Texas is the second state in this series where the honest answer to "what does being unlicensed cost me on this invoice" is nothing directly, and it gets there by a different route from Ohio.
Ohio has a licensing chapter that excludes houses by definition. Texas has no statewide general or residential contractor license to be unlicensed against. Three trades are licensed at state level and that is the whole of it.
So the pressure sits elsewhere, and this is the page's real subject: Texas has a prompt payment statute that looks like a strong remedy right up until you read which projects it applies to.
What Texas licenses
Three chapters of the Occupations Code, three trades:
- Electricians, Chapter 1305. Section 1305.151: "a person or business may not perform or offer to perform electrical work or residential appliance installation unless the person or business holds an appropriate license issued or recognized under this chapter."
- Plumbers, Chapter 1301. Section 1301.351(a): "A person, other than a responsible master plumber, may not engage in plumbing unless" they hold the right license or registration and their work is supervised by someone licensed under the chapter.
- Air conditioning and refrigeration, Chapter 1302. Section 1302.251(a): "A person may not engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting unless the person holds an air conditioning and refrigeration contractor license."
One licensed trade does not unlock another. Section 1302.063 is titled "No exemption for certain persons licensed under other law", and it says a licensed plumber "may not engage or offer or attempt to engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting without a license under this chapter." Holding a plumbing license is not a defense to doing unlicensed A/C work.
There is no fourth chapter for general contractors, and no residential builder license.
What happens if you do it anyway
All three chapters land in the same place criminally. Sections 1305.303, 1301.508 and 1302.453 each make unlicensed practice an offense, and each says the same thing about severity: "An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor."
The money side differs by trade. Plumbing carries the most explicit figure, section 1301.507:
"A person who violates this chapter or a rule, permit, or order of the board is subject to a civil penalty of not less than $50 or more than $1,000 for each act of violation and for each day of violation after notice is provided to the person."
Read the two "for each" clauses together. That is per act and per day, running from the day notice was given.
Electrical adds administrative machinery instead: section 1305.301 lets the executive director impose an administrative penalty "regardless of whether the person holds a license under this chapter", and 1305.302 allows a cease and desist order, an injunction, or a civil penalty brought by the attorney general.
There is no section 7031 in Texas
We searched all three chapters for any provision barring an unlicensed person from bringing or maintaining an action, or from recovering payment. There is none. Not in the electrical chapter, not in plumbing, not in air conditioning.
That is worth stating as a searched result rather than an impression. California's Business and Professions Code section 7031 says in terms that no person may bring or maintain an action for compensation without alleging they were duly licensed. Texas has enacted no counterpart, in these chapters or anywhere the enforcement provisions point.
What Texas does instead is regulate the payment process and the defect process, and both of those treat houses differently from everything else.
The prompt pay chapter, and the two places it switches off for houses
Property Code Chapter 28 is the private project prompt payment law. Government Code Chapter 2251 is the public one, and the two are frequently confused. The statutes themselves draw the line: section 28.009(e)(2) excludes "a contract to improve real property for a governmental entity", and section 2251.001(3) defines a governmental entity as "a state agency or political subdivision of this state."
The core timings, section 28.002:
- (a) An owner who receives a written payment request must pay "not later than the 35th day after the date the owner receives the request."
- (b) A contractor paid by the owner must pay each subcontractor "not later than the seventh day after the date the contractor receives the owner's payment."
- (c) A subcontractor paid by the contractor owes its own subcontractors on the same seventh day basis.
So far, a clean ladder. Now the two carve-outs, and both work against residential contractors.
One: you lose the right to down tools. Section 28.009 gives a contractor or subcontractor who has not been paid the right to suspend performance on the tenth day after written notice. Section 28.009(e) then says:
"(e) This section does not apply to: (1) a contract for the construction of or improvements to a detached single-family residence, duplex, triplex, or quadruplex; or (2) a contract to improve real property for a governmental entity."
The 35-day rule still applies to your house job. The remedy that gives it teeth does not.
Two: more money can be held back from you. Section 28.003 sets what an owner may withhold in a good faith dispute, and it splits by property type:
| Job type | Owner may withhold up to |
|---|---|
| Detached single-family residence, duplex, triplex or quadruplex | 110 percent of the disputed difference |
| All other real property | 100 percent of the disputed difference |
Two provisions, same chapter, both pointing the same way: on a detached home a Texas contractor gets the deadline but not the leverage, and faces a larger permitted hold-back.
The defect process has its own clock
If the dispute is about workmanship rather than payment, Property Code Chapter 27, the Residential Construction Liability Act, takes over, and it front-loads a procedure before anyone gets to court. Section 27.004:
- The claimant must give written notice by certified mail before the 60th day preceding the date the action is started, describing the defects in reasonable detail and supplying any expert reports, photographs and recordings that would be discoverable.
- The contractor then has a 35-day period after receiving that notice to inspect, on written request, and may conduct up to three inspections in that window.
- The contractor may make a written settlement offer not later than the 60th day after receiving the notice, and any repairs offered must be made not later than the 60th day after written acceptance.
- If the claimant thinks the offer unreasonable, they have 25 days to say so in writing and in reasonable detail, and the contractor then has 10 days to make a supplemental offer.
- Where notice is impracticable because limitation is about to expire, or the claim is a counterclaim, notice is not required, but inspection may still happen up to the 75th day after service.
Miss the procedure and the action is abated rather than dismissed, which costs time rather than the claim.
