LA Knob and Tube pulls permits for rewiring through the right office for each address, and in the City of LA that office is LADBS. Yes, you need an electrical permit for rewiring in Los Angeles. Replacing branch circuits is permitted, inspected work. In the City of LA, the Department of Building and Safety issues it, almost always as an express permit with no plan check. Pasadena, Glendale and South Pasadena issue their own permits.
The permit is not paperwork for its own sake. It is what puts an inspector inside the walls before they are closed, and the final sign-off is the record a buyer or an insurer asks for later.
Who issues the permit
The issuing office depends on the city the house is in, not its mailing address. Addresses inside the City of Los Angeles, which includes Highland Park, Silver Lake, West Adams, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz and the other neighborhoods on the service areas page, go to LADBS. Pasadena, Glendale and South Pasadena are separate cities with their own building departments, inspectors and fee schedules.
Express permit or plan check in the City of LA
LADBS’s electrical permit application says a single-family electrical permit needs plan check only when a listed trigger applies: renewable energy or solar, a storage battery, equipment rated 600 amps or more, or more than 400 amps of new connected load. A house rewire with a service of 200 amps or less rarely touches any of those.
The open permit data bears that out. Of 3,897 LADBS electrical permits on one- and two-family houses issued from January 2020 to October 2026 whose description mentions a rewire or knob and tube, 3,896 were express permits and one went through regular plan check. Rewires run at roughly 540 to 640 a year.
Who can pull it
LADBS allows a property owner to obtain an electrical permit as an owner-builder only on a single-family dwelling, and only with proof of ownership and proof that the owner currently lives at the address. An Owner-Builder Declaration is part of the application.
Everyone else applies as a contractor. The application asks for the state license number and class, a City of LA business tax number and the workers’ compensation carrier. The Contractors State License Board’s C-10 Electrical Contractor classification covers placing, installing and connecting electrical wires, fixtures and raceways. Under state labor law, people doing electrical work for a C-10 contractor must be certified electricians. A contractor’s license can be checked on the CSLB website before anything is signed.
An owner-builder permit does not make the work any simpler. The same inspections apply, and the owner takes responsibility for work that is hazardous to do without training. This site does not give instructions for doing it.
What the inspections check
An inspection is scheduled against the permit, and LADWP notes that LADBS requires the electrical permit before an inspector can go to the jobsite. A rewire usually has two inspection points.
Rough inspection, before cover. With walls, ceilings and openings still open, the inspector looks at the new cable, how it is supported and protected, boxes and their fill, grounding connections and the routes through framing. Nothing that is going to be hidden can be closed before this is approved.
Final inspection. With devices installed and the panel labeled, the inspector checks the finished circuits, including AFCI protection on replaced living-area circuits, GFCI where required and tamper-resistant receptacles.
Testing comes before the inspector
The inspector’s approval depends on the contractor’s own testing first. Before calling for an inspection, each new circuit should be checked for correct polarity, a continuous ground path back to the panel, and AFCI and GFCI devices that trip as designed, and each old knob and tube run should be confirmed dead after it is disconnected. A circuit that fails a test is corrected before the inspection, not after. A correction notice from the inspector means another visit, and patching waits until the approval is on the permit. The replacement process guide shows where these steps sit in the sequence.
Permit fees
City of Los Angeles. LADBS charges electrical permit fees per circuit, panel and service, with surcharges, and the amounts change with city fee ordinances. The LADBS permit fee calculator gives the current total for a specific scope.
Pasadena. The city’s fee schedule lists a $78 permit processing fee, $28 for the first 10 outlets, fixtures or switches and $8 for each one after that, $21 per branch-circuit breaker, and $73 for a service or panel up to 200 amps (City of Pasadena).
Glendale and South Pasadena. Fees are confirmed per address with each city’s building department.
A quote should say whether the permit fee is included. The rewiring quote checklist lists that and the other lines to look for.
Why unpermitted rewiring causes trouble later
Unpermitted electrical work tends to surface at the worst moment. A buyer’s inspector may ask for permits, the state’s electrical advisory now reaches every covered home sale, and an insurer may want proof the knob and tube was replaced. Without a final inspection on record, the answer is often to open walls again so the work can be inspected. The selling guide covers how permit records fit into escrow.
Code, not just paperwork
The permit is how the California Electrical Code reaches the job. Existing knob and tube is not banned by that code, but repairs, alterations and extensions need permits, and new work has to meet current requirements. The guide to whether knob and tube is legal in California covers the code side. In an HPOZ, interior rewiring is exempt from preservation review, but exterior changes such as a relocated mast are not; the historic homes guide explains. When you want the permit handled as part of the job, call or request an estimate.