Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
The license belongs to a person, not to a business or a job
Short rules with no wiggle room in them, and the consequences attach to both people in the arrangement.
On this page
Where the prohibitions actually live
Eight subsections in one rule, 16 TAC 73.22, and most summaries of it name three or four. The whole set matters because they attach different consequences.
| Subsection | What it says |
|---|---|
| (a) | The license runs one year from issuance and is renewed annually |
| (b) | No electrical work requiring a license may be performed on an expired license |
| (c) | Falsifying an application, obtaining a license by fraud or false representation, or cheating on an examination is grounds for denial, suspension or revocation and an administrative penalty |
| (d) | A contractor may not use a license number the department did not assign to that contractor |
| (e) | A license is not transferable |
| (f) | Altering a license in any way is prohibited and is grounds for a sanction and a penalty |
| (g) | A licensee contracting through a general contractor or a home warranty company stays responsible for the integrity of the work |
| (h) | Using another person’s license, or allowing another to use yours, is grounds for denial, suspension or revocation and an administrative penalty |
Subsection (h) is symmetric. It reaches the person who borrowed and the person who lent, in the same sentence, and neither one is the victim of the other.
The root of all of it is one line of statute. A license issued by the executive director is valid throughout this state and is not transferable (Tex. Occ. Code 1305.165(b)). Statewide validity and non-transferability are two halves of the same idea: the license travels with you and only with you.
16 TAC 73.51(h) says the license-number half again from the contractor’s side, in almost the same words, which is a fair signal about how often it comes up.
The subsection people misread is (g)
If a licensee contracts with a general contractor or a home warranty company to provide installation or service that requires a license under the act, the licensee remains responsible for the integrity of that work (16 TAC 73.22(g)).
Read what that does not say. It does not say the general contractor becomes responsible, and it does not say the warranty company’s scope of work defines yours. Work reaching you through somebody else’s contract does not move the duty onto them.
That matters most when the party above you is specifying materials, sequencing or a scope that you can see is short. The rule has already decided whose problem the finished installation is.
Work goes through a contractor
An individual licensee must provide all electrical work requiring a license through a licensed contractor, or employing governmental entity.
16 TAC 73.70(a)
That is the structural rule underneath the rest. An individual license is not by itself permission to take work directly.
And 16 TAC 73.51(b)(4) closes it from the other side, requiring that all of an electrical contractor’s electrical work be performed by licensed individuals. One rule keeps an individual from contracting. The other keeps a contractor from using the unlicensed.
The rest of 16 TAC 73.70, with the right letters on it
Ten subsections, and a page that summarizes three of them is a page that has told you a third of your duties. This is the map.
- (a) Individual work goes through a licensed contractor or an employing governmental entity.
- (b) Be honest with a prospective client or employer about your own skills and your ability to deliver what is being asked for.
- (c) Do not offer or perform technical services you are not qualified for by education or experience, without securing the services of someone who is.
- (d) Do not sidestep a responsibility owed to a client or employer.
- (e) Do not accept work where a financial or other interest may conflict with faithful service or with independent judgment.
- (f) Withdraw when it becomes apparent that the duty and services owed cannot be faithfully discharged, and then only on reasonable notice.
- (g) A licensed contractor’s advertising may not be false, misleading or deceptive, and it must clearly display the license number.
- (h) Do not misrepresent the amount or extent of prior education or experience to an employer, a client, or the department.
- (i) The laws and rules regulating electricians apply anywhere in this state.
- (j) Do not hold out a partnership or association that does not exist in fact.
Subsection (f) is the one worth sitting with. It is written as a permission to leave rather than a prohibition, and it names the trigger as the point where faithful performance stops being possible. Reasonable notice is the condition attached, not an afterthought.
And the one about geography
Licensees must abide by all laws and rules regulating electricians, including the Standards of Conduct set forth in this section, within any geographic location in this state when performing or offering to perform electrical work.
16 TAC 73.70(i)
Any geographic location in this state. The standards do not stop at a city line and they do not stop at the edge of a jurisdiction that inspects.
Or offering to perform is the other half of it. The duty attaches to the offer, so a quote given for work in a county with no inspector is already inside the rule.
The general standard behind the specific ones
16 TAC 73.60 is short, and it sets four headings that the specific rules hang off.
- (a) Competency. Know and adhere to the act, the rules, the applicable codes and the department’s procedures, and exercise reasonable judgment and skill in performing all duties.
- (b) Integrity. Be honest and trustworthy, and avoid misrepresentation and deceit by acts of commission or omission. Acts or practices constituting threats, coercion or extortion are prohibited.
- (c) Interest. The licensee’s primary interest is ensuring compliance with the act, the rules and the applicable codes.
- (d) Specific rules of conduct. No participating in a plan or scheme to evade the act, the rules or the adopted standards. No furnishing inaccurate, deceitful or misleading information to the department, a consumer or another person. No dishonesty, misrepresentation or fraud.
Threats, coercion and extortion are named in a rule about electricians, which tells you something about what has come before the commission over the years.
By acts of commission or omission is doing real work in (b). Deceit by omission means the sentence reaches a thing you did not say as readily as a thing you did.
What follows from breaking one
The rules themselves name the consequence in places. 16 TAC 73.22(c), (f) and (h) each attach denial, suspension, revocation, a sanction or an administrative penalty to their own subject.
The general route is one step longer. A person who violates the chapter, a rule adopted under it, or an order of the executive director or the commission is subject to denial or disciplinary action (Tex. Occ. Code 1305.251), and the section that provision points at lets the commission deny, revoke, suspend or refuse to renew a license, or reprimand the holder (Tex. Occ. Code 51.353(a)).
Reprimand is on that list and it is the one people forget. Not every finding takes a license, and a reprimand is still a matter of public record attached to a number that follows you between employers.
What the penalty comes to, and how the department picks a figure, is a separate subject with its own page.
What this page cites
- 16 TAC 73.22 Licensing requirements, general. Eight subsections: term, expired licenses, falsification, contractor license numbers, non-transferability, alteration, responsibility through a general contractor or home warranty company, and use of another person’s license. source
- 16 TAC 73.70 Responsibility of licensee, standards of conduct, subsections (a) through (j). (i) is the geographic-reach sentence and (j) the partnership sentence, which an earlier version of this page had the other way round. source
- 16 TAC 73.60 Standards of conduct for engaging in electrical work. (a) competency, (b) integrity including threats, coercion and extortion, (c) interest, (d) three specific rules of conduct. source
- 16 TAC 73.51 Electrical contractors’ responsibilities. (b)(4) requires all of a contractor’s electrical work to be performed by licensed individuals, (h) bars use of a license not assigned to that contractor. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.165 License issuance and nontransferability. Subsection (b): a license issued by the executive director is valid throughout this state and is not transferable. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.251 Grounds for denial or disciplinary action, pointing at Tex. Occ. Code 51.353. source
- Tex. Occ. Code 51.353 License denial and administrative sanctions. Subsection (a) permits denial, revocation, suspension, refusal to renew, or reprimand. source