Kentucky enforces the 2023 NEC

Record of adoption

In force since

Jan 1, 2025

Legal citation

815 KAR 7:120; 815 KAR 7:125

Adopted by

Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction (Public Protection Cabinet)

Second reading

Agreed Oct 19, 2026

Applies

Statewide

State amendments

Minor

Also called

2023 NEC, NFPA 70

Regulation effective Dec 3, 2024, per history line; DHBC announcement gave mandatory enforcement as Jan 1, 2025 (stated in advance of the rule taking effect, so date is the department’s stated enforcement date).

Exceptions

• One- and two-family dwellings and townhouses: the 2017 NEC applied until delayed 2023 provisions took effect; 210.52(C), 230.67 and 314.27(C) became enforceable Jul 15, 2026, while GFCI items 210.8(A) and 210.8(D)(8)-(11) remain delayed
• 815 KAR 10:060 (Standards of Safety, fire marshal) still incorporates the 2017 NEC

Coming next

• 2026 NECPartial
  No date yetIn developmentnone yet

  Task force announced Mar 18, 2026, to compare 2026 NEC with the adopted 2023 NEC and recommend to the Department; meetings held April to May 2026; no proposed regulation or date found.

How Kentucky adopts the NEC

• Agency rule
• The legislature reviews the rules and can block them

The Department promulgates administrative regulations under KRS 198B.050 and 198B.080 after notice under KRS Chapter 13A, incorporating a new edition of the Kentucky Building Code or Residential Code (or the state fire standards for fire). Each regulation is reviewed by the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee and a legislative subject-matter committee, which can defer, request amendment or find it deficient, but a deficiency finding leaves the Governor to decide whether it takes effect; no statute names an edition.

Cycle. Irregular; the Kentucky codes are still based on 2015 model codes, with the NEC updated separately to 2023 effective about 2025.

Laws, rulings, and other actions

1. Jul 15, 2026Other action
   DHBC notice that delayed 2023 NEC provisions become enforceable for residential work

   Makes 210.52(C), 230.67 and 314.27(C) of the 2023 NEC fully enforceable for dwellings; GFCI provisions 210.8(A) and 210.8(D)(8)-(11) stay delayed.

2. Mar 18, 2026Other action
   DHBC 2026 NEC Task Force

   Department-convened task force reviewing the 2026 NEC against the adopted 2023 NEC to recommend adoption.

How it was checked

Verified

Two separate readings of the state’s own record agree, and the passage is on file word for word.

Read twice: a second, blind reading of the state’s record agreed with the first on Oct 19, 2026.

The state’s record was last read on Oct 19, 2026, from six source pages.

Evidence 7 sources

Sources for the record itself come first, the state’s own records ahead of others. A label marks a source about something else, such as an exception. A source marked secondary is not the state’s own record.

• “This amendment adopts the 2023 National Electrical Code ("NEC"), a referenced standard of the Kentucky Building Code.”

• “2018 Kentucky Building Code", Fourth Edition, February 2024.”

• “51 Ky.R. 500; eff. 12-3-2024.”

• “Mandatory enforcement of the 2023 NEC will begin January 1, 2025”

• “2023 NFPA 70 - National Electrical Code (effective October 1, 2014)”

• About an exception

  “NFPA 70, "National Electrical Code®", 2017 edition”

• About an exception

  “effective July 15, 2026, several provisions of the 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC)”

Tracker cross-checks

Code adoption trackers are a cross-check. They are not Kentucky’s own record.

• NFPA’s enforcement mapCross-checkAgrees with the record

  Kentucky 2023 (1/1/2025); 2026 update process underway (effective date not established)

  Read Oct 17, 2026

Related pages

• See Kentucky’s NEC on the map
• NEC adoption in every state
• All six codes in Kentucky

Other codes in Kentucky

• IBC2015 IBCPartial
• IRC2015 IRCPartial
• IFCAnother model codePartial
• IECC residential2009 IECCPartial
• IECC commercial2012 IECCPartial