspection goes the way you planned it.
Permits on Loadside jobs
On a Loadside job, the scope you approve before accepting spells out the contractor of record — you, under your license, which is exactly how the county prefers it. The job arrives sold and scoped with permit and inspection time priced into the fixed number, so the county process above is a cost you've already been paid for, not a surprise. More on how we work this county specifically: Loadside in Fairfax County. And for where permit-driven work fits in the bigger pipeline picture, the hub: 7 ways electricians get work in 2026.
Licensed and pulling permits in Fairfax already? You're the person we built this for.