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Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595

Handyman Insurance in Texas

Texas does not license handymen, so there is no state handyman license for insurance paperwork to attach to. The people who ask are customers, cities and the apps you work through. This page sets out what they ask for, and where the trade licensing laws draw a line that a handyman’s policy may care about too.

What’s required: No Texas trade licensing law we read requires a handyman to carry liability insurance. When it is required, a contract or a city registration is what requires it. The app terms we read point to whatever insurance is required, without setting a limit of their own.

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The state rule

Do handymen have to carry insurance in Texas?

Not under the trade licensing laws we read. The word “handyman” does not appear anywhere in the Texas Occupations Code, so a handyman holds no license for an insurance duty to attach to.

That is not a promise that no rule anywhere touches you. Cities can set their own rules, and we have not read every city’s.

The trigger is the customer: a contract, a city registration or an app’s terms, even if you only take work that needs no license. The city, town and HOA examples below ask for liability insurance, and our general liability page explains what it does.

Source: Tex. Occ. Code (full text searched). Verified .

Contracts and cities

When a job asks for insurance: who asks, and exactly what

We did not find a published vendor packet from a Texas property manager, so we will not print a “typical” limit for that group. These are the published examples we did read.

The City of San Antonio. The city’s page says a permit for limited repair and replacement, with non-structural remodeling alterations, conversions and modernizations as its examples, requires registering as a Home Improvement Contractor. The registration asks for a certificate of liability insurance with the City as certificate holder and these minimums: $300,000 per occurrence, combined for property damage and bodily injury; $600,000 in total; and $300,000 for products and completed operations. It also asks for an FBI background check and $150 for two years. The page gives no effective date, so confirm the current terms and whether your job falls under them with the city.

Source: City of San Antonio, Building & Home Improvement contractors. Verified .

A Texas town’s vendor sheet. The Town of Prosper’s general services requirements cover work on Town property, naming maintenance, painting, electrical and plumbing among others. They ask for commercial general liability of $500,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate on an occurrence form, with the Town added as an additional insured. They also list workers’ compensation “as required by the Labor Code”, and auto if vehicles are used under the contract. The copy we read has no date, and it is one town’s sheet, not a state standard.

Source: Town of Prosper, Insurance Requirements: General Services. Verified .

HOAs and community managers. FirstService Residential’s 2017 advice to Texas HOA boards is that a vendor’s liability insurance should name the association and the management company as additional insureds. It tells boards to ask for the certificate along with the declaration page, and to check that the policy is in effect, that the name matches the contract, and that no exclusion affects the association. That is one firm’s advice, not a rule.

Source: FirstService Residential, “Ways of choosing a vendor that won’t put your HOA at risk”, Oct 27, 2017. Verified .

Home sales. The Texas resale contract says agreed repairs must be done by people licensed to do them “or, if no license is required by law, are commercially engaged in the trade”, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. The seller must give the buyer documentation showing the scope of work and payment. That paragraph says nothing about insurance, so an agent asking you for a certificate is not asking because of that paragraph.

Source: TREC One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale), No. 20-19, form dated 05-04-2026, ¶7F. Verified .

Apps. Thumbtack’s terms have pros represent that they are insured “as required by applicable laws or regulations”. Taskrabbit’s have Taskers agree to maintain “all insurance required to operate your business and perform the Tasks”. Neither names a limit in the passages we read, and we did not read the Angi or Handy terms.

Sources: Thumbtack Terms of Use, last updated July 10, 2026; Taskrabbit Global Terms of Service, last updated July 25, 2026. Verified .

When a customer sends a clause, the exact wording is what matters. Our guide to why certificates get rejected covers the paperwork side. An existing client can use the certificate request.

Electrical, A/C, plumbing

Where the license line sits

No handyman license does not mean no license applies. The line is drawn by the work, not by what the business calls itself, and the statutes we read have no small-job or dollar exemption.

