Verified against the city’s published rules · page updated October 21, 2026 · rules change — confirm with the city before applying
An Allen plumbing permit is $75.00. A water heater permit is $75.00. A failed inspection costs $75.00 the first time, $100.00 the second and $125.00 the third.
Those lines are in the City of Allen Fee Schedule, footed “Last Updated: June 10, 2026”. The edition the Building and Permitting page still links, dated June 16, 2025, prints the same building figures.
Two things changed this year. Allen adopted the 2024 International Plumbing Code on July 28, 2026, effective September 26, 2026. And its forms were reissued in June 2026, including the one-page affidavit a homeowner signs to do the work themselves.
Everything below comes from the city’s own pages, forms, fee schedule and ordinance, and from the Texas Occupations Code, read on 20 October 2026.
The City of Allen Building and Permitting Division, part of the Community Development Department, issues plumbing permits for addresses inside the city limits.
permits@allentx.gov on the city’s web pages; permit@allentx.gov on its June 2026 formsBoth spellings are the city’s: the contact box on the division’s pages prints and links the first (the Adopted Building Codes page carries the city’s general contact box instead), and the June 2026 forms print the second. We cannot tell you which one is read.
Allen is in Collin County. The ordinance that adopted the city’s codes is headed “CITY OF ALLEN, COLLIN COUNTY, TEXAS”. The statewide rules are on Texas plumbing permits.
Yes. Allen prints a water heater permit line in its fee schedule, lists it as a permit type on its application, and inspects it.
Start with state law. Texas Occupations Code §1301.551(c) says a city with a plumbing ordinance must require “a person must obtain a permit before the person performs plumbing, other than the repairing of leaks, the replacement of lavatory or kitchen faucets, the replacement of ballcocks or water control valves, the replacement of garbage disposals, or the replacement of water closets.” A water heater is not on that list. Subsection (a) names the “water heater” among the fixtures a city regulates.
Allen’s documents treat it as its own permit. The Building Permit Application lists “Water Heater” among the permit types, next to “Plumbing”. The Guide to Residential Building Permit Submittals, dated 07/06/2026, puts water heaters, roofs, HVAC, electrical and plumbing on one line, with the instruction “Online submission (CSS Portal)”. For electrical and plumbing it says to apply for an “Over the Counter Trade” permit.
The city’s Residential Inspection Guidelines list “Water Heaters” as item 22 of the miscellaneous residential inspections. Under “Water Heater Final” the inspector checks three things:
“If the Water Heater is Fuel Fired, Carbon Monoxide Alarms shall be installed as required by section R311.3 of the International Residential Code.”
“Fuel-Fired flue piping must be adequately supported and required clearance from combustible materials must be maintained, regardless of whether the piping is new or existing.”
“The Temperature and Pressure Relief Pipe may not discharge to a location other than the outdoors or a sanitary sewer receptor without prior approval from the Building Official.”
Allen also amended the residential code on where a water heater may sit. The inspection guidelines: “Tank water heaters may be installed in garages or interior of dwelling on a platform but are not permitted in attics Section P2801.4 Amend.” and “Tankless Water Heaters installed in attics require a pan and drain line to the exterior.” The ordinance text behind that reads: “No tank type water heaters shall be permitted to be installed in New Residential attics.” The guidelines say attics; the ordinance says new attics. Neither document we read says which applies when an existing attic tank heater is replaced. Ask before you buy a tank unit for an attic.
The Residential Services page prints the city’s two plumbing exemptions:
“The stopping of leaks in drains, water, soil, waste or vent pipe; provided, however, that if any concealed trap, drainpipe, water, soil, waste or vent pipe becomes defective and it becomes necessary to remove and replace the same with new material, such work shall be considered as new work and a permit shall be obtained and inspection made as provided in this code.”
“The clearing of stoppages or the repairing of leaks in pipes, valves or fixtures, and the removal and reinstallation of water closets, provided such repairs do not involve or require the replacement or rearrangement of valves, pipes or fixtures.”
A water heater swap replaces a fixture and its valves. It is not on that list.
