--- title: "TCPA, CAN-SPAM & Do-Not-Call: What Texas Contractors Must Know Before Using Permit Lists — PermitVector" source: https://permitvector.com/blog/tcpa-can-spam-contractor-marketing-texas description: "Plain-English overview of TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and Do-Not-Call rules for Texas contractors marketing to homeowners from permit data. Educational, not legal advice." --- # TCPA, CAN-SPAM & Do-Not-Call: What Texas Contractors Must Know Before Using Permit Lists > Plain-English overview of TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and Do-Not-Call rules for Texas contractors marketing to homeowners from permit data. Educational, not legal advice. 1. [Home](/) / 2. [Resources](/blog) / 3. TCPA, CAN-SPAM & Do-Not-Call: What Texas Contractors Must Know Before Using Permit Lists PermitVector Resources # TCPA, CAN-SPAM & Do-Not-Call: What Texas Contractors Must Know Before Using Permit Lists By Ken Besada · Updated June 10, 2026 **Before calling, texting, or emailing homeowners you found through a building permit list, three federal frameworks matter: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the CAN-SPAM Act, and the National Do-Not-Call Registry.** Ignoring them is not a paperwork risk — TCPA violations can carry statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per call or text, and enforcement is active. This guide explains each law in plain English, how it applies specifically to contractors working from permit data, and which outreach channels carry the highest and lowest risk. > **This article is general educational information only. It is not legal advice. Laws in this area are complex, fact-specific, and change frequently. Consult a licensed attorney before making compliance decisions for your business.** * * * ## Why Permit Data Creates Compliance Questions A building permit is a public record. The address, owner name, and sometimes contact information in a permit filing are lawfully obtained facts. There is no legal barrier to _collecting_ that data. The compliance questions arise the moment you **contact** the person. The law governing outreach does not care whether you found someone’s phone number in a public database or a paid list. What matters is: what channel did you use, what technology did you use to place the call or send the message, and did the recipient consent? Contractors who move from permit data to outreach without understanding those questions are taking on liability that can be disproportionate to the revenue generated. * * * ## The TCPA: High Risk for Texts and Autodialed Calls ### What It Covers The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227), enacted in 1991 and significantly updated by FCC rulemaking in subsequent decades, restricts certain types of telephone communications to mobile and residential numbers. The key restrictions for contractors: - **Autodialed calls or texts to mobile phones** require **prior express written consent** from the recipient, unless a specific exemption applies. - **Prerecorded voice messages** to mobile or residential landlines also require consent. - **Manual calls to residential landlines** without an existing business relationship are subject to Do-Not-Call rules (covered in a separate section below). “Autodialer” is defined broadly under TCPA case law, and the definition has been actively litigated. As of 2023, many courts apply a standard that captures predictive dialers, power dialers, and some click-to-dial platforms, not just fully automated robocalers. If your sales software dials numbers in batches or from a queue without a human initiating each individual call, it may qualify. ### How This Applies to Permit Lists When you obtain a homeowner’s mobile number from a permit record (or from a skip-trace service that augments permit data with contact information), you almost certainly **do not have prior express written consent** to contact that number via autodialer or text message. The homeowner never gave it. This is the core exposure. **Practical rule of thumb:** If you are texting homeowner mobile numbers in bulk, or running them through any dialing platform that automates the outreach, you are in TCPA territory and should have explicit legal guidance before proceeding. ### What “Prior Express Written Consent” Means Under FCC regulations, prior express written consent for telemarketing calls or texts must: - Be a written agreement (including electronic) that the consumer signed - Clearly authorize the specific company to contact them via autodialer or prerecorded message - Include the telephone number the consumer is consenting to be contacted at - Disclose that consent is not a condition of purchase A homeowner pulling a permit with their phone number on the application does **not** constitute consent to be contacted by third-party contractors. ### TCPA Damages TCPA is a strict-liability statute with private right of action. Plaintiffs can recover $500 per violation for negligent violations, up to $1,500 per violation for willful violations. Class actions are common. A batch of 500 unsolicited texts can become a $750,000 exposure before factoring in attorney fees. * * * ## CAN-SPAM: Commercial Email Rules ### What It Covers The CAN-SPAM Act (15 U.S.C. § 7701) governs commercial email — any email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service. Key requirements: | Requirement | What It Means in Practice | | --- | --- | | Accurate “From” and “To” fields | The sender identity must be truthful; no spoofed headers | | Honest subject line | The subject cannot be deceptive about the email’s content | | Physical postal address | Every commercial email must include a valid physical mailing address for the sender | | Opt-out mechanism | Every email must include a clear, working unsubscribe link or mechanism | | Honor opt-outs promptly | Once someone opts out, you must stop sending within 10 business days | | No harvested addresses | You cannot use address-harvesting software to scrape email addresses from websites | ### B2B vs. Consumer Email CAN-SPAM applies to **all** commercial email, but the enforcement focus and practical risk differs: - **B2B email** (contacting a licensed contractor or a business address found in a permit record): CAN-SPAM compliance is the primary concern. The law’s requirements apply, but private class-action risk is lower than TCPA. Compliance is largely mechanical: include your address, include an unsubscribe, do not deceive. - **Homeowner/consumer email**: Same CAN-SPAM requirements apply. If you have obtained a homeowner’s personal email address through skip-tracing or third-party enrichment, confirm that the data source obtained it lawfully and complied with applicable terms of service. ### What CAN-SPAM Does Not Cover CAN-SPAM does **not** require that you obtain prior consent before