HVAC & Mechanical in Texas
Texas issues no HVAC company license for a buyer to acquire.
Texas licenses the air conditioning and refrigeration contractor and not the contracting company. TDLR issues the TACL number to a person under Occupations Code Chapter 1302 and issues nothing at all to the entity that employs them, so there is no company license, no company registration, no bond and no change of ownership approval, and an asset sale and an equity sale look identical to the state. What the buyer acquires is an unlicensed company carrying one statutory dependency: under §1302.252(b) a company that does not employ an assigned license holder at a permanent office may not collect a fee or enforce the contract. Texas writes no wage floor into its non-compete statute, and the city registration a statewide license does not displace still has to be refiled in every city the target works in.
Dallas-Fort Worth / Houston / San Antonio / Austin
One named person per permanent office, or the fee is not collectable
What Texas does is license, register and certify no HVAC company at all. The only credentials the program issues are the contractor license and technician registration, and 16 TAC §75.22(b) provides that a license is not transferable. So there is no credential to novate and no TDLR consent to write into the closing conditions. Diligence should not ask the target for its company license. There is not one.
The company is unlicensed and still regulated. Occupations Code §1302.252(a) requires an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company to employ full time, in each permanent office, a license holder who holds an appropriate license assigned to that company, and §1302.251(c) lets a license holder assign that license to only one permanent office of one company. Section 1302.252(b) supplies the consequence: a company that does not employ a license holder as required, at the time a contract for air conditioning and refrigeration contracting services is signed and at the time the services are performed, may not collect a fee or otherwise enforce the contract. That is not a fine. It converts completed work into revenue the company cannot sue for.
The statute joins the signing moment and the performance moment with the word and, and whether a failure at either moment is enough or the company must have been short at both is not resolved on the face of the provision; TDLR's own program summary recites only the signing prong. The exposure runs office by office rather than across the entity, and it does not reach back to work signed and performed while that office was compliant, so receivables already earned on pre-closing jobs are not in question. What sits inside it is backlog performed after closing and any job spanning a gap.
The retiring owner-qualifier is where that exposure lands. Where the seller is the assigned license holder and leaves on the closing date, the office is short from that morning, and a contract signed and performed while it is short is one the company may not collect a fee on. A multi-branch target needs its own full-time TACL holder at each permanent office, so a roll-up has to be diligenced branch by branch and one qualifier cannot be spread across acquired locations; the same rule stops a seller who owns two Texas HVAC entities from covering both afterward. The seller who holds the assigned license is negotiating the price and their own post-closing employment term in one conversation. Wraith represents Texas sellers directly so that term is priced inside the deal, and it has to run at least as long as licensing a replacement takes.
The buyer's fallback is to license someone else, and Occupations Code §1302.255 sets how long that takes. The base route is 48 months of practical experience under a licensed contractor within the preceding 72 months, or a technician certification held 12 months plus 36 months of experience within the preceding 48, so nobody is hired off the street to cure a departure. The substitutions are what make a bench plausible. A four-year degree in air conditioning and refrigeration or in mechanical engineering counts 24 months, a two-year degree, diploma or certification counts 12 months, a one-year or two-semester program counts 6 months, and every 2,000 hours of apprenticeship on-the-job training counts 12 months, with out-of-state experience or an equivalent out-of-state license creditable under §1302.255(a-1). An internal candidate with a two-year HVAC degree and 36 months in the field may already qualify. TDLR reported 19,163 ACR contractor licenses in fiscal year 2025, which is the whole pool a buyer can hire a ready-made qualifier out of.
What the license authorizes is read off the number itself. Occupations Code §1302.253 sets two classes: Class A covers a system, product or equipment of any size or capacity, and Class B covers not more than 25 tons cooling capacity or 1.5 million British thermal units per hour output heating capacity. That cap is per unit rather than per project, per site or per year, so a Class B shop can carry an unlimited number of units beneath it and a substantial commercial book; what it cannot touch is a chiller or an oversized rooftop unit. Section 1302.254 adds the endorsements and forbids contracting of a type the license is not endorsed for, so an Environmental Air Conditioning endorsement on its own does not reach commercial refrigeration. The TACL number carries all of it in the endorsement code, where E is Environmental Air Conditioning, R is Commercial Refrigeration and Process Cooling and Heating, and C is both. The underwriting question is what share of the backlog sits on equipment the qualifier's class and endorsement do not cover.
