Critique of Texas House Bill 23 (2025)

HB 23, now passed by the Texas House and under Senate consideration, is yet another Trojan horse masquerading as a solution to bureaucratic inefficiency. On its surface, it offers developers the ability to bypass municipal delays by hiring third-party reviewers and inspectors when deadlines aren’t met. But in practice, it accelerates the erosion of meaningful oversight in the name of “streamlining” and “efficiency”—two favorite euphemisms of the deregulation crowd.

This bill isn’t about fixing delays; it’s about giving developers a workaround to avoid pushback on noncompliant or marginal development plans. While the bill pays lip service to environmental and safety requirements—citing the Texas Water Code and federal NPDES permitting—it does nothing to strengthen enforcement. There is no real mechanism ensuring that third-party reviewers are held to the same rigor or independence as city departments. If anything, it invites conflicts of interest: developers will cherry-pick friendly reviewers, just as they already hire so-called engineers who will rubber-stamp structurally or ethically questionable projects.

The redefinition of “plans” to include all manner of site and construction documents means this bill has reach far beyond platting. It opens the door to privatizing the review of nearly every critical phase of development—something that should never be left to hired guns. This undermines public accountability, removes city-level checks, and further tilts the playing field in favor of builders who already enjoy the protection of weak warranty laws and near-zero code enforcement.

In short, HB 23 is a deregulation bill wrapped in procedural reform. It undermines municipal authority, puts foxes in charge of the henhouse, and invites widespread abuse by developers eager to bypass the friction of compliance. The Texas Legislature continues to legislate as if builders are the ones being victimized, when in fact it’s homeowners and local jurisdictions who are being systematically stripped of their protections.

Who Is to Blame?

House Bill 23 is a textbook example of how the Texas Builders Association (TBA), in collaboration with pro-developer legislators, continues to rig the system against homebuyers, municipalities, and code enforcement officers. The bill doesn’t just allow third-party plan review—it mandates deference to the builder’s timeline, not the integrity of the review process. And let’s be clear: these third parties aren’t vetted public officials with no skin in the game. They are paid contractors, often handpicked by the very builders whose work they're supposed to scrutinize. That’s not oversight—that’s legalized self-certification.

TBA knows exactly what it’s doing. It has spent years lobbying to weaken municipal authority, limit warranty liability, and sideline inspectors who dare to enforce the IRC, NEC, IECC, or any of the more robust ASTM or manufacturer’s standards. HB 23 is just their latest power grab—making it easier to fast-track approvals while stripping cities of their ability to pause projects that don’t meet minimum health and safety standards. In jurisdictions like Austin, where local officials have sometimes tried to push back against bad building practices, this bill slaps a gag order on enforcement and hands the keys to the builder’s private consultant.

Homebuyers will suffer most. They’ll be left with homes reviewed and greenlit by people financially tethered to the builder. There will be no true accountability when foundations fail, water penetrates improperly detailed building envelopes, or electrical systems violate NEC clearances. Municipal building departments—already underfunded—will be rendered irrelevant, their expertise bypassed in favor of whatever bottom-dollar reviewer the builder decides is “qualified.”

So yes—TBA and its legislative water-carriers are screwing Texas homebuyers yet again. HB 23 doesn’t reform a broken system. It burns the house down and sells you the ashes—with a warranty that barely covers the matchstick.