sending commercial email. It is an opt-out framework, not an opt-in one — unlike TCPA. This makes email meaningfully lower-risk than text or autodialed calls from a legal standpoint, provided you follow the rules. ### State Law Overlap Some states have enacted stricter email marketing laws. Texas does not currently have a standalone state email marketing statute that goes beyond CAN-SPAM, but if you are emailing homeowners in other states, check local law. * * * ## The National Do-Not-Call Registry ### What It Is The National Do-Not-Call Registry, administered by the Federal Trade Commission, allows consumers to register their phone numbers to opt out of most telemarketing calls. Key rules: - Telemarketers (broadly defined) must scrub their call lists against the DNC registry before calling. - Numbers must be checked against the registry **within 31 days** before a call is placed. - Violations can result in FTC civil penalties of up to $50,120 per violation. ### Who Counts as a “Telemarketer” Under DNC Rules? The definition is broad. If you are calling homeowners to solicit business — offering your roofing services, HVAC installation, or landscaping — you are generally engaged in telemarketing under the FTC’s framework. The fact that you found the number in a public record does not create an exemption. ### Existing Business Relationship Exception There is an exception for calls to consumers with whom you have an **established business relationship** (EBR) — a prior transaction or inquiry within defined time windows (generally 18 months for transactions, 3 months for inquiries). If a homeowner hired you before and is on the DNC list, you can call them. If they are a new prospect from a permit list, the EBR exception does not apply. ### How to Check the Registry You can access the DNC registry through the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule portal. Subscription is required for commercial telemarketers; access is tiered by volume. Most CRM platforms and dialing software include DNC scrubbing as a feature — verify that it is actually configured and up to date before running outreach. * * * ## Texas-Specific Considerations Texas has its own telemarketing statute, the **Texas Business & Commerce Code Chapter 302** (Telephone Solicitation), which largely mirrors federal rules but adds some state-specific requirements, including registration requirements for certain telephone solicitors. The Texas Attorney General’s office has enforcement authority. The Texas DNC rules reference and incorporate the National DNC Registry. A number registered federally is protected under Texas law as well. For door-to-door canvassing — which some contractors prefer for permit cluster neighborhoods — there is no federal TCPA or DNC equivalent. Local municipalities, however, may require a solicitor’s permit or impose hours restrictions. Check the specific city ordinances for any market you intend to canvass. * * * ## Channel Risk Summary for Permit-Based Outreach | Channel | Primary Law | Consent Required? | Risk Level | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Direct mail (postal) | None at federal level | No | Low | | Commercial email | CAN-SPAM | No (opt-out framework) | Low–Medium | | Manual phone call (non-autodialed) to landline | DNC Registry | No (but check DNC first) | Medium | | Manual phone call to mobile | TCPA (limited), DNC | No, but DNC still applies | Medium | | Autodialed call to mobile | TCPA | Yes — prior express written consent | High | | Text message to mobile | TCPA | Yes — prior express written consent | High | | Prerecorded voicemail to any number | TCPA | Yes | High | **The industry consensus among home-services companies working from public data lists: lead with direct mail, follow with email, and treat phone/text as a channel you earn through engagement, not a cold opener.** * * * ## Practical Recommendations **1\. Start with direct mail.** A well-designed postcard referencing the permit type and sent to the property address (or the owner’s mailing address from the county appraisal district record) is fully legal, highly targeted, and often novel — the homeowner has probably not received mail from a contractor about their specific permit. This is the lowest-risk, highest-context first touch. **2\. Email where you have a business address.** If the permit record or a follow-up inquiry produces a business email address, CAN-SPAM-compliant email is a reasonable second touch. Set up a real unsubscribe mechanism from day one. **3\. Do not text cold mobile numbers from a permit list.** Without documented prior express written consent, this is the highest-risk channel. The FCC continues active enforcement and plaintiff attorneys pursue class actions aggressively. **4\. Scrub any call lists against the DNC Registry.** If you do make outbound calls, this is a required step, not optional hygiene. **5\. Document your consent processes.** If you run a form-based lead capture that generates consent for future contact, make sure the language is specific to the channels you intend to use and that you retain records of the consent. **6\. Get counsel before scaling.** If you are running a high-volume outreach program — thousands of contacts per month — the cost of an hour with a TCPA-experienced attorney is small relative to the exposure if your process has a gap. * * * ## Where Permit Intelligence Fits In PermitVector delivers permit data — addresses, permit types, and trade classifications — for ten Texas markets. It does not sell phone numbers, provide contact enrichment, or enable bulk text or calling campaigns. The data is the same open-record data available from city portals, structured and delivered daily to reduce the operational burden of collection. How you use that data for outreach, and which channels you use to make contact, is your decision and your compliance responsibility. The [methodology page](/methodology) describes how PermitVector sources and classifies permit records. For compliance decisions about your specific marketing program, consult a licensed attorney familiar with TCPA and FTC enforcement. > **Reminder: This article is general educational information only, not legal advice. Consult qualified legal counsel before making compliance decisions for your business.** See also: [How Texas Building Permit Data Works](/blog/texas-building-permit-data-guide) for a broader overview of permit data sourcing and legal basis. [← All resources](/blog) ## The first one to the job site wins. Turn Texas's daily permits into your earliest, freshest pipeline. Start free — see your first feed tomorrow morning. [Start 14-day free trial →](/#trial) No credit card · Cancel anytime · Updated daily ~6 AM CT. --- _Source: https://permitvector.com/blog/tcpa-can-spam-contractor-marketing-texas · PermitVector — daily Texas building-permit intelligence._