The number also stops where air conditioning and refrigeration stops. Occupations Code §1302.263 bars a licensed contractor from performing an act defined as the practice of engineering under Chapter 1001 unless the person holds a license under that chapter, an act regulated under Chapter 113 of the Natural Resources Code unless the person holds a license or is exempt by rule under that chapter, or an act defined as plumbing under Chapter 1301 unless the person holds a license under that chapter. Three regulators sit behind that sentence rather than one: TDLR for air conditioning and refrigeration, the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners for plumbing, the Railroad Commission for LP gas, where the exemption route exists in addition to a license. A target presenting itself as a full mechanical contractor is describing more than the TACL number authorizes, and because §1302.252(a) is keyed to an appropriate license, out-of-scope work raises the collectability question alongside the enforcement one.
Nothing about the closing waits on TDLR. Three duties run 30 days and all three fall after the money has moved: the license holder reports the change in business affiliation under 16 TAC §75.70(h)(1), cited by TDLR alongside §75.70(a)(4) and §75.73(d); a revised certificate of insurance is due under §75.70(h)(2) where the name of the assigned company changes; and the company reports a departed assigned licensee under §75.71(a)(1). TDLR charges each as a Class A violation at $500 to $1,000, and charges assignment failures as Class B violations at $1,000 to $3,500 and up to a one-year full suspension. Two of those describe the window between closing and the filing exactly: a company using a license not assigned to it under §75.71(j), and contracting from a location that is not the assigned permanent office under §75.71(f). The company separately owes TDLR its assumed name registrations under §75.71(a)(2) and has to hold payroll-tax records reported to the Texas Workforce Commission showing the license holder is on salary and works full time under §75.71(a)(3), producible on request under §75.71(a)(4); those records are where a paper qualifier stops being deniable. One caution on the mechanics. TDLR's notice-of-change form, ACR-LIC-003, changes a business name and carries the revised insurance certificate, and it has no field that moves a license from one company to another. Confirm the assignment channel with TDLR instead of filing that form and assuming the 30 days were satisfied.
The Texas test does not ask what a technician earns
Business and Commerce Code Chapter 15, Subchapter E is the whole Texas covenant regime, and it contains no salary threshold, no low-wage exclusion, no advance-notice requirement and no garden-leave rule. A lead installer and the service manager are measured against the same provisions.
What decides a technician covenant is §15.50(a), which has two halves. A covenant is enforceable only where it is ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement is made, and only with limits on time, geographic area and scope of activity that are reasonable and impose no greater restraint than is necessary to protect the goodwill or other business interest of the promisee. Both halves land differently on a technician than on a salaried office employee. The goodwill a technician covenant protects is the route they already service, which is narrower than the territory a buyer's first draft will claim; and a signature page circulated to an at-will technician roster on the closing date, with nothing given on the other side of it, is the version that gets litigated.
Now suppose the technician leaves and works that route. The accounts move in the weeks before anyone files, and the buyer sues on a covenant drawn wider than the route. Section 15.51(c) does not stop where it is usually quoted: the court that reforms the covenant may not award the promisee damages for a breach of the covenant before its reformation, and the relief granted is limited to injunctive relief. A further sentence lets the court award the promisor its costs of defense, including attorney's fees, where the employer knew at execution that the limits were unreasonable and then sought to enforce beyond what was necessary.
Section 15.51(c) preserves the covenant and removes the recovery, leaving a forward-looking injunction against a technician who has already moved the accounts, which is the one outcome a buyer paying for a route book does not want. Reformation is not the safety net it looks like: narrowing the covenant writes off the damages from exactly the conduct the covenant existed to deter. Draw the territory to the routes the technician actually served, because that is the goodwill §15.50(a) lets the buyer protect.
Check the date on whatever covenant memo is in the data room. The only recent amendment to the regime, SB 1318, Acts 2025, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, Chapter 816, effective September 1, 2025, is confined to health care. A memo citing a 2025 Texas non-compete change as reaching the trades has read a health care bill.
