Free checklist for contractors

Texas contractor compliance checklist

What Texas law asks of a contractor on residential work, from the rules ProntoBill keeps for Texas: licensing, bond and insurance where the state sets them, and the notices and contract requirements. Each item links the law’s own text, and the page says plainly what it doesn’t cover. No account and no email.

Last reviewed November 5, 2026Leer en español All states

Informational guidance, not a legal determination. This page summarizes the rules as they were checked on the dates shown. Each section has conditions a summary can’t hold, so read the law it links. Check with a construction lawyer how the rules apply to your contracts.

Your contractor license

This section covers Texas trade licenses only: electrical, air conditioning and refrigeration, and plumbing. General contractors are not covered in this section.

Bond and liability insurance minimums

The minimums by type of license. They are the floor the law sets: the state may require more of you.

Electrical contractor (TDLR): no bond minimum in the sources read; insurance (general liability, per occurrence: $300,000; general liability, aggregate: $600,000; products and completed operations, aggregate: $300,000) (Tex. Occ. Code § 1305.159(a)(2); TDLR electrical contractor requirements, checked November 5, 2026). From the state agency’s own page; the statute itself was not read, and not reviewed by a lawyer.
Source
Air conditioning and refrigeration contractor, Class A (TDLR): no bond minimum in the sources read; insurance (general liability, per occurrence: $300,000; general liability, aggregate: $600,000; products and completed operations, aggregate: $300,000) (Tex. Occ. Code § 1302.102; TDLR ACR contractor requirements, checked November 5, 2026). From the state agency’s own page; the statute itself was not read, and not reviewed by a lawyer.
Source
Responsible master plumber (TSBPE): no bond minimum in the sources read; insurance (general liability, all claims in a year: $300,000) (Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1301.3576, 1301.552, checked November 6, 2026). Checked against the law’s own text, not reviewed by a lawyer.
Source
Air conditioning and refrigeration contractor, Class B (TDLR): no bond minimum in the sources read; insurance (general liability, per occurrence: $100,000; general liability, aggregate: $200,000; products and completed operations, aggregate: $100,000) (Tex. Occ. Code § 1302.102; TDLR ACR contractor requirements, checked November 5, 2026). From the state agency’s own page; the statute itself was not read, and not reviewed by a lawyer.
Source

You also need workers’ compensation proof, or a statement that you have opted out (TDLR).
One Class A policy can cover a Class B license too (TDLR).
This applies to the responsible master plumber. Plumbing proposals, invoices and contracts must also show the responsible master plumber’s name and license number and the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners’ name, mailing address and phone (Occ. Code 1301.302).

Notices and contract requirements

What the law asks you to give the customer, or put in the contract, on a job. A summary of each, from the rule’s data: the section itself can narrow when it applies.

Federal Cooling-Off Rule notice of cancellation (16 CFR 429)

Price: $25 or more
When: Before the contract is signed
Can cover: Homes and buildings of 1–4 units and residential buildings of 5 or more units
Not covered: Commercial work

Not owed when your customer is another contractor.
Only when the sale was made at the customer’s home, or anywhere away from your place of business. The $25 is for a sale at the home; elsewhere away from your business, the rule covers sales of $130 or more (16 CFR 429.0(a)).

Checked against the law’s own text, not reviewed by a lawyer. Checked November 5, 2026.

Read the law