Which electrical code applies to your lot

There is a state electrical code in Texas, and there are city electrical codes, and they are not the same edition. On 1 September 2026 the state's edition changed. Most cities' did not, and will not for a while. If you are about to design a house west of Fort Worth, the edition that governs your wiring is a property of your lot, not of the calendar.

The state adopted the 2026 NEC on 1 September

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation is the agency that adopts the National Electrical Code for the state. Its electricians program page states the arrangement directly: the Texas Electrical Safety and Licensing Act requires the department to adopt the revised NEC as the electrical code for the state of Texas.²

TDLR's rulemaking notice records the current step: the commission adopted the 2026 National Electrical Code, effective 1 September 2026, under 16 Texas Administrative Code §73.100, published in the Texas Register on 28 August 2026.¹

It is a genuinely new fact. The edition it replaced had been the state's since 1 September 2023,⁸ so anything you read about Texas electrical requirements written before late August 2026 was written under the 2023 edition.

The cities are on three different editions

A city adopts its own code editions by ordinance, on its own schedule, usually with amendments from the regional council of governments. Here is what the adopting authorities themselves publish:

• Aledo — the 2021 International Codes and the 2020 NEC, adopted 23 May 2024 and effective 1 January 2025, with regional amendments.⁴
• Weatherford — the 2021 International Codes and the 2020 NEC, by Ordinance O2025-22, applying to all plans submitted on or after 1 January 2026.⁵
• Fort Worth — the 2023 NEC, effective 1 March 2023. The city's own page still describes a 2026 NEC as proposed, with a stated effective date of 1 September 2026.³
• Benbrook — the 2018 International Code series with local amendments and 2017 NEC local amendments, listed as in effect as of 3 January 2019.⁶
• Granbury — the city states that it inspects to codes with the regional council's amendments, Option B. Its page does not name an edition.⁷

Three distinct editions among the towns that name one — 2017, 2020 and 2023, spanning six years of code development — plus one town that names none and a state edition newer than all of them. Nothing is wrong here; this is simply how adoption works in Texas.

The two things this actually changes

What has to be installed. Successive NEC editions expand where arc-fault and ground-fault protection is required, change requirements around outdoor and garage receptacles, and adjust service and panel provisions. The edition in force decides the answer, and on a house the difference shows up in the panel, the protection devices and the receptacle schedule rather than anywhere a homeowner will ever see. It is a real cost difference, and it is knowable in advance.

Who is asking. A city inspects to its own adopted edition. On unincorporated land there is usually no municipal inspection of the house at all — see Who issues your building permit — but the electrician working on it is still licensed by the state under the state's rules. Those are separate facts and people collapse them. No local inspection does not mean no code.

The Fort Worth footnote, and why it is worth watching

Fort Worth's page still calls the 2026 NEC "proposed" with an effective date of 1 September 2026 — a date that has now passed.³ The state adoption is real and dated.¹ The city's own adoption status, as published, has not caught up with its own stated date.

This is the ordinary condition of municipal code pages, not a scandal, and it is exactly why the useful habit is to ask the permitting office what edition they are inspecting to for a permit issued this month, rather than reading it off a web page and assuming. It is also why every entry in our own source list carries the date we opened it.

What to do with this

1. Establish the jurisdiction of the lot first — city, city ETJ, or unincorporated. Everything else follows from that.
2. If it is inside a city, get the adopted edition from the city, in writing, at the time of permit application. The ordinance number is the thing to ask for.
3. If it is unincorporated, ask who, if anyone, will inspect the electrical work, and confirm the electrician's license is current — Checking a trade license in Texas covers how.
4. Have the electrical scope priced against the edition that will actually apply, not the one that applied to the last house on the street.
5. Where a build straddles an adoption date, ask which edition attaches — some ordinances key it to the date plans are submitted, as Weatherford's does.⁵

The energy code is a separate adoption with a separate edition, and it also varies by city: What Aledo's energy code means for your house.

If you want the adopting page for a particular town, they are all in the source list, each with the date it was last opened.