How Plano permits a new house
New Single Family Residence is its own permit category in Plano, alongside Duplex and Residential Townhomes. The general contractor must be registered with the City, and a sub-contractor validation sheet is required for the mechanical, plumbing and electrical contractors, each of whom must hold the relevant Texas state licence. Those three trades are licensed by the state; the general contractor is not, and registers with the City instead.
Builders working at volume can file a Master Plan — one set consisting of floor plans, roof plan, exterior elevations, construction details with electrical and plumbing plans, and a second-floor framing plan where applicable — and then draw individual building permits against it. That is why several houses on the same street can share one plan review, and it is worth knowing when reading a record: the permit for a specific address may not carry its own full drawing set.
Before a permit issues, remaining fees are paid, the general contractor is registered, and the sub-contractor validation sheet is provided. The City's stated plan review goal for residential work is five working days.
The document that does not exist
This is the headline fact of the page, and it contradicts what most buyers assume. Plano's Guide to Obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy, revision dated 3/2/2026, states that a Certificate of Occupancy is required to occupy any building or property with nonresidential or multifamily uses, and states explicitly that certificates of occupancy are not issued for single-family homes or farms.
The same qualifier appears in the City's Customer's Guide to the Building Permit Process: upon approval, when required, a certificate of occupancy will be issued. Two words carrying a great deal of weight.
Nor is this a Plano eccentricity. The North Central Texas Council of Governments, whose regional amendments member cities adopt each cycle, modified IRC R110.1 in its 2024 IRC amendments, approved March 2025, with the stated reason that "Issuing CO's for residences is not a common practice in the area."
A buyer asking for a residential CO in Plano is asking for a document that never existed. Nobody is withholding it, no clerk mislaid it, and no amount of persistence will produce it. The request itself is based on a premise the City's own guide contradicts.
R110, deleted and then restored as an approval
The ordinance history is unusually clean and worth following, because it shows a city writing the residential certificate out of its code and then writing something narrower back in.
Under the 2021 IRC (Ordinance 2022-1-17, effective 1 February 2022), Plano's instruction was blunt: delete Section R110 in its entirety. For that whole cycle the residential code Plano enforced contained no certificate-of-occupancy section at all.
Under the 2024 IRC (Ordinance 2025-6-15, adopted 9 June 2025), R110 returns, amended. R110.2 is deleted; R110.1, R110.3 and R110.4 survive. R110.1 as adopted provides that a building or structure shall not be used or occupied, and a change of occupancy shall not be made, until the building official has issued an approval thereof. R110.3 allows temporary approval before completion where a portion can be occupied safely, and R110.4 permits suspension or revocation of an approval issued in error, on incorrect information, or where the structure is in violation. Plano added two exceptions: no certificate is required for work exempt from permits, or for accessory buildings and structures.
Note the drafting. The 2024 amendments speak of an approval, not a certificate. That matches the CO guide exactly — the approval exists, the paper certificate does not.
What a new house gets instead
The functional equivalent of a certificate of occupancy for a Plano house is a pair of events in the permit record, and the City publishes the guide that says so.
The first is the finaled building permit. The Customer's Guide states that approvals from all departments listed on the inspection list must be approved before the final building inspection can be performed. The City's master inspection code list carries 890 BI FINAL and, for residential work, 895 BI FNL BLDG/ENGY/GRD, which combines the building, energy and grading finals into one call.
The second is the utility release. In the City's own words, upon final trade approvals it authorises utility releases for electricity and gas service connection. There is a matching code on the electrical list, 525 EL METER RELEASE. A house that has power and gas legitimately connected has, by that fact, reached final trade approvals.
So the question worth asking about a new Plano house is not "where is the CO." It is whether the permit shows a completed final and whether utility release was authorised. Those are the milestones the system actually produces.
The inspection sequence, and its published limits
Plano publishes no per-permit inspection checklist. Its Customer's Guide states that a list of required inspections will be provided with the permit when issued, including the inspector's name and contact details. The sequence below is assembled from the City's published master inspection code list rather than quoted from a residential checklist, and the order any individual permit follows is set by the document issued with that permit.
- 120 BI FORMS SURVEY and 125 BI FOOTING/PIER
- Underground electric, plumbing and mechanical (100, 505, 335, 410)
- 130 BI SLAB, with 115 BI CBL STRESS REPRT where the slab is post-tension
- 140 BI SUBFLOOR/JOIST
- Rough plumbing top-out and gas test (600, 605), rough electric (520), rough mechanical (420)
- 175 BI FRAMING and 170 BI RES FRMNG SHTHNG
- Insulation (845), 810 BI DRYWALL, veneer (815)
- 330 PL FINISHED FLOOR CERTIFICATE and 850 BI TERMITE PROTECTION LETTER
- 525 EL METER RELEASE; final plumbing, mechanical and electrical
- 870 BI FINAL ENERGY, 880 BI FINAL GRADING, and the building final
Every one of those hold points is timed to catch something immediately before it is concealed. That is the design logic of municipal inspection, and it is also its limit: once the checkpoint passes, the system's interest in that assembly ends. The model code puts it as work not proceeding beyond the point indicated in each successive inspection without approval, and Plano's inspection request form adds that any inspection requested out of sequence may not be honored.
Plano's own additions to the model code
A new Plano house is not simply a 2024 IRC house. Several local amendments change what the building had to be, and each leaves a document or a test result in the permit file.
