WHICH LAW APPLIES — A FORT WORTH HOMEOWNER'S MAP

Prepared for this corpus on 2026-08-10. This is an orientation document written
to connect the City of Fort Worth's permit guidance to the statutes and
ordinances behind it. It is not a City of Fort Worth publication. Every rule it
states is cited; read the cited section, and confirm anything that matters with
Fort Worth Development Services before you build.

Three different questions get tangled together whenever someone asks "do I need
a permit?" They have three different answers, from three different bodies of
law, and an answer to one is not an answer to another.


1. MAY I BUILD IT HERE? — ZONING

Whether a structure is allowed on your lot, and where it may sit, comes from the
Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance (City Code Appendix A). Setbacks, lot coverage,
accessory-building placement, fence height and materials, and home occupations
all live there.

Dimensional limits depend on your zoning district, and the one-family districts
differ from each other. Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance Section 4.704 sets the
standards for the A-7.5 One-Family district; Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance
Section 4.705 does the same for A-5, and Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance
Section 4.703 for A-10. Find your district before relying on any number.

If a project does not comply, the route is a variance or a special exception
before the Board of Adjustment under the review procedures in Chapter 3 of the
Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance. Non-compliance is rarely the end of the road.

Zoning approval is not a permit, and a permit does not cure a zoning violation.


2. DO I NEED A PERMIT? — THE BUILDING ADMINISTRATIVE CODE

Permits, fees, inspections and enforcement come from the Fort Worth Building
Administrative Code, adopted by Fort Worth Code of Ordinances Section 7-1.

Fort Worth Building Administrative Code Section 105 governs permits, and
Section 105.2 carries the list of work exempt from permit. That list is closed:
if the work is not on it, it is not exempt. Three consequences people get wrong:

  - There is no general small-accessory-building exemption. A storage shed is
    not exempt merely for being small.
  - Fences are exempt up to seven feet (open wire without slats, eight feet) —
    but zoning still governs height and placement, especially in a front yard.
  - The roof exemption covers replacing material above, but NOT including, the
    decking, lathing or sheathing. Touch the decking and the exemption ends.

An exemption from a permit is never an exemption from the code. Exempt work
still has to be built to code.

Fees are set by Fort Worth Building Administrative Code Section 109 and the fee
tables at Fort Worth Building Administrative Code Section 119. The City also
publishes a Development Fees Schedule that is revised more often than the
ordinance, so confirm any dollar figure before relying on it.

Inspections are governed by Fort Worth Building Administrative Code
Section 110. Contractor registration and city licensing are governed by
Fort Worth Building Administrative Code Section 118.


3. MAY I DO THE WORK MYSELF? — TEXAS TRADE LICENSING

This is state law, and the two homeowner exemptions are NOT the same shape.
Conflating them is the most common and most consequential error.

PLUMBING. Section 1301.051 of the Texas Occupations Code provides that a
property owner is not required to be licensed under that chapter to perform
plumbing in the property owner's homestead. It is not conditioned on municipal
regulation.

ELECTRICAL. Section 1305.003 of the Texas Occupations Code is narrower. Its
exemption reaches work in or on a dwelling by a person who owns and resides in
it only where that work is "not specifically regulated by a municipal
ordinance." A city ordinance can therefore take this exemption away, so Fort
Worth's own electrical rules must be checked before relying on it.

AIR CONDITIONING AND REFRIGERATION. Chapter 1302 of the Texas Occupations Code
governs air conditioning and refrigeration contractors.

Neither exemption waives a permit and neither waives an inspection. Licensing,
permitting and inspection are three separate requirements, and satisfying one
says nothing about the others. "Homestead" is also a real limit: these
exemptions do not reach rental property, a house being built for sale, or work
on someone else's home.


4. WHAT MY HOA CAN AND CANNOT FORBID — TEXAS PROPERTY CODE

Deed restrictions and homeowners-association rules sit on top of everything
above and can be stricter than the city's rules. The legislature has limited
what an association may prohibit.

Section 202.010 of the Texas Property Code restricts a property owners'
association from prohibiting a solar energy device, though it preserves certain
reasonable conditions. The general rules on construction and enforcement of
restrictive covenants are in Chapter 202 of the Texas Property Code, and
Chapter 209 of the Texas Property Code is the Texas Residential Property Owners
Protection Act.

No corpus holds your association's covenants. Read your own.


5. WHICH CODES FORT WORTH HAS ADOPTED

The adopted editions are of mixed vintage; assuming "2021 everything" is wrong.

The 2021 International Residential Code is adopted by Fort Worth Code of
Ordinances Section 7-61, with Fort Worth's local amendments at Fort Worth Code
of Ordinances Section 7-62. The 2021 International Building Code is adopted by
Fort Worth Code of Ordinances Section 7-46. The energy code is the 2015
International Energy Conservation Code, adopted by Fort Worth Code of
Ordinances Section 7-41. Electrical work is governed by the 2023 National
Electrical Code with local amendments.

Where Fort Worth has not amended a model-code section, the base code governs
and this corpus will be silent — silence means no local amendment, not no rule.
