Illinois Contractor and Electrician Licensing

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sketchy

Senior Member
Location
MN
Anyone have a good resource for the requirements in IL? I know each municipality is different but is there 1 city that trumps all others and is accepted everywhere? Chicago? I'll be working mainly in the northern 25% of the state, mostly suburbs.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
While the state law requires all municipalities in Illinois to accept any other municipality's electrical contractor license, that does not always happen. Often the contractors license is nothing more than registering and paying fee. Some cities also require an electricians license in addition to the contractors license or registration.
(65 ILCS 5/11‑33‑1) (from Ch. 24, par. 11‑33‑1)
Sec. 11‑33‑1. The corporate authorities of each municipality may require the registration of electrical contractors, and may impose an annual registration fee of $25 on each registered contractor. An electrical contractor who is registered in one municipality, however, shall not be required by any other municipality to be registered or to pay a registration fee in the other municipality.

There is nothing in the state law that directly addresses the licensing of electricians, so you will have to do some digging to find out what one is accepted in the areas you are working in. There are a lot more municipalities that require an electrical license to do work in their area, than there are municipalities that offer testing and an electrical license.
 

Buck Parrish

Senior Member
Location
NC & IN
Sounds like Indiana. There is one in Brazil IN , You go in and pay $25. 00, they give you a certificate with your name on it that says licensed electrician.
I figured you needed to be licensed to wire a 72 room assisted living home with an additional 22 room memory care.
But we had NO inspections on our work at all. None. the only person that looked at it was me before it was covered up. It had a 1600 amp service we had 5 electrical rooms with transformers in the building.
I've done some work in Middle Eastern Illinois down around Matoon. They had no electrical permits or inspectors either. The place is just so country.

But I remember in NC doing work in a rual county, up around Saphire Valley. Another county would send an inspector to check it. State wide licensing is so much better.
 

sketchy

Senior Member
Location
MN
Thanks for the replies. I stumbled upon Libertyville's website and they claim most muni's will accept their license, except Chicago.
What other municipalities will accept this license? Most towns in Illinois, with the possible exception of Chicago (they have their own code and licensing requirements), accept our license.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Thanks for the replies. I stumbled upon Libertyville's website and they claim most muni's will accept their license, except Chicago.
Chicago has there own code and does not accept other city licenses. As a result many other cities do not accept the Chicago license. Our small town has over 600 electrical licenses because we offered a test and some towns require a license that was obtained by passing a test, but do not offer their own test.
We are not currently offering a test at this time and are looking into switching from our own test to one of the national testing companies.
 
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