Do I need an electrical permit in Cook County? The supervising-electrician rule, the fee table, and 7,909 permits

Who issues your permit

Each of the roughly 120 cities, villages and towns in suburban Cook County issues its own electrical permits. Only unincorporated land goes to the County's Department of Building and Zoning. Check which applies in CookViewer with the "Unincorporated Area" layer. The rules below are the County's.

What needs an electrical permit

The County's building permits page (read 24 October 2026) says all work in unincorporated Cook County needs a permit apart from ordinary repairs, and the electrical supplemental application covers the "installation, alteration, or repair of electrical equipment." The County's electrical permit application (edited 21 July 2026) has boxes for services and feeders, circuits, fire alarm ("must be in pipe"), security, data, intercom, TV, fiber and central vacuum, and asks the service voltage, phase, wires and amps, a description of the work and the estimated cost.

Who can pull it

The application is signed by the supervising electrician, who certifies that "all work performed under authority of this permit shall be installed by myself or by employees of the licensed contractor listed above, under my supervision." The signature must be by hand and match the electrician's driver's licence.

To register with Building and Zoning, an electrical contractor needs a current licence for its supervising electrician "from an Illinois city, town, or village with an electrical commission that administers an examination," a signed affidavit, a copy of the electrician's driver's licence and $1,000,000 of general liability insurance; registration is $150 per trade, then $75 a year (Contractor Registration). Questions go to electrical.bnz@cookcountyil.gov or 312-603-0515. Because the form requires a supervising electrician's signature, plan on a registered electrician for any wiring on unincorporated land.

What it costs in unincorporated Cook County

From the fee schedule amendment effective 1 December 2020:

The minimum electrical inspection fee is $150, and a $100 residential deposit is due when you apply and credited to the fee.

How to apply and get it inspected

1. Confirm the address is unincorporated; CookViewer also gives the 14-digit PIN and township the form asks for.
2. The electrician emails the application and letter of intent to electrical.bnz@cookcountyil.gov, or it goes into the general contractor's full permit application through the E-Permits portal.
3. If the permit is to clear a violation, the violation number goes on the form; the County warns that leaving it off brings penalties and fines.
4. Pay the invoice. At issue the County names your field inspectors and the construction stages they must see; book them before walls are closed.

What 7,909 suburban electrical permits show

From the Assessor's copy of the suburbs' permits (electrical permits):

Electrical filings are fairly even through the year, with peaks in April, August and October. The count is permits the suburbs described as electrical work; wiring done under a remodel or new-home permit is counted with that work instead. National figures are in electrical work cost; other cities' rules are in do I need a permit for electrical work and do I need a permit for an electrical panel upgrade.

Checking the electrician and the permit

Illinois licence checks for other trades are in how to check a contractor's license in Illinois; for an electrician, ask which municipality licensed the supervising electrician and, on unincorporated land, for the Cook County registration number. Permits already on your address are covered in Cook County building permit search. The year and month breakdown is on permit statistics, and individual rows on browse permits.

What this does not tell you

The Assessor's file holds only the permits a suburb reported, names no electrician, has no ZIP code we can publish and no final inspection dates. Village fees and rules differ from the County's.