The insurance certificate names your company, and so does Houston
The Texas license is statewide and the city file is not. Occupations Code §1302.251(b) provides that a Subchapter F license is valid throughout the state and that its holder is not required to hold a municipal license under Subchapter G to contract in any municipality, which displaces municipal licensing and nothing else. Section 1302.262 still requires notice to a municipality that requires it, §1302.303 lets a municipality adopt standards consistent with the state's, and permits remain the city's to issue. Subchapter G is also a genuine alternative rather than only an overlay: §1302.251(a) permits contracting by a person licensed under either subchapter, §1302.301 makes a complying municipal license valid within that municipality, and §1302.302 sets its eligibility. A single-city target could be running on one, which caps it to that city and constrains any buy-and-expand thesis. Establish which credential each permanent office operates under rather than assuming a TACL number exists.
Houston shows what a city registration is actually keyed to. The permitting center registers the individual's state license on Form CE-1307, and asks for the completed form, a copy of the current state license card, photo identification, and a certificate of insurance bearing the licensee's business affiliation with the licensee's name and license number shown as insured or additional insured. The registration runs one year and has to be renewed. Both of the things it is keyed to move in an acquisition. Change the entity name or change the qualifier and the city file stops matching the state record, and a city file that no longer matches is a permit that does not get pulled, which stops installation revenue rather than delaying a filing.
The certificate is the one insurance document a Texas change of control triggers. 16 TAC §75.40 sets the commercial general liability minimums by class, $300,000 per occurrence and $600,000 aggregate for Class A against $100,000 per occurrence and $200,000 aggregate for Class B, and requires a carrier authorized to write liability insurance in Texas. TDLR's form identifies the licensee by name and/or license number alongside the business name; Houston wants the name and the number both. Issue the post-closing certificate to the stricter city standard so one document clears both files, and confirm the incumbent limits match the class being worked, because a target running Class A work behind Class B limits is out of compliance before anyone signs anything.
Before any of that, pull the qualifier's license record and look for an insurance waiver. Occupations Code §1302.102(b) lets the executive director waive the insurance requirement for a license holder who does not engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting for the public, 16 TAC §75.40(e) is how it is requested, and a licensee holding one cannot perform or offer to perform contracting with the general public. TDLR states the choice as a fork: a waiver indicating no public contracting, or a certificate of insurance in order to perform public contracting. For a residential or light-commercial Texas target that is not a paperwork finding. It is the book.
One conflict to budget for rather than litigate at closing. Occupations Code §1302.304, added by HB 871 effective September 1, 2021, bars a municipality from charging a registration fee to a Subchapter F license holder for work performed in the municipality or for the notice required by §1302.262, while Houston's published process still asks for a method of payment and generates a sales order for a registration fee. Houston is one city and not a template. Price the re-registration in each jurisdiction the target works in, and check the charge against §1302.304 before treating a published fee as owed.
Questions Texas sellers ask
- Does my TACL license go to the buyer at closing?
- No. 16 TAC §75.22(b) makes the license non-transferable, and there is no TDLR approval, continuation permit or grace period to write into the closing conditions. What the buyer acquires on this side of the deal is the employment relationship with the person whose license is assigned to each permanent office, one office per license under §1302.251(c).
- What actually has to be filed after a Texas HVAC closing?
- Three 30-day clocks: the change of business affiliation (16 TAC §75.70(h)(1)), a revised insurance certificate on a company-name change (§75.70(h)(2)), and the company's report of the departed assigned licensee (§75.71(a)(1)). TDLR charges each as a Class A violation at $500 to $1,000, so the cost of missing them is small and the cost of the gap they describe is not. Add the assumed name registrations the company owes TDLR under §75.71(a)(2), and a fresh registration in every city the target operates in. One trap: TDLR's notice-of-change form ACR-LIC-003 covers a business name change and the revised insurance certificate and has no field for moving a license between companies, so confirm the assignment channel with TDLR rather than assuming that form closed the 30 days.
- Can a buyer put non-competes on my service technicians?