  • Electrical. TDLR licenses this work. A person or business “may not perform or offer to perform” electrical work without a license. Electrical work means “any labor or material used in installing, maintaining, or extending an electrical wiring system” and related equipment. TDLR’s FAQ says, “Anyone who performs electrical work in the state of Texas must be licensed.” Connecting a home appliance to an existing circuit is regulated too, “other than by inserting or removing a plug”.
  • Air conditioning. TDLR also licenses this. Contracting includes the “repair, maintenance, service, or modification” of equipment in an air conditioning system. A company contracting for the public without the required license holder “may not collect a fee or otherwise enforce the contract”.
  • Plumbing. This is the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, not TDLR. Plumbing includes “the installation, repair, service, or maintenance of a fixture, appurtenance, appliance, or piping” of the kinds the statute describes. A person who “advertises or otherwise offers” plumbing must secure the services of a responsible master plumber, so the rule reaches the offer as well as the work.

Working without the license is a Class C misdemeanor under each of the three chapters. In the air-conditioning chapter the offense is doing so knowingly.

The chapters do have real exemptions, but they are specific.

We are not printing a list of small jobs that are fine. Neither TDLR’s FAQ and exemptions page nor anything else we read from the agencies tells a handyman working for customers, task by task, where fixtures, switches, fans, faucets or toilets fall, and we could not find a TSBPE FAQ. Ask TDLR at 800-803-9202, or TSBPE, about your specific job, and keep the answer.

Sources: Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1305.002(11), (12-b), .151, .303; Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1302.002(2), .252(b), .453; Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1301.002(7), .351(a), (a-2), .508; TDLR electrician FAQ 1.1.1; TDLR electrician exemptions. Verified .

Houston adds its own layer. Its permitting handout, Form CE-1165, says that “in general, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work must be permitted and performed by a licensed person”.

Source: City of Houston Form CE-1165, revised March 2024. Verified .

Maintenance work

Why the maintenance exemptions may not fit you

This matters if you do regular work for a property manager on a 1099. All three chapters have a maintenance exemption. Their wording, with TSBPE’s rule for plumbing, points to staff rather than outside vendors.

  • Plumbing. The statute covers someone “regularly employed as or acting as” a maintenance person who does not do plumbing for the public. TSBPE’s rule defines a maintenance man as someone who “is an employee, and not an independent contractor or subcontractor”, and who does not do plumbing for the general public.
  • Air conditioning. The person must be “a regular employee of the owner, lessee, or management company of the property”, and neither the person nor the employer may do this contracting for the public.
  • Electrical. The person must not do electrical work for the public, must be regularly employed as a maintenance person or maintenance electrician for a business, and the work must not involve installing equipment during new construction.

The homeowner exemptions cover the owner’s own home, not someone working for the owner.

Sources: 22 TAC § 361.1(25), TSBPE Administrative Rules, March 2026 (the board’s unofficial version); Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1301.051, 1301.053(a)(1); Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1302.053, 1302.054; Tex. Occ. Code § 1305.003(a)(6), (8). Verified .

Read the policy

Insured, but the policy didn’t respond: one place to look

Some general liability policies carry a classification limitation. It limits coverage to the work described on the policy. A broker’s 2024 article on contractor endorsements quotes one carrier’s form as covering claims “arising out of only those operations which are described by the classification” on the declarations. The author warns that classes were never meant to fully describe a contractor’s work, which leaves room for a dispute over side work.

We have not read a handyman policy form for this page, and wording varies by carrier. So we can’t say your policy has this clause, or how a claim would come out. Read the declarations and every endorsement, and tell your agent everything you do or advertise, including work on taller buildings. If you bring in a licensed electrician, plumber or A/C contractor, ask how the policy treats subcontracted work.

Our contractors page covers what trade contractors’ paperwork asks for.

Source: Gary Grindle, Amwins Brokerage, “Contractor’s General Liability: 11 Common Coverage Limitation Endorsements”, Jun 20, 2024. Verified .