The statewide picture on this job is on do you need a permit to replace a water heater in Texas?
An over-the-counter plumbing permit is $75.00, a water heater permit is $75.00, and the city charges $50.00 a year to register the contractor who pulls it.
From the BUILDING PERMIT FEES section of the City of Allen Fee Schedule, footed “Last Updated: June 10, 2026”. The section heading cites council actions through “Res No.4011-7-23(R)”. The June 16, 2025 edition prints the same building lines.
| Line | Fee |
|---|---|
| Over-the-Counter Permits (electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades) | $75.00 |
| Water Heater | $75.00 |
| Miscellaneous | $50.00 |
| Landscape Irrigation (alteration, single-family) | $75.00 |
| Contractor/Inspector Registration | $50.00 (annually) |
| 1st Reinspection Fee | $75.00 |
| 2nd Reinspection Fee | $100.00 |
| 3rd Reinspection Fee | $125.00 |
| After-Hours Fee | $75.00/hour, 2 hour minimum |
| Inspections (no fee otherwise specified) | $75.00/hour |
| Duplicate Permit | $5 |
The over-the-counter line “includes Electrical, Mechanical, and Plumbing Trades” at a single $75.00. The schedule does not price plumbing by fixture, valuation or square foot for an existing house. Allen’s amendment to IPC Section 108.2 says fees “shall be as established from time to time by resolution of the City Council and set forth in the City’s Fee Schedule.”
A stand-alone water heater is its own line at $75.00. The schedule prints no gas piping line.
The online fee moved. The June 2025 schedule printed “Administrative Fee for all on-line transactions” at $2.00 under ADMINISTRATIVE FEES. The June 2026 schedule’s ADMINISTRATIVE FEES section prints only a $25.00 returned-item line, but item (5) of its PUBLIC WORKS FEES section still reads “Administrative Fee: The administrative fee for all on-line transactions shall be $2.00.” The June 2025 edition prints that public works line too. We do not know whether $2.00 is added at checkout on a permit in the portal.
Re-inspections climb. The schedule prints no fourth tier. When the fee may be charged is quoted in the inspections section below. Other cities’ tiers are on plumbing re-inspection fees in Texas.
The fee schedule prints no doubled fee or penalty line for work started before a permit. The ordinance prints two things. Its building code amendments add IBC Section 109.8.2, an investigation fee “equal to the amount of the permit fee required by this code or the city fee schedule as applicable”, collected “whether or not a permit is subsequently issued”; the residential and plumbing code amendments add no such section. And Section 5 of Ordinance 4230-7-26 says a violator “upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not to exceed the sum of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) for each offense, and each and every day such violation shall continue shall be deemed to constitute a separate offense.”
What other Texas cities charge is on what a plumbing permit costs in Texas, city by city.
Yes, on your homestead, by signing the city’s Homeowner’s Affidavit, which names plumbing as one of the four trades it covers.
The state rule first. Texas Occupations Code §1301.051: “A property owner is not required to be licensed under this chapter to perform plumbing in the property owner’s homestead.”
Allen has a form for it. The Residential Services page says: “Doing it yourself? Complete the Homeowner’s Affidavit before starting your project.” The submittals guide says homeowners doing the permitted work “will be required to fill out a Homeowners Affidavit.”
The affidavit, footed 06/2026, is one page. It asks you to circle the “applicable scope to be performed under this affidavit: Building, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing.” Then you swear to four things:
“This location is my homestead as defined under the State of Texas Law.”
“I do hereby swear that I will perform all the involved work as identified above myself.”
“Any work not performed by me will be performed by approved contractors registered with the City of Allen and identified as part of the permit package.”
“I understand that all work must be inspected as required by the City of Allen at various stages.”
And one warning: “I also understand that if I incur multiple violations of the current City of Allen Building Code, I may be required to employ a legally licensed and registered contractor to make required corrections.” A driver’s license number is marked “(Required)”.
