Verified against the city’s published rules · page updated October 21, 2026 · rules change — confirm with the city before applying
Amarillo prices a water heater replacement at $70.00 in its Code of Ordinances, plus a $13.00 technology fee. The Building Safety Fees page on the city’s own website shows a stand-alone plumbing permit at $68.00, plus the same $13.00.
Both are published by the City of Amarillo today. The code figure is the newer law on paper. The web page was edited more recently. This page gives you both, every plumbing fee line from each, and the number to call before you pay.
If you searched for an Amarillo plumbing permit and got a list of amarillo.gov PDFs, those are dead. We checked the six that ranked first on 12 October 2026, and every one answered HTTP 404.
The City of Amarillo Building Safety Department issues plumbing permits for work inside the city limits.
The department’s own description: it “provides permitting for building & remodeling projects done within the Amarillo city limits.”
building@amarillo.govApplications do not go over the counter on paper. “The City of Amarillo Building Safety issues all permits and contractor licensing electronically.” The system is MGO Connect, short for My Government Online. You create an account there and apply. MGO’s own help desk is 1-866-957-3764, option 1. For anything the portal cannot answer, the city points you back to 806-378-3041.
Amarillo sits in two counties, Potter and Randall. The city’s own homeowner rule names the “Potter/Randall Appraisal District”. Inside the city limits, the permit is a city matter from application to final inspection. The statewide picture is on Texas plumbing permits.
Yes. Amarillo issues permits to an owner working on the home they live in, and its code exempts that owner from contractor registration.
The Building Safety page answers the question directly. You can apply on MGO Connect “for your residence if the address is listed as your homestead exemption with the Potter/Randall Appraisal District.”
The code says it at more length. Section 4-1-110(c), the homeowner exemption, covers “A person who owns a single-family dwelling and has either established the same as his legal place of residence, or intends to do so subsequent to completing the work for which a permit is requested”. That person “may perform work on that dwelling and on other accessory buildings and structures on the same building site without being registered as a contractor”. Three conditions come with it:
One gap between the two. The web page ties the permit to a homestead exemption on file with the appraisal district. The code also covers an owner who “intends to” move in after the work. If you have just bought the house and have not filed for a homestead exemption yet, you fit the code and not the web page. Ask Building Safety on 806-378-3041 which one they apply before you start.
The state floor is the same everywhere in 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.” Amarillo’s rule sits inside that. Compare El Paso and Brownsville, whose published rules close the homeowner route, and Lubbock, which lets an immediate family member do the work too. Amarillo’s code says nothing about family. Who may do plumbing for someone else is on who can legally do plumbing in Texas.
There is one break in the late-fee rule written for owners. If you start work without a permit and the city catches it, §4-1-4(a) says “A person who owns and occupies a single-family dwelling will not be charged the above late fee for work on their dwelling provided such owner makes an application for the required permit by the end of the next work day following notification of the requirement to obtain a permit.” That applies once. A second miss within 24 months gets the full late fee.
Amarillo’s plumbing chapter requires a permit for any installation, alteration, repair or replacement, and the city publishes a short list of plumbing repairs that are exempt.
The rule is §4-5-2(a): “It shall be unlawful for any person to perform or cause to be performed any installation, alteration, repair or replacement to any water, sewer, gas, drainage, water treatment, water heating or other plumbing installation, fixture or equipment in a Building or on a Premises without first obtaining a proper permit to do so from the Department of Building Safety”. Water heating is named in the sentence. A water heater replacement needs a permit in Amarillo, and the fee schedule prices it by name.
Two more lines from the same section. “A separate permit shall be obtained for each Building, Structure or Premises.” And “Any person installing or exchanging residential water treatment facilities must obtain a permit before performing such work.” A water softener swap counts.
The city’s Work Exempt page lists 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 placed 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 stoppage 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.”
That is the whole plumbing list. Clearing a clog, fixing a leak, pulling and resetting a toilet: no permit. Replacing the pipe that leaked: permit. The quote is printed as the city prints it, including “remove and placed”.
The same page covers emergencies: “Where equipment replacements and repairs must be performed in an emergency, the permit application shall be submitted within the next business day.” A water heater that fails on a Saturday can be replaced on Saturday. The permit application goes in on Monday.
For comparison, the state floor in §1301.551(c) keeps five jobs off the compulsory permit list everywhere in Texas: “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.” Amarillo’s exempt list does not name faucets, ballcocks or disposals, and its §4-5-2 covers “replacement” of any fixture. If you are swapping a faucet, ask. Our fixture-by-fixture read is on fixture and faucet permits in Texas.
The sewer tap is the city’s job, not your plumber’s. §4-5-1(b): “The City Utilities Division only may make sewer taps on sewer mains and install sewer pipe in the public Street or Alley extending to the abutting private property line. The maintenance of a service line and tap shall be the responsibility of the abutting property owner.” Sewer and repipe work is covered on big-ticket plumbing permits in Texas.
$83 for a water heater replacement under the codified schedule, or $81 using the stand-alone plumbing permit on the city’s fee page.