Three words

“Licensed, bonded and insured”: what each word means here

  • Licensed means a state or city license for the specific work. Texas has no handyman license, so the word only means something when it names a trade and a license you hold.
  • Bonded means a surety bond, a guarantee to whoever asked for it. It is not liability insurance. Our surety bonds page explains them. If a customer asks for one, ask what it should guarantee.
  • Insured means a policy is in force. It says nothing about which work that policy describes.

Beyond general liability

Add-ons and other policies to ask about

These depend on how you run the business. None is a requirement we found for handymen as a group.

  • Tools. General liability is not there for your own tools. That is inland marine, a separate question.
  • Your vehicle. If you drive to jobs, read our commercial auto page on when a personal policy is the wrong home for that driving.
  • Workers’ compensation. Texas makes it elective for most private employers. Our workers’ compensation page has the detail.

Source: Tex. Labor Code § 406.002. Verified .

No obligation

Talk it through with the Houston office

Moon Insurance is an independent agency in Houston, licensed in Texas. Send us the work you actually do, including the jobs you only take sometimes, along with any clause a customer has sent you. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot help with. The phone is fastest: (281) 484-8320, or use the form below.

Moon places general liability for handyman operations.

Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. Our Houston office is at 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034.

Keep this to the basics — no claim details or customer names. Those come later, on the phone or through a route we will name.

Handyman insurance questions

Does a handyman need insurance in Texas?

Not under the trade licensing laws we read. To see whether something else requires it, check the contract, the city’s rules and the app’s terms for your specific work.

Does a handyman need a license in Texas?

There is no handyman license in Texas. Electrical, air-conditioning and plumbing work each have their own state license, and a city can have its own registration, as San Antonio does for home improvement contractors.

Can a handyman do electrical or plumbing work in Texas?

Not for customers without the proper license or registration, unless an exemption in the statute applies. Chapter 1305 bars performing or offering electrical work without a license, and TDLR says anyone doing that work must be licensed. The plumbing statute covers the repair and maintenance of fixtures as well as installation, and its appliance-dealer exemption leaves out water heaters.

Can a handyman install a mini split in Texas?

TDLR says no, not as contracting work for the public without an air conditioning contractor’s license. Its FAQ says a mini-split “is not self-contained, it is a split AC system”, so the exemption for self-contained ductless units of three tons or less does not reach it. TDLR reads that exemption as covering window units, self-contained through-the-wall units and portable ductless units.

Can a handyman replace a ceiling fan, faucet or toilet?

We can’t give you a yes or no, because we found no agency statement that answers it task by task for a handyman. The definitions of electrical work and plumbing are broad and contain no small-job test, so ask TDLR or TSBPE about the specific job.

How much insurance should a handyman get, and what does it cost?

No rule we read sets one number for handymen, so start with what your customer, city or app asks for. San Antonio’s registration and Prosper’s sheet, above, ask for different limits. We don’t publish a price. It depends on the policy, the limits and the work you do, so when you compare quotes, compare those as well as the price.

I damaged something on a job and my policy didn’t pay. Why?

We can’t tell you without reading your policy and the insurer’s letter. Ask which wording the insurer relied on, then read the declarations and every endorsement, including any limit tied to your class of work. A label like “negligence insurance” won’t tell you what a policy pays for. The wording will.

My insurer dropped me. Do they have to give a reason?

For a general liability policy from an insurer admitted in Texas, the rule says yes. A cancellation or nonrenewal notice must state the reason, including the precise incident, circumstance or risk factors and the source of the information. The rule also says a nonrenewal notice must be delivered or mailed by the 60th day before the policy expires, and a cancellation notice by the 10th day before it takes effect. That subchapter’s definition of insurer is limited to admitted companies. We did not check what applies to an insurer that is not admitted, so ask your agent which yours is.

Sources: TDLR Air Conditioning and Refrigeration FAQ; Tex. Occ. Code § 1302.058(1); Tex. Ins. Code §§ 551.002(b)-(c), 551.051, 551.053, 551.054, 551.055. Verified .

From the library

Further reading

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