Guides & rules

How to Check an Electrician's Licence in Texas

We publish what the rules actually say about electrical work across the Austin metro — sourced, dated, and specific to your permit office and your utility. The work itself is carried out by electricians licensed by the state.

By the austinelectricalcontractor.net editorial team·Published 2026-08-12·Updated 2026-08-12

Ask for the company's TECL contractor licence number — state rules already require it on their advertising, vehicles and written proposals — then check it yourself on the state register rather than trusting a photograph of a card.

What the licence actually is

Texas licenses two different things and people conflate them constantly.

Individuals hold personal licences at various levels, from apprentice up to master electrician. The business holds a separate electrical contractor licence, and to get one it must either assign its owner's master electrician licence to the company or employ a licensed master electrician as master of record. So the person on your doorstep may hold a perfectly valid individual licence while the company sending them does not hold a contractor licence at all.

The number you want is the company's, and it carries the TECL prefix. Two related prefixes exist for adjacent trades — TSCL for electrical sign contractors and TICL for residential appliance installation — so read the letters, not just the digits.

The number should already be in front of you

This is the part most homeowners do not know, and it is the cheapest filter available.

State rules governing electrical contractors require the licence number to appear in several places as a matter of course: all advertising designed to solicit electrical business must carry the contractor's name and licence number; the name and number must be displayed on both sides of every vehicle the business uses for electrical work; and the name, address, phone number and licence number must appear on all proposals, invoices and written contracts, along with the department's regulatory notice.

There are narrow exceptions — nationally placed television advertising can say the number is available on request, plain phone-book listings limited to name, address and phone are exempt, as are manufacturer and distributor trade ads, telephone solicitations that state licensing compliance, promotional items of nominal value, and signs at the contractor's own permanent premises.

None of those exceptions covers a local contractor advertising local residential work. So an Austin electrical advertisement with no licence number on it is not complying with the rule that governs it — and that is a reasonable thing to notice before you let someone into your house.

Check the number, do not accept a picture of it

Ask for the number in writing, then look it up yourself on the state's licence search. A photograph of a card tells you a card exists; the register tells you the status today.

What you are looking for: that the licence exists, that it is current rather than expired, and that the name on it matches the business you are about to pay. A number that belongs to a different company than the one on your quote is the single most useful thing this check can surface.

Why we do not display a licence number

Because it does not have one, and should not.

Texas law is specific about the line: a person or business may not perform or offer to perform electrical work without the appropriate licence. We carry out no electrical work and offer none — we put you in touch with contractors who hold their own licences and who answer for the work under them. Displaying a licence number we do not hold, or writing as though we employed electricians, would be claiming exactly what the law reserves for licence holders.

That is also why the rule above is worth using. The state has already required the number to be in front of you. All you have to do is look for it.