Both are $70 or $68 for the permit plus the $13.00 technology fee, which both sources agree on. Pay by card and §4-1-3(h) adds a “Convenience fee (applied to all credit/debit card transactions) …..2.5% of the total transaction (rounded to the nearest whole dollar amount).”
From Code of Ordinances §4-1-50, last amended by Ord. No. 8218 on 16 September 2025. This applies “When there is no building permit issued on the same project where a plumbing installation is made”. On new construction, additions and remodels with a building permit, “The permit fee for a plumbing permit shall be combined with the fees for a building permit”.
The code does not say whether the $9 per fixture is added to the $70 minimum or counted toward it. Ask before you budget a new-fixture job.
The Building Safety Fees page carries no ordinance number and no effective date. Its schema records an edit on 5 October 2026. The lines that bear on a plumbing job:
We cannot tell you, and we are not going to guess. The code is the adopted law, and its plumbing figures carry a September 2025 ordinance date. The web page is lower on every line except the technology fee. Section 4-1-3(h) says “All fees stated herein will increase annually by three (3) percent or consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is greater.” So both documents are snapshots of a number that moves each year. We found no 2026 fee ordinance in the city’s codification service. That is not proof none was passed: §4-1-50 has been amended every September from 2019 to 2025, the last time by Ord. No. 8218 on 16 September 2025, so a September 2026 amendment would fit the pattern.
Plan on $83 for a water heater. Ask Building Safety on 806-378-3041 what the portal will actually invoice.
For scale: Lubbock charges $75 flat for a water heater, Laredo $67 built from three lines, and Midland $50. Our cross-city table, what a plumbing permit costs in Texas, city by city, does not yet include Amarillo.
Amarillo publishes three different late fees for starting work before the permit.
The owner-occupant exception above applies under all three. What else happens if you skip a permit is on skipping a plumbing permit in Texas.
Under §4-1-3, a plumbing permit has 180 days. The work must start within 180 days, and it cannot stop for 180 days once started, or the permit is void. An application with no permit issued is abandoned after 180 days.
An expired permit can be renewed once. Within 60 days of expiry, the code says $70.00 and the fee page says $68.00. From 61 to 180 days it costs half the original fee, not less than that floor. After 180 days you start over at full price.
Cancel before any work begins and ask in writing within 180 days of paying, and 80 percent of the permit fee comes back.
A plumbing contractor registers with the city for free, and so does the master plumber behind the license.
Code §4-1-110(d)(10): a plumbing contractor “shall be licensed by the State as a Plumbing Contractor and shall register his license with the City. The responsible Master Plumber for the Plumbing Contractor shall also register his State license with the City.”
The code’s Table 4-1-110 sets the plumbing row as: state license required, city registration required, annual city registration fee none, license and permit surety bond none, general liability insurance “State Required Min.” The Building Safety page’s own table agrees: fee None, bond None. Most other trades in the same table pay $66.00 a year, and several also post a $10,000 or $20,000 bond.
That is what state law requires. §1301.551(g): a responsible master plumber, plumbing contractor “or other person who is required to obtain a permit under this section is not required to pay a plumbing registration fee or administrative fee in a municipality or any other political subdivision.” §1301.551(h) still lets the city require the registration itself. Amarillo does both. Midland reaches the same result by charging every trade nothing, and Laredo writes plumbers out of its fee sentence.
Registration goes through MGO Connect. The city reviews the documents, invoices any fees, and issues the license once the invoice is paid. Then the contractor can apply for permits.
One scope note from the code that matters when you hire. Footnote 7 to the table: “A licensed master plumber may also install non-ducted, unit heaters and wall heaters without having a separate HVAC license.”
What licensed, bonded and insured claims on a van actually mean is on what certified, bonded, insured and background checked actually verify.
For a house, the 2021 International Residential Code, including its plumbing chapters, with Amarillo’s amendments.
Code §4-3-31(b) adopts “the International Residential Code, 2021 edition (as published by the International Code Council), excluding Part VIII Electrical (Chapters 34—43)”. Only the electrical chapters are left out, so the IRC’s plumbing and fuel gas chapters apply to one- and two-family homes. The city’s Residential Permits page describes its checklist as covering “the 2021 International Residential Code with City amendments.”
Amarillo’s amendments include two water heater rules worth knowing before the installer arrives:
The city’s plumbing checklist also lists the misses its inspectors see most. Water service pipe must sit “not less than 12 inches (305 mm) deep and not less than 6 inches (152mm) below the frost line.” Each dwelling needs “an accessible main shutoff valve near the entrance of the water service.” Underground gas piping goes “a minimum depth of 18 inches (458 mm) top of pipe below grade.”
For buildings other than houses, the plumbing code is the International Plumbing Code adopted at §4-5-21, last amended by Ord. No. 8091 in October 2023. The codified section does not print the sentence that names the edition, but the ordinance itself does: Ordinance 8091 adopts “the International Plumbing Code, 2021 edition”, passed on 10 October 2023. The fuel gas code is the 2021 edition (§4-3-50), and the building code is the 2021 edition (§4-3-1).
Inspections are scheduled for the next business day.
