Most homeowners assume that hiring a contractor in Texas means checking a state license, the way they would in California or Florida. Texas has no general contractor license at all. Anyone can legally call themselves a general contractor and take payment for remodeling, framing, or most home-improvement work without ever registering with a state board.
That single fact changes how you verify a contractor here. The direct answer: for general contracting work, Texas verification means checking the business's Secretary of State registration, insurance certificates, and complaint history, not a license lookup, because no such license exists. The exceptions are narrower trades that Texas does regulate directly, and knowing which ones apply to your project is the first step.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) licenses air conditioning and refrigeration contractors and electricians, among a list of other specific trades. It does not license general contractors, roofers, painters, framers, or most remodeling work. If your project involves HVAC installation or electrical work, TDLR licensing applies and you can verify it directly. If it's a kitchen remodel handled by a general contractor coordinating subcontractors, there's often no state license to check at all.
TDLR's public license data has a quirk worth knowing before you search: the dataset doesn't carry an explicit "active" or "expired" status field. It lists issued licenses with an expiration date, and whether a license is current gets worked out from that date, not from a status flag the board publishes directly. Don't be surprised if a lookup shows a license record without a plain "ACTIVE" label next to it.
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| License type | Covers | What to check | |---|---|---| | A/C Contractor | HVAC installation and repair | Expiration date, license class | | Electrical Contractor | Wiring, panel work, electrical repair | Expiration date, journeyman vs. master designation | | No TDLR record | General contracting, roofing, remodeling, painting | Not license-regulated at state level; verify business registration instead |
Texas does license home inspectors, but through a different agency: the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), not TDLR. If you're verifying an inspector rather than a contractor, search TREC's own license lookup, not TDLR's. It's a common mix-up, since both boards sit under the same state government but keep entirely separate databases.
For general contracting and remodeling work, verification shifts to a different set of records:
A homeowner in Austin getting bids on a kitchen remodel might reasonably assume the contractor with the nicest truck wrap is licensed, simply because that's how it works in neighboring states. In Texas, that assumption can leave real gaps. The right move is treating the absence of a license requirement as a reason to check other records more carefully, not less.
Since the license lookup doesn't apply to most residential contracting in Texas, the Secretary of State's business-entity search becomes the closest equivalent, and it's worth running through the same way you'd run a license check in another state:
Insurance verification deserves the same treatment. A certificate of insurance a contractor hands you is only as good as the carrier confirming it's real. Call the number on the certificate (not one the contractor gives you separately) and ask the insurer directly whether the policy is active and covers the dates of your project. This single call catches a meaningful share of fabricated or lapsed insurance documents, since forging a certificate is easy but keeping it consistent with what the carrier's own records show is not.
The FTC's guide to avoiding home improvement scams recommends getting multiple written estimates and confirming insurance directly with the carrier, advice that matters more, not less, in a state where no general license exists to fall back on.
ProofReports checks TDLR licensing where it applies, alongside state registration, insurance signals, and more than a dozen other public-record sources in one company search, so you're not piecing together TDLR, the Secretary of State, and a UCC search separately.
No. Texas has no statewide general contractor license. Some cities require local registration or permits for certain work, so check municipal requirements separately from any state-level search.
TDLR licenses electricians and air conditioning/refrigeration contractors directly, along with several other specific trades. It does not cover general contracting, framing, drywall, painting, or most remodeling work.
Search the business or individual's name on TDLR's License Search and compare the listed expiration date to today's date. TDLR's data doesn't include a separate active/inactive flag, so the expiration date is the determining factor.
The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), not TDLR. Use TREC's own license search if you're verifying a home inspector rather than a contractor.
Call the insurance carrier directly using the number listed on the carrier's own website, not a number the contractor provides, and ask them to confirm the policy is active and covers your project dates. A certificate alone only tells you a policy existed at some point, not that it's still in force.
Related reading: see how to verify a Florida contractor's DBPR license or check a California CSLB license if you're comparing how differently states handle contractor licensing.