Texas — Contractors Insurance

What IS regulated statewide: electricians and HVAC/refrigeration contractors (Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, TDLR), plumbers (Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, TSBPE), and irrigation contractors (TDLR).

General contractor "registration" in Texas is a city-level requirement that varies by municipality — Dallas requires annual registration, Austin uses its own portal, Houston issues per-permit business licenses — there is no single statewide license or registration to point to. Texas is also one of the few states where workers' compensation coverage is optional for most private employers, not mandatory — the opposite default from California, Arizona and Nevada. These figures are general information, not legal advice. They change without notice and may be out of date or contain errors, and requirements also vary by city, county, project and contract, among other factors — verify what applies to your own work with the regulator named above, the permitting agency and your own contract documents before relying on it.

The licensed trades do carry state-set insurance floors, and they are low. TDLR requires an electrical contractor to hold commercial general liability of at least $300,000 per occurrence, $600,000 aggregate and $300,000 for products and completed operations; an air conditioning and refrigeration contractor needs the same at Class A, or $100,000 / $200,000 / $100,000 at Class B. TSBPE requires a Responsible Master Plumber to keep at least $300,000 of general commercial liability in force. These are licensing minimums, not a coverage benchmark — treat $1,000,000 per occurrence as the practical commercial floor, because that is what general contractors, owners and lenders write into their contracts.

Workers' compensation has one firm exception to Texas's optional rule: under Labor Code 406.096, a contractor on a governmental entity's building or construction contract must certify in writing that it carries workers' compensation for every employee on that public project, and each subcontractor gives the general contractor a certificate covering its own employees. Public work in Texas therefore looks much more like California, Arizona or Nevada than private work does.

They register with Dallas because that's where they're used to registering, then take a job in Houston without realizing Houston's per-permit business licensing process is entirely separate from Dallas's annual registration.

Illustrative only — this describes a typical pattern, not an actual case or guaranteed outcome. Texas GC requirements are set city by city, not statewide — confirm the specific municipality's process before assuming one city's registration carries over. For a case-specific question, consult a licensed attorney or the relevant municipality directly.