The Building Safety page: “We schedule inspections for the next business day”. The exception is getting gas or electric service turned on at an occupied home. For that, call 806-378-3041 and ask about an “After Hours Inspection”. The city says “An additional fee will apply”, which is the after-hours line in the fee section above.
The permit holder calls for the inspection and has to let the inspector in. The city’s plumbing checklist quotes R109.3: “It shall be the duty of the permit holder or their agent to notify the building official that such work is ready for inspection.” The most common failure the city lists under it is “No one on-site / no answer”. A failed inspection means a re-inspection fee, $70.00 in the code or $68.00 on the fee page.
The statewide answer on water heaters is on do you need a permit to replace a water heater in Texas?
The fee you will actually be charged. The code says $70.00 for a water heater and the city’s fee page says $68.00. Neither carries a 2026 date in its own text. Call 806-378-3041.
Whether a 2026 fee ordinance exists. The city’s codification service lists three 2026 ordinances, none of them a fee schedule. We did not search the City Council’s agenda portal.
What the MGO Connect portal asks for or computes. We did not open the portal. The city publishes no plumbing permit application outside it.
Whether the homestead exemption is required. The web page says yes. The code also covers an owner who intends to move in.
If you would rather hand the permit to a licensed Amarillo 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 Amarillo – Ordinance No. 8091, adopting the 2021 International Plumbing Code (Municode ordinance bank) | passed on second and final reading 10 October 2023; Section 6 says ‘effective on October 1, 2023’; PDF created 31 October 2023 | 2026-10-20 (ordinance bank page in the browser; PDF by curl from the cloud, raw text; read for NP-P16) |
| City of Amarillo — Building Safety | undated city web page; WordPress dateModified 2026-10-05T14:17:00-06:00 in the page’s own schema block | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML with curl and a desktop Chrome user agent, HTTP 200; contact block, permit FAQ, contractor license table, homeowner answer, permit-cost answer and inspection answer transcribed and every quoted string matched against the raw text) |
| City of Amarillo — Building Safety Fees | undated city web page; schema block records datePublished 2025-03-05T10:40:39-06:00 and dateModified 2026-10-05T14:17:08-06:00; it excerpts Code §4-1-3 and §4-1-4 and prints a ‘BUILDING SAFETY DEPARTMENT FEE SCHEDULE’ with no ordinance number and no effective date | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200; every fee line transcribed) |
| City of Amarillo — Work Exempt, No Permit Needed | undated city web page; schema dateModified 2025-07-10T13:44:48-06:00 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Amarillo — Residential Permits | undated city web page; schema dateModified 2026-08-04T08:03:00-06:00 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200; the Residential Codes — Plumbing Information block read in full) |
| City of Amarillo — Permitting Software MGO | undated city web page; schema dateModified 2025-07-29T15:14:24-06:00 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Amarillo — External Partner Links | undated city web page; schema dateModified 2025-02-26T17:27:04-06:00 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200; read for the appraisal district and state board entries) |
| City of Amarillo — Code of Ordinances, Chapter 4-1 FEES, PERMITS, AND CONTRACTOR REGISTRATIONS | Municode Supplement 81, codified through Ordinance No. 8226, enacted December 9, 2025; §4-1-3, §4-1-4, §4-1-50 and §4-1-110 each last cited to Ord. No. 8218, 9-16-2025 | 2026-10-12 (chapter text pulled raw from api.municode.com CodesContent, job 487766, product 11818; §4-1-1 to §4-1-4, §4-1-50, §4-1-110 and §4-1-111 read in full) |
| City of Amarillo — Code of Ordinances, Chapter 4-5 PLUMBING | Municode Supplement 81; §4-5-2 last cited to Ord. No. 7107, 5-20-2008; §4-5-21 last cited to Ord. No. 8091, § 1, 10-10-2023 | 2026-10-12 (chapter text pulled raw from the Municode API; §4-5-1, §4-5-2 and §4-5-21 read in full) |
| City of Amarillo — Code of Ordinances, Chapter 4-3 GENERAL BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS | Municode Supplement 81; §4-3-31 (residential code) last cited to Ord. No. 8086, § 1, 10-24-2023; §4-3-1 (building code) to Ord. No. 8082, 10-10-2023; §4-3-50 (fuel gas code) to Ord. No. 8088, 10-10-2023 | 2026-10-12 (§4-3-1, §4-3-31 and §4-3-50 read for adopted editions and plumbing and water heater amendments) |
| City of Amarillo — Code of Ordinances, OrdBank listing | listing as served 2026-10-12; 2026 entries are Ordinance Nos. 8251, 8253 and 8270 only | 2026-10-12 (read from the Municode OrdinancesToc API for ordinance numbers only; no ordinance text read) |
| Texas Occupations Code ch. 1301, §1301.051 Plumbing by Property Owner in Homestead | current online codification; added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1421, Sec. 3, eff. June 1, 2003 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| Texas Occupations Code ch. 1301, §1301.551 Municipal Plumbing Ordinances and Permits | current online codification; last amended by Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 981 (H.B. 2062), Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2013 | 2026-10-12 (subsections (a) through (j) read as raw HTML) |
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