- Texas sets no wage floor, no notice period and no garden-leave rule, so nothing in Subchapter E sorts a covenant by the technician's pay grade. Enforceability turns instead on §15.50(a): the covenant has to be ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement made at the same time, and limited to what is necessary to protect the employer's goodwill, which for a technician is the route they service rather than a county-wide territory. Consideration decides more than pay grade does. Under §15.51(c) a covenant the court has to narrow yields injunctive relief only, and the employer recovers no damages for the breach that happened before the reformation, which on a route technician is the breach that cost the money.
- My qualifier holds a Class B license. Does that cap what the business is worth?
- Not by revenue. Occupations Code §1302.253 caps Class B at 25 tons cooling capacity or 1.5 million British thermal units per hour output heating capacity, and that limit is per unit rather than per project, per site or per year, so a Class B shop can carry an unlimited number of units beneath the cap. What it cannot touch is a chiller or an oversized rooftop unit. The question for the model is what share of the backlog sits on equipment above the cap, and separately whether the endorsement on the license reaches commercial refrigeration at all, since §1302.254 forbids contracting of a type the license is not endorsed for.
- How long would it take a buyer to license a replacement qualifier?
- Less than the 48 months the statute leads with, if the candidate carries education or apprenticeship credit. Occupations Code §1302.255 sets the base route at 48 months of practical experience within the preceding 72 months, or a technician certification held 12 months plus 36 months of experience within the preceding 48, but the statute substitutes education and training against it: 24 months for a four-year degree, 12 months for a two-year degree, diploma or certification, 6 months for a one-year or two-semester program, and 12 months for every 2,000 hours of apprenticeship on-the-job training, with out-of-state experience or an equivalent out-of-state license creditable under §1302.255(a-1). Scope the contingency against those substitutions rather than against a flat 48-month wait.
Where these facts come from
Everything above that is a rule rather than a judgment is listed here with its publisher and the date it was checked. Licensing, tax and non-compete rules change, sometimes without much notice. None of this is legal or tax advice, and it is not a substitute for your own counsel and CPA.
Occupations Code Chapter 1302 governs air conditioning and refrigeration contracting and licenses the individual contractor. Section 1302.253 creates two classes: a Class A license covers a system, a product or equipment of any size or capacity; a Class B license covers not more than 25 tons cooling capacity or 1.5 million British thermal units per hour output heating capacity. Section 1302.254 requires an Environmental Air Conditioning endorsement and/or a Commercial Refrigeration and Process Cooling or Heating endorsement and provides that a license holder may not engage in a type of air conditioning and refrigeration contracting for which the person's license is not endorsed. Section 1302.255 requires an applicant to be 18 years of age or older with 48 months of practical experience under a licensed contractor in the preceding 72 months, or a technician certification held for 12 months plus 36 months of experience in the preceding 48. Subsection (a-1) allows credit for equivalent out-of-state experience or an equivalent out-of-state license. Subsection (c) credits 24 months for a four-year degree in air conditioning and refrigeration engineering or technology or in mechanical engineering, 12 months for a two-year associate's degree, two-year diploma or two-year certification, and 6 months for a one-year certification or a program of at least two semesters. Subsection (d) credits 12 months for every 2,000 hours of on-the-job training in an apprenticeship program, and subsection (e) counts verified military service in an air conditioning and refrigeration specialty and experience while employed by a governmental entity. Section 1302.102(b) permits the executive director to waive the insurance requirements for a license holder who does not engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting for the public. Section 1302.263 provides that a licensed contractor may not perform or offer to perform an act defined as the practice of engineering under Chapter 1001 unless the person holds a license under that chapter, an act regulated under Chapter 113 of the Natural Resources Code unless the person holds a license or is exempt by rule under that chapter, or an act defined as plumbing under Chapter 1301 unless the person holds a license under that chapter.
Texas Legislative Council, Occupations Code Chapter 1302. Checked 2026-09-07.
Read from the Legislative Council's static statute mirror, which serves the full chapter text. The docviewer address at statutes.capitol.texas.gov returns an application shell rather than the chapter and is deliberately not cited here. The mirror carries no currency banner; the most recent amendments recorded in the section source notes are Acts 2025, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, Chapter 871 (S.B. 2075) and Chapter 983 (S.B. 705), both effective September 1, 2025, and both limited to the ACR advisory board at §§1302.201 and 1302.205. The LP gas prong of §1302.263 uniquely offers a rule-based exemption in addition to a license; do not read it as a flat bar.