Two more city documents line up with it. The Building Permit Application asks whether the applicant is “Owner”, “Contractor” or “Other”. And the contractor registration section of the Allen Land Development Code, as rewritten by Ordinance 4230-7-26, exempts from registration “A person who performs work solely on property owned or leased by the person”, while saying the exemption “does not exempt any person for any requirement to obtain any license or permit”. You skip the registration. You do not skip the permit or the inspection.
What the city does not say. None of the division’s pages, the submittals guide or the CSS guide says where the affidavit goes: whether it is uploaded with an Over the Counter Trade permit, or whether CSS has a homeowner permit type. We did not open the portal.
The form is for the house that is your homestead, and it asks you to swear to that.
Who may legally do plumbing for someone else is on who can legally do plumbing in Texas.
A contractor registered with the City of Allen, and the registration form has a line for a master plumber.
The city’s Contractor Registration page is two sentences long: “All contractors are required to register with the City of Allen for $50 annually. All registration forms must be submitted through the Citizen Self-Service Portal (CSS).” The Permit FAQs describe a second route: “Fill out a contractor registration form and email it to the email address on the bottom of the form along with a copy of your trade license and color photo ID.”
The Contractor Registration Application, footed June 2026, lists “Plumber (Master)” among its classifications and says in capitals: “COLOR COPIES OF CONTRACTOR’S DRIVERS LICENSE AND TRADE LICENSE ARE REQUIRED”.
The $50.00 fee, and the state rule against it. The fee schedule prints the registration fee as $50.00 (annually), for “all contractors who are required to be registered with the City pursuant to Section 3.10 of the Allen Land Development Code and/or Chapter 4 of the Code of Ordinances.” No trade exception is printed on that line, on the registration page or on the form.
The ordinance says something the schedule does not. Ordinance 4230-7-26 rewrites the registration section as Section 3.12 (the schedule’s “Section 3.10” is now the energy code amendments). Its subsection (c), headed “Exemption from fee”, exempts a person “to the extent state law prohibits the city from assessing a registration fee from such person or entity”, while adding that the person “shall not be exempt from registering with the city”. Texas Occupations Code §1301.551(g) says a responsible master plumber or plumbing contractor “is not required to pay a plumbing registration fee or administrative fee in a municipality or any other political subdivision.” Subsection (h) still requires the plumber to register.
So the city prints a $50.00 fee for all contractors, and an ordinance clause that waives it where state law says so. We are not going to tell you what the counter collects. The question, with other cities’ answers, is on can a Texas city charge a plumber a registration fee?
No registration, no permit. Subsection (d) of the same section: “No license or permit for which an application is made will be issued to, or inspection report accepted from a person or entity that has not registered and paid the required fee pursuant to this section.”
Insurance. State law in §1301.552 requires the city to verify, through the state board, that the responsible master plumber has a certificate of insurance on file for “not less than $300,000 for all claims arising in a one-year period.” None of the Allen pages, forms or fee lines we read mentions it.
Apply online in the Citizen Self-Service portal, upload PDFs only, pay by card online or by cash or check at City Hall, and print the permit yourself.
The city’s CSS page is firm about the route: “All permit applications must be submitted through the Citizen Self-Service Portal (CSS).” The portal lives at cityofallentx-energovweb.tylerhost.net. If you have no computer, the Permit FAQs say: “A computer is available in our lobby that can be used to apply for your permit.”
The city’s How to Apply guide, last modified May 2026, walks through ten steps. Two instructions are in capitals. Search the address “WITHOUT street suffix (DR, ST, BLVD)”. And attachments: “ONLY PDF DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED”.
Payment, from the CSS FAQs: “Online: Credit Card, Visa, MasterCard or Discover” or “In person: Cash or check - Deliver to the Building and Permitting Department at Allen City Hall (first floor), 305 Century Parkway, Allen, TX 75013”. Whoever is logged in when applying “will automatically be assigned as the billing contact.”
Nothing is picked up. The FAQ: “No, you will be able to download and print your permit once it has been issued.”
Request inspections in the portal before 4 p.m. for the next business day, call 214.509.4130 between 8 and 9 a.m. that morning for a time window, and cancel by 8:30 a.m. or pay for the trip.
