An individual fire alarm license costs $120 to obtain. That is the initial fee for the fire alarm technician, fire alarm monitoring technician, residential fire alarm superintendent single station, residential fire alarm superintendent, and fire alarm planning superintendent licenses alike — 28 TAC § 34.614 prices them as one group. The residential fire alarm technician license is the exception at $50 for its first year. Renewal, which Chapter 6 covers as a process, is priced here too: $200 for two years on the main group and $100 for two years on the residential technician license. On the firm side an initial certificate of registration is $500, its two-year renewal is $1,000, and a branch office certificate is $150 initially and $300 for two years. A certificate of registration for a firm working exclusively in single station devices costs half the main figures.

Behind every one of those numbers is a ceiling the Legislature set, and the gap between the two is worth knowing about. Insurance Code § 6002.054 directs the commissioner to set the fees and caps each one: an initial registration certificate not to exceed $500, an initial license not to exceed $120, a residential fire alarm technician license not to exceed $50 initially and $50 annually on renewal, a training school approval not to exceed $500 annually, an instructor approval not to exceed $50 annually, and a branch office certificate not to exceed $150. Compare those with the rule’s schedule and you can see the commissioner has set most fees AT the statutory maximum. The practical consequence is that these figures cannot rise without the Legislature moving the ceiling first — which makes them unusually stable for a price list, and makes a rule amendment the only thing to watch.

The mechanics carry two traps of their own. Under 28 TAC § 34.614 fees must be paid by cashier’s check or money order made payable to the Texas Department of Insurance, or online — a personal check is not on the list — and except for overpayments resulting from mistakes of law or fact, ALL FEES ARE NONREFUNDABLE. Fees for tests administered by an outsource testing service are a separate matter, payable to that service in the amount and manner it requires. And the sharpest line in the section: all fees are forfeited if the applicant does not appear for the scheduled test. Missing a sitting does not postpone a cost; it spends it.