Occupations Code §1302.252(a) requires an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company to employ full-time in each permanent office a license holder who holds an appropriate license assigned to that company. Section 1302.252(b) provides that a company that does not employ a license holder as required by Subsection (a) at the time a contract for air conditioning and refrigeration contracting services is signed and at the time the services are performed may not collect a fee or otherwise enforce the contract. Section 1302.251(a) provides that a person may not engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting unless the person holds a license under Subchapter F or Subchapter G. Section 1302.251(b) provides that a license issued under Subchapter F is valid throughout the state and that its holder is not required to hold a municipal license under Subchapter G to engage in air conditioning and refrigeration contracting in any municipality in this state. Section 1302.251(c) provides that a license holder may assign that license to only one permanent office of one air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company. Section 1302.262 requires the license holder to give notice to a municipality that requires it. Section 1302.301 provides that a municipal air conditioning and refrigeration contractor license complying with Subchapter G is valid under the terms of the license within the municipality, and §1302.302 sets its eligibility, including an examination covering the same subjects as the Subchapter F examination and experience requirements at least as strict as §1302.255(a)(2). Section 1302.303 permits a municipality to adopt standards consistent with the state's. Section 1302.304, added by HB 871 effective September 1, 2021, prohibits a municipality from charging a registration fee to a Subchapter F license holder for work performed in the municipality or for the notice required by §1302.262; building permit fees are unaffected.
Texas Legislative Council, Occupations Code Chapter 1302. Checked 2026-09-07.
The trigger in §1302.252(b) joins the signing moment and the performance moment with the word and. Whether a failure at either moment is sufficient, or the company must have been non-compliant at both, is not resolved on the face of the statute and no Texas appellate authority is cited here for either reading; TDLR's own program summary recites only the signing prong. The page states the risk conservatively and does not present the broader reading as settled. The Subchapter G alternative is a real credential and not merely a registration overlay, but it is capped to the issuing municipality.
TDLR's program summary states that licenses are not transferable; that an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company must employ an ACR contractor in each permanent location, and that if the company does not employ an ACR contractor as required at the time a contract for ACR services is signed it cannot collect a fee or enforce the contract; that after the application is approved and the examination passed the contractor must either send TDLR a waiver indicating they will not be performing public contracting, or send TDLR a certificate of insurance in order to perform public contracting; that license numbers take the form title, class, number and endorsement code, for example TACLA000000C, in which E denotes Environmental Air Conditioning, R denotes Commercial Refrigeration and Process Cooling and Heating, and C denotes combined endorsements; and that the program recorded 19,163 ACR contractor licenses and 37,942 registered technicians in FY25, fiscal year 2025. The only credentials the program issues are the individual contractor license and technician registration or certification. TDLR issues no license, registration or certificate to the contracting company.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, ACR at a Glance. Checked 2026-09-07.
The document is stamped TDLR AAG FORM-004, December 2025, and its counts describe fiscal year 2025. TDLR republishes the summary at the same address, so the figures at that link will describe a later year without the URL changing. This is TDLR's plain-language description of its own program and is not the operative authority; Chapter 1302 and 16 TAC Chapter 75 are.
TDLR's enforcement plan for the ACR program lists, with its own rule citations: failure to notify the department of a change of address, company location, company telephone number or business affiliation within 30 days of the change (16 TAC §§75.70(a)(4), 75.70(h)(1), 75.73(d)); failure to provide a revised insurance certificate to the department within 30 days of a change in business affiliation (§§75.40(d), 75.70(h)(2)); and failure to notify the department that a licensee has left within 30 days (§75.71(a)(1)). Each is a Class A violation carrying a penalty range of $500 to $1,000. The plan lists as Class B violations, carrying $1,000 to $3,500 and/or up to one year of full suspension: assigning a contracting license to more than one permanent office or more than one company (§1302.251(c), §75.70(a)(1),(3)); an assigned license where the holder is not an employee or owner or is not working full time (§75.70(a)(2)); a company using a license not assigned to the company (§75.71(j)); and using a location other than the permanent office for contracting air conditioning sales or service (§75.71(f)). It also charges failure to provide a copy of an assumed name certificate to the department (§75.71(a)(2)) and engaging in air conditioning contracting in a city without notifying the city of the license.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, ACR Penalties and Sanctions. Checked 2026-09-07.