From the Inspection Requests page of the residential packet: “Inspection requests must be scheduled in the CSS Portal. Inspections that are entered before 4 p.m. will be scheduled for the following business day, in most cases.” Inspection hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Then, in capitals: “NO SPECIFIC APPOINTMENT TIMES DURING INSPECTION HOURS CAN BE SCHEDULED.”
The Residential Services page gives you one way to narrow that: “To obtain a time window for your scheduled inspection, please call 214.509.4130 between 8-9 a.m. on the day of inspection.”
Canceling: “For same-day cancellations made before 8:30 a.m. on day of inspection, call 214.509.4130. For all other cancellations, use CSS.” To add or delete an inspection in the permit workflow, email bpplanreview@allentx.gov. For a red tag, the packet says not to call the office; your inspector’s email is BPInspections@allentx.gov.
When a re-inspection fee lands. Ordinance 4230-7-26 added Section R108.7 to the residential code. A re-inspection fee “may be charged when”:
“The inspection called for is not ready when the inspector arrives.”
“The building is locked or work otherwise is not available for inspection when called.”
“The job site is red tagged twice consecutively for the same item.”
“The original red tag has been removed from the job site.”
The section also lists a missing address or permit card, approved plans not on site, and erosion, trash or tree-protection violations, and ends: “Any re-inspection fees assessed shall be paid before additional inspections are conducted on that job site.” The packet says the same: “ALL FEES MUST BE PAID BEFORE THE FINAL INSPECTION CAN BE REQUESTED.” The fee is $75.00, then $100.00, then $125.00.
The 2024 International Plumbing Code with Allen’s amendments, for applications received on or after September 26, 2026.
The city’s Adopted Building Codes page: “Allen City Council approved adoption of the 2024 International Code Council (ICC) Building Codes on July 28, 2026 (effective September 26, 2026). All building and fire code permit applications received on or after this date are reviewed for compliance with the new codes.”
The instrument is Ordinance No. 4230-7-26, passed July 28, 2026. Section 3.01 adopts “The 2024 edition of the International Plumbing Code, as published by the International Code Council, except as it may be in conflict with the provisions of another ordinance of the city and as amended by Section 3.08.” The same ordinance adopts the 2024 International Residential Code, the 2024 International Fuel Gas Code and the 2023 National Electrical Code.
One document on the city’s site is behind. The one-page “Adopted Building Codes” PDF in the division’s sidebar is revised 3/4/2024 and lists the 2021 International Plumbing Code. The residential packet’s own Adopted Codes page, revised 09/26/2026, says 2024. The ordinance and the page win on date, but the older sheet is still live.
Which edition 26 other Texas cities use is on which plumbing code your Texas city uses.
Five things a homeowner would want are not on any city page, form or document we read.
Two city sources we could not read: the Allen Land Development Code and Code of Ordinances on Municode, which answered with a challenge page (HTTP 403) on 20 October 2026 (the registration section was read from the ordinance in the city’s own records system instead), and the CSS portal, which we did not open.
If you would rather hand the permit to a licensed Allen plumber, start with how to verify a Texas plumber’s license, screen by screen before you pay a deposit.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, each published by the body that sets, measures or administers the thing it describes. We record the document’s own date and the date we read it, because published pages change without notice.