- Every foundation is engineer-sealed. R401.2 as amended requires every foundation and footing to be designed and sealed by a Texas-registered engineer, with no size threshold.
- Over 6,000 square feet, all structural drawings and details must be sealed, dated and designed by a State of Texas Registered Engineer, and a fire sprinkler system is required. Plano keeps its own 6,000 sq ft sprinkler trigger and deletes the model code's one- and two-family sprinkler provisions.
- Air conditioning is mandatory under M1401.1.1, added in the 2024 ordinance: all residential dwelling units shall be installed with an air conditioning system capable of maintaining habitable space 20°F below ambient.
- Air and duct leakage testing is required on every one- and two-family dwelling under the 2024 IECC as amended (Ordinance 2025-6-10), regardless of which compliance path was used, and the City publishes a 2024 Residential Energy Code Compliance Certificate.
- Panel directories must be permanent, legible and not handwritten under the amended 2023 NEC 408.4 — so a handwritten panel schedule in a house permitted under this cycle is worth noticing.
What the record proves, and what it does not
For new construction the permit record is at its strongest. Every stage was declared, reviewed and visited, and the file contains a sealed foundation design, an energy compliance certificate, a termite protection letter and a finished floor certificate. That is a real construction history.
It still stops well short of what buyers read into it. The code states its purpose as providing minimum requirements to safeguard public safety, health and general welfare; durability, workmanship above the floor, comfort and the absence of defects are not on that list. The model code adds, at three separate points, that neither a permit, nor approval resulting from an inspection, nor a certificate of occupancy is to be construed as approval of a violation. And each inspection describes one day.
New construction also removes a document buyers rely on elsewhere. Property Code §5.008(e) exempts the transfer of a new residence of not more than one dwelling unit that has not previously been occupied from the seller's disclosure notice. There is no prior owner and nothing to disclose, so for a brand-new house the permit record, the builder's own documents and whatever inspection a buyer arranges are the whole of the information.
What a private inspection adds, and where the paper lives
TREC's standards of practice apply when a licence holder is engaged to inspect a one-to-four family unit that is substantially completed, and 22 TAC §535.223 lists inspections of buildings that are not substantially complete, and builder quality-control inspections, among the situations where the mandated REI 7-6 report form is not required. A phase or pre-drywall walkthrough during construction is therefore a different instrument from the report a resale buyer receives.
The core limit still applies: a licence holder is not required to determine compliance with any code, listing, testing or protocol authority (§535.227(d)(3)(F)(vi)), nor life expectancy, energy efficiency or thermostatic performance. A private inspection of a new house is a condition survey, not a second code review.
As for the paperwork, permit history and permit contents are separate questions in Plano. Residential drawings are submitted on paper in two complete sets — the City's electronic plan submittal programme is for commercial work — so plan sets, inspection results and compliance certificates are a public information matter under Texas Government Code Chapter 552 rather than a portal download. Anything about a specific address is a question for Plano's Building Inspections Department, which this independent reference does not speak for.
Common questions
Does Plano issue a certificate of occupancy for a house?
No. The City's Guide to Obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy, revised 3/2/2026, states that a CO is required to occupy buildings with nonresidential or multifamily uses, and that certificates of occupancy are not issued for single-family homes or farms. The regional amendment developed by NCTCOG for the 2024 IRC gives the same reason for modifying R110.1: issuing COs for residences is not a common practice in the area.
What replaces a certificate of occupancy for a new Plano home?
A finaled building permit and the associated utility release. The City's Customer's Guide states that approvals from all departments on the inspection list must be approved before the final building inspection, and that upon final trade approvals it authorises utility releases for electricity and gas. Under the 2024 IRC as adopted, R110.1 speaks of the building official issuing an approval, not a certificate.
How many inspections does a new Plano house get?
Plano does not publish a residential inspection checklist; its own guide says the list of required inspections comes with the permit when it is issued. What the City does publish is the master list of inspection codes, which runs from forms survey and footing through slab, framing, drywall and the trade finals to a combined building, energy and grading final at code 895. A new house draws a long sequence from that list, but the exact list belongs to the permit.
Does a brand-new Plano house come with a seller's disclosure notice?
Texas Property Code §5.008(e) exempts the transfer of a new residence of not more than one dwelling unit that has not previously been occupied. So a first sale of a new house generally arrives without the statutory disclosure notice, because there is no prior owner with knowledge to disclose. The permit record, the builder's documents and any inspection the buyer arranges are what remain.
Are new Plano homes tested for air leakage?
Yes. Under the 2024 IECC as adopted by Ordinance 2025-6-10, air leakage and duct leakage testing is required for every one- and two-family dwelling regardless of which compliance path was chosen. The City also publishes a 2024 Residential Energy Code Compliance Certificate, so energy compliance is documented in the permit file rather than assumed.
Who has to be registered to build a house in Plano?
The general contractor registers with the City, and a sub-contractor validation sheet is required for the mechanical, plumbing and electrical contractors. Those three trades must hold current Texas state licences, which Plano verifies at registration along with proof of insurance. General contractors hold no state licence, so their City registration is a filing rather than a competency test.
Can a buyer see the plans for a new Plano house?
Not through the permitting portal. Plano's residential handouts require two paper copies of construction documents at submittal, and its electronic plan submittal programme is a commercial one. Drawings, inspection results and compliance documents therefore sit in the permit file, which is a public information question under Texas Government Code Chapter 552 and is handled by the City rather than by any third party.