This is TDLR's enforcement plan and states the agency's charging positions rather than rule text. The 30-day deadline it attaches to a change in business affiliation for the revised insurance certificate is broader than 16 TAC §75.70(h)(2), which keys that clock to a change in the name of the company the license is assigned to; §75.40(d) separately requires a certificate on a change of business name or affiliation without stating a deadline. File on either event.
16 TAC §75.70 sets the license holder's responsibilities. If affiliated with an air conditioning and refrigeration contracting company, the license holder must assign the license to one company or one permanent office of the company that will use the license, must be an employee or owner of the company and work full time there, and must use the license for one business affiliation and one permanent office at any one time. Subsection (h)(1) requires notice to the department within 30 days of a change in business affiliation. Subsection (h)(2) requires a revised certificate of insurance within 30 days of a change in the name of the company to which the license is assigned.
Cornell Legal Information Institute, mirror of 16 Tex. Admin. Code §75.70. Checked 2026-09-07.
Secondary mirror, updated quarterly, showing this rule effective September 1, 2024, which is why the rule is paraphrased here rather than quoted. The Texas Secretary of State's Administrative Code viewer has moved and the readtac addresses the profession has used no longer resolve, so confirm the current text of 16 TAC Chapter 75 through the Secretary of State's rules portal or TDLR's rules page before relying on any subsection. The duties recited here are independently stated with the same rule numbers on TDLR's live enforcement plan, which is the stronger citation. Note that the subsection (a) duties bite only once the licensee is affiliated with a company; an unaffiliated license holder is not in breach of them.
16 TAC §75.71 sets the responsibilities of the contracting company, which TDLR imposes on the company itself even though the company holds no license. Subsection (a)(1) requires the company to notify the department of the license holders who have assigned licenses to it and when one leaves. Subsection (a)(2) requires copies of applicable assumed name registrations from the Office of the Secretary of State and county clerks' offices. Subsection (a)(3) requires the company to maintain records on its license holder showing payroll taxes deducted and reported to the Texas Workforce Commission and either hours worked each day or documentation that the licensee is on salary and works full time. Subsection (a)(4) requires those records to be furnished to the department on request. Subsection (f) addresses use of a location other than the permanent office, and subsection (j) addresses a company using a license not assigned to it.
Cornell Legal Institute mirror of 16 Tex. Admin. Code §75.71, with TDLR's ACR enforcement plan. Checked 2026-09-07.
Secondary mirror; paraphrased rather than quoted. The subsection lettering for (f) and (j) is stated as TDLR's enforcement plan cites it. Confirm against the current Texas Administrative Code before relying on a subsection number in a closing checklist.
16 TAC §75.40 sets the commercial general liability minimums for an ACR contractor by license class: for Class A, $300,000 per occurrence and $600,000 aggregate; for Class B, $100,000 per occurrence and $200,000 aggregate. The carrier must be authorized to sell liability insurance in Texas. Subsection (d) requires a completed certificate of insurance, or other evidence satisfactory to the department, to be filed when applying for an initial license, when changing a business name or affiliation, and on request of the department. Subsections (e) and (f) provide for a written waiver of the insurance requirement for a licensee who does not contract with the general public, and provide that a licensee holding such a waiver cannot perform or offer to perform air conditioning and refrigeration contracting with the general public.
Cornell Legal Information Institute, mirror of 16 Tex. Admin. Code §75.40. Checked 2026-09-07.
Secondary mirror showing §75.40 effective April 1, 2011; confirm the current text and the current dollar minimums against the Texas Administrative Code. A products and completed operations aggregate figure appears on TDLR's certificate form but could not be matched to the rule text on review and is deliberately not published here. No surety bond is required for a Texas ACR contractor license, and none is claimed on this page.
TDLR's certificate of insurance form for ACR contractors identifies the licensee by name and/or license number alongside a separate business name or dba field, and is the filing vehicle for the evidence of insurance that 16 TAC §75.40 requires.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, ACR contractor certificate of insurance form. Checked 2026-09-07.