| Source | Document date | We read it |
|---|---|---|
| City of Allen – Building and Permitting Division | undated city web page; carries the line that the city ‘has recently adopted the 2024 ICC Building Codes effective September 26, 2026’; contact box prints 305 Century Parkway, 214.509.4130, 214.509.4139, permits@allentx.gov and Monday to Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML with curl and a desktop Chrome user agent, HTTP 200; main content and contact box extracted and every quoted string matched) |
| City of Allen – Residential Services | undated city web page; its ‘Residential Work Exempt from Permits’ section reproduces the city’s R105.2 text | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read in full, plumbing exemptions transcribed) |
| City of Allen – Commercial Services | undated city web page | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read for the inspection and exemption text) |
| City of Allen – Permit FAQs | undated city web page; ten questions | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Citizen Self Service (CSS) | undated city web page; twenty FAQs | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read in full; the page displays permit@allentx.gov three times while each link behind it is mailto:permits@allentx.gov) |
| City of Allen – Contractor Registration | undated city web page | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Adopted Building Codes | undated city web page; states council approval on July 28, 2026 and an effective date of September 26, 2026 | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; table of nine codes transcribed) |
| City of Allen – Forms, Guides & Applications | undated document library page | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; used to locate the affidavit, the registration form, the application, the CSS guide and the residential packet) |
| City of Allen – Fee Schedule (current) | footed ‘Last Updated: June 10, 2026’ and ‘Through Res. No. 4218-5-26(R)’; BUILDING PERMIT FEES heading cites resolutions and ordinances through ‘Res No.4011-7-23(R)’; 30-page PDF created 10 June 2026 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; BUILDING PERMIT FEES section transcribed line by line and diffed against the June 2025 edition: the building lines are identical) |
| City of Allen – Fee Schedule (June 2025), as linked from the Building and Permitting page | footed ‘Last Updated: June 16, 2025’ and ‘Through Res. No. 4158-5-25(R)’; 30-page PDF created 17 June 2025 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; same building lines as the 2026 edition; prints an ‘Administrative Fee for all on-line transactions’ of $2.00 under ADMINISTRATIVE FEES that the 2026 edition’s ADMINISTRATIVE FEES section does not; both editions print item (5) under PUBLIC WORKS FEES, ‘Administrative Fee: The administrative fee for all on-line transactions shall be $2.00.’) |
| City of Allen – Homeowner’s Affidavit | footed 06/2026; 1-page PDF created 5 December 2023, modified 8 June 2026 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Contractor Registration Application | footed June 2026; 1-page PDF created 3 June 2026, modified 10 June 2026; footer prints 305 Century Parkway, Allen, Texas 75013-8042, 214.509.4130, permit@allentx.gov | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Building Permit Application | footed June 2026; 1-page PDF created 3 June 2026, modified 10 June 2026 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; read in full) |
| City of Allen – How to Apply for a Permit (CSS Portal) | headed ‘Instructions last modified: May 2026’; 7-page PDF | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Residential Permit & Construction Packet | cover footed ‘Rev. 10/08/2026’; the Guide to Residential Building Permit Submittals inside it is footed 07/06/2026, the Adopted Codes page ‘Rev. 09/26/2026’, the Residential Inspection Guidelines ‘June, 2026’; 43-page PDF modified 13 October 2026 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; submittals guide, adopted codes page, inspection guidelines and inspection requests page read in full) |
| City of Allen – Adopted Building Codes (one-page PDF in the division sidebar) | footed ‘Rev. 3/4/2024’; lists the 2021 editions and ‘Fax 214.509.4139’; PDF created 5 March 2024, modified 7 October 2024 | 2026-10-20 (curl HTTP 200, pdftotext -layout; read in full) |
| City of Allen – Ordinance No. 4230-7-26 (Allen Land Development Code Article III, Building Regulations, adopting the 2024 codes) | passed and approved July 28, 2026; Section 1 effective September 26, 2026; 92-page scanned PDF with no text layer, created 29 July 2026 | 2026-10-20 (the PDF was fetched with curl from the WebLink ElectronicFile endpoint, HTTP 200, 52 MB; pages were OCR’d with tesseract to locate the sections and pages 1, 2, 64, 72, 79, 80, 90, 91 and 92 were then read as page images; every quotation from this source was checked against the page image, not the OCR). Fact gate 2026-10-21: re-fetched the same way (HTTP 200, 92 pages), all pages OCR’d to locate text, pages 2, 5, 64, 72, 79 and 91 read as page images; R108.7 is Section 3.05 item 8 on page 64 of this ordinance, not the residential packet’s inspection guidelines, which do not print it |
| Texas Occupations Code ch. 1301, §1301.051, §1301.551 and §1301.552 | current online codification; §1301.551 last amended by Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 981 (H.B. 2062), Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2013 | 2026-10-20 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; the three sections read in full) |
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