Harris County
Harris County Fire Marshal's Office
In short
Harris County Fire Marshal's Office issues 5 permits we publish for Harris County, last verified 2026-09-27. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Code Construction Fee | Harris County Fire Marshal's Office | Tiered by construction valuation under the Harris County Fire Code Fee Schedule, effective March 1, 2022: valuation $0-$10,000 costs a $75 application fee plus a $300 permit fee plus a $300 inspection fee; the fee climbs through intermediate tiers to a top tier of $35,000,001 and up, which costs a $4,000 application fee plus a permit fee of roughly $18,000 plus $0.85 per $1,000 of valuation over $35 million, five inspections, and a $1,500 shell-inspection fee. The full multi-tier table sits in the Fire Code Fee Schedule document itself. | one-time per project, issued alongside the Engineering building/development permit above | 2026-09-27 |
| Mobile Food Unit (MFU) Operational Permit — Fire Marshal | Harris County Fire Marshal's Office | $195 flat fee for the permit; a reinspection is also $195.00 flat (fee schedule effective March 1, 2022, the most recent Fire Code fee table located) | annual, or upon any change to the approved inspection configuration | 2026-09-27 |
| Repair Garage / Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facility Operational Permit | Harris County Fire Marshal's Office | $300 flat fee, grouped on the same fee-schedule row with Amusement Building, Dry Cleaning and Places of Assembly; reinspection is also $300.00 (fee schedule effective March 1, 2022) | annual | 2026-09-27 |
| Places of Assembly Operational Permitonly if it applies to you | Harris County Fire Marshal's Office | $300 flat fee, grouped on the same fee-schedule row with Repair Garages, Amusement Building and Dry Cleaning; reinspection is also $300.00 (fee schedule effective March 1, 2022) | annual | 2026-09-27 |
| Open Flames and Candles Operational Permitonly if it applies to you | Harris County Fire Marshal's Office | $125 flat fee; reinspection is also $125.00 (fee schedule effective March 1, 2022) | annual | 2026-09-27 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Fire Code Construction Fee
This fee rides alongside the Engineering building/development permit for the same project, in unincorporated Harris County only, and scales with the project's construction valuation rather than its square footage. Houston BOMA has reported that the Fire Marshal's Office separately revised its large-commercial-permit fees as part of the October 1, 2025 phased increase, and no updated fee-schedule document has been published for it yet — confirm the tiers above (March 1, 2022 schedule) with the Fire Marshal's Office before budgeting a project.
Mobile Food Unit (MFU) Operational Permit — Fire Marshal
Required for every mobile food vendor vehicle or mobile food unit operating within unincorporated Harris County, per the Fire Code's own text, and comes with an operational rule set: 20-foot separation from structures, other vendors and combustibles, a minimum 28-inch egress width, and no LP-gas stored inside the unit. This is a fire/life-safety permit under the Fire Code, entirely separate from HCPH's food-safety permitting, and is unaffected by Texas HB 2844's July 1, 2026 transfer of the annual HCPH Mobile Food Unit food-safety permit to Texas DSHS — this Fire Marshal permit still applies and still comes from Harris County.
Repair Garage / Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facility Operational Permit
Required for operation of a repair garage in unincorporated Harris County. A separate or overlapping trigger applies if the shop also dispenses motor fuel or stores Class I flammable liquids above the 5-gallon indoor/10-gallon outdoor threshold — both fall under the same operational-permit framework. Installing or modifying a motor vehicle repair room or paint booth (Fire Code §105.6.16) does not carry its own itemized fee; it falls under the general construction-permit fee structure tied to project cost and square footage, recorded in the building/development and Fire Code construction fee requirements above.
Places of Assembly Operational Permit
The Fire Code's own occupancy definitions place martial arts, dance and fitness studios in Assembly Group A-3, so a fitness studio in unincorporated Harris County is mandatorily reached by this permit. A restaurant or coffee shop is reached conditionally, based on its own occupant load classification, and the Code states this requirement 'shall include but is not limited to any location that allows service and consumption of alcohol on premises regardless of the determined maximum occupant load' — so serving alcohol on-site can trigger the permit even at a location that would not otherwise need one.
Open Flames and Candles Operational Permit
Applies only where a restaurant or coffee shop in unincorporated Harris County uses open flames or candles in an assembly area or dining area — table candles, tableside flambe service and similar. A location that uses no open flame needs no permit under this category.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Harris County
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
- Website
- hcfchub.net/
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- 2023 Permits Fee Schedule, effective September 1, 2023 (Engineering fees) and Fire Code Fee Schedule effective March 1, 2022 (HCFMO operational-permit fees)Harris County Engineering Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Advocacy update: Harris County permit and fire-code fee proposals (reports the October 1, 2025 start of a three-year phased fee increase)Houston BOMA · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Harris County Fire Code Regulations, effective October 1, 2025 (adopted under Texas Local Government Code Ch. 233, Subchapter C)Harris County Fire Marshal's Office · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
Other offices serving Harris County
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Texas jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.