TDLR's forms index labels this certificate differently from the file name at this address, so search the forms index by title rather than by form number. The form requires the licensee's name and/or license number; the conjunctive requirement that both appear is the City of Houston's standard, not TDLR's, and this page attributes it to Houston.
16 TAC §75.22(b) provides that a license is not transferable.
Cornell Legal Information Institute, mirror of 16 Tex. Admin. Code §75.22. Checked 2026-09-07.
Secondary mirror showing this rule effective May 1, 2018. TDLR's live program summary states the same point in its own words, that licenses are not transferable.
TDLR's Contractor Notice of Change and/or Duplicate License Request Form, ACR-LIC-003, states its own scope: it is used to make insurance changes, to change a personal name, business name and/or address, to add an endorsement to a license, and to request a duplicate of a license. Item 10 changes a business name and calls for a certificate of insurance carrying the new business name together with the individual's name. Item 15 covers insurance waiver changes. The words assign and affiliation do not appear anywhere on the form.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Form ACR-LIC-003. Checked 2026-09-07.
Revision July 2026. Because the form carries no field for moving a license from one company to another, filing it does not by itself accomplish the change of business affiliation that 16 TAC §75.70(h)(1) requires within 30 days. TDLR also accepts changes of information through its online licensing system. Confirm the current channel for an assignment change with TDLR rather than filing this form for it.
The City of Houston Permitting Center registers holders of a state air conditioning license on Form CE-1307. The registration requires the completed form, a copy of the current state license card, photo identification, a copy of the certificate of insurance bearing the licensee's business affiliation with the licensee's name and license number shown as insured or additional insured, and a method of payment; the online path generates a sales order for the registration fee. The registration is valid for one year and must be renewed.
City of Houston Permitting Center. Checked 2026-09-07.
Houston's published process describes a registration fee while Occupations Code §1302.304 bars a municipality from charging a registration fee to a state license holder. This page names the conflict rather than resolving it; the city's stated authority is its own adopted mechanical code rather than Chapter 1302. Confirm the current charge with each jurisdiction, and treat Houston's requirements as one city's rather than as a statewide template.
Business and Commerce Code Chapter 15, Subchapter E is the whole Texas covenant-not-to-compete regime. It contains no salary threshold, no low-wage exclusion, no advance-notice requirement and no garden-leave rule. Section 15.50(a) makes a covenant enforceable if it is ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement at the time the agreement is made and contains limitations as to time, geographical area and scope of activity to be restrained that are reasonable and do not impose a greater restraint than is necessary to protect the goodwill or other business interest of the promisee. Section 15.51(c) provides that where the limitations are not reasonable and impose a greater restraint than necessary, the court shall reform the covenant to the extent necessary and enforce it as reformed, except that the court may not award the promisee damages for a breach of the covenant before its reformation and the relief granted to the promisee shall be limited to injunctive relief; the same subsection allows the court to award the promisor the costs of defense, including reasonable attorney's fees, where the covenant is ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement between an employer and employee, the employer knew at execution that the limitations were not reasonable and imposed a greater restraint than necessary, and the employer sought to enforce the covenant to a greater extent than necessary. Section 15.52 makes the criteria for enforceability and the procedures and remedies in Subchapter E exclusive and preemptive of other law, including the common law. The only occupational carve-outs are in health care, added or rewritten by SB 1318, Acts 2025, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, Chapter 816, effective September 1, 2025.
Texas Legislative Council, Business and Commerce Code Chapter 15. Checked 2026-09-07.
Read from the Legislative Council's static mirror, which serves the full chapter including §§15.50, 15.501, 15.51 and 15.52; the docviewer address at statutes.capitol.texas.gov returns an application shell and is not cited here. The mirror carries no currency banner; the most recent amendment reflected in the section source notes is Acts 2025, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, Chapter 816 (S.B. 1318), effective September 1, 2025. Whether any particular covenant satisfies §15.50(a) turns on the facts and on Texas case law that is not summarized on this page. Confirm with Texas counsel before papering a technician roster. Section 15.52's preemption of the common law is verified and available, but is not written on this page because it applies identically to any employee and belongs to the general covenant material owned elsewhere in the corpus.
Page last reviewed 2026-09-07.
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