Liens on a homestead need a signature you might not think to get
Texas shortens the lien clock for residential work. Section 53.052(a) gives an original contractor until the 15th day of the fourth month after the work ended on most projects, but "for residential construction projects, not later than the 15th day of the third month". Subsection (c) applies the same one-month shortening to claimants other than the original contractor.
And on a homestead, section 53.254 imposes conditions that catch people who did everything else right:
- (a) The contract must be in writing and executed by both the person doing the work and the owner.
- (b) It must be executed before the material is furnished or the labor is performed.
- (c) "If the owner is married, the contract must be signed by both spouses."
- (e) It must be filed with the county clerk.
A signature missing from one spouse is enough to lose the lien on a Texas homestead, no matter how good the work was.
None of those provisions mentions a license. Texas conditions residential lien rights on paperwork and timing, not on credentials.
Nine states, nine different questions
| State | What the law actually tests |
|---|---|
| Texas | Nothing, for payment. There is no state contractor license and no bar on suing. The pressure is in the prompt pay and lien procedure |
| Ohio | Nothing either, and houses sit outside the licensing chapter by definition |
| New York | Whether you pleaded a valid local license. It is an element of the claim, not a defense |
| Virginia | Your actual knowledge, plus good faith substantial performance (§ 54.1-1115(C)) |
| Arizona | Two dates: contract formation and when the cause of action arose (ARS 32-1153) |
| Florida | The contract date only (§ 489.128(1)(c)) |
| Washington | The contract date only (RCW 18.27.080) |
| North Carolina | Throughout, but severable (Brady v. Fulghum) |
| California | Every day of performance (§ 7031(a)) |
Where this came from
| Source | What it gave us | Transport, retrieved 2026-08-05 |
|---|---|---|
| Occupations Code chs. 1305, 1301, 1302 | The three licensed trades, the license requirements, the Class C misdemeanor penalties, the plumbing civil penalty, and § 1302.063 | statutes.capitol.texas.gov, official. The site is a JavaScript application that returns only a navigation shell to a plain fetch, so the pages were rendered in a real browser and the text read from the rendered DOM |
| Property Code ch. 28 | The 35-day and seventh-day timings, the § 28.009(e) suspension carve-out, the § 28.003 110 percent withholding split | statutes.capitol.texas.gov, official, rendered |
| Property Code ch. 27 | The RCLA notice, inspection and right-to-cure day counts | statutes.capitol.texas.gov, official, rendered |
| Property Code ch. 53 | The shortened residential filing deadline and the § 53.254 homestead conditions including both spouses | statutes.capitol.texas.gov, official, rendered |
| Government Code ch. 2251 | That it governs governmental entities, which is what separates it from Chapter 28 | statutes.capitol.texas.gov, official, rendered |
| Searches of chs. 1305, 1301 and 1302 | No provision barring an unlicensed person from bringing an action or recovering payment | Full chapter text searched, not sampled |
The site currency line at the time of retrieval: current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025.
⚠️ What is not here. The exact public-project day counts under Government Code Chapter 2251 are not stated on this page beyond the fact that the chapter governs public work, because this page is about private residential jobs and mixing the two is the most common error made about Texas prompt pay. Also absent: any per-trade license fee, renewal or examination detail, which changes more often than statute and belongs with the licensing body.
⚠️ This page is Texas only, and it is general guidance rather than legal advice. Cities in Texas may impose their own registration or permitting requirements even though the state licenses no general contractor, so check the municipality the work is in before you sign.
Common questions
Does Texas have a state contractor license?
No. Texas licenses electricians (Occ. Code ch. 1305), plumbers (ch. 1301) and air conditioning and refrigeration contractors (ch. 1302). There is no statewide general contractor or residential builder license.
Can an unlicensed contractor sue for payment in Texas?
Nothing in those three chapters bars it. We searched each for any provision barring an action to recover payment and found none. Texas has no counterpart to California Business and Professions Code section 7031.
What is the penalty for unlicensed contracting in Texas?
Unlicensed practice is a Class C misdemeanor in all three trades (§§ 1305.303, 1301.508, 1302.453). Plumbing adds a civil penalty of $50 to $1,000 for each act of violation and for each day of violation after notice (§ 1301.507).
How long does a Texas owner have to pay?
Not later than the 35th day after receiving a written payment request (Prop. Code § 28.002(a)). A contractor must then pay each subcontractor by the seventh day after receiving the owner's payment.
Can a Texas contractor stop work for non-payment on a house?
Not under the prompt pay chapter. Section 28.009(e)(1) withdraws the right to suspend performance for contracts to build or improve a detached single-family residence, duplex, triplex or quadruplex.
Does a Texas homestead lien need both spouses to sign?
Yes, if the owner is married. Property Code § 53.254(c) requires the written contract to be signed by both spouses, and § 53.254(b) requires it to be executed before any labor or material is supplied.
Related: California section 7031: when a customer can take back every dollar · Florida unlicensed contracting: what it costs you · North Carolina unlicensed contracting · Arizona unlicensed contracting: the two dates · Washington: registration is a prerequisite to suing · Virginia: the good faith escape hatch · New York: the license you have to plead · Ohio: no section 7031 here · What happens if you work without a contractor's license · Do I need a contractor license · Working in Texas
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Sources
- Texas Constitution and Statutes · Texas licenses plumbers (Occupations Code ch. 1301), air conditioning and refrigeration (ch. 1302) and electricians (ch. 1305) and no general contractor at all, and NONE of those chapters bars an unlicensed contractor from suing for payment. Separately, Property Code ch. 28 sets the prompt-payment duty at 28.002 and switches the whole chapter off at 28.009 for a residence occupied by the owner
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