This book has two instruments behind it and they change in two different ways. The statute changes when the Legislature amends it. The subchapter changes when the commissioner amends the rules — Insurance Code § 6002.051 gives that authority, providing that the department administers the chapter and that the commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to do so, including rules to administer it through the state fire marshal. Neither happens on a schedule you can plan around, and neither announces itself on a job site.

There is a third kind of change that is easy to miss because nothing in Texas has to be amended for the underlying document to move. Insurance Code § 6002.052 lets the commissioner use recognized standards in adopting rules, and 28 TAC § 34.607 adopts a list of them at NAMED EDITIONS. The publishers of those standards issue new editions on their own timetables. When they do, nothing changes in Texas — the edition named in the rule still governs. What changes in Texas is when 28 TAC § 34.607 is amended to name a different year. So the event to watch is not a new edition being published; it is the ADOPTION RULE being amended. Those are different events, often years apart, and a firm that watches the first will be wrong twice — early when the edition appears, and late when the rule finally moves.

Which turns into a short habit rather than a research project. Before a job of any size, three things are worth confirming against the current text rather than against memory or this book: WHICH EDITION 28 TAC § 34.607 now names for the standard you are working to; WHETHER THE JURISDICTION has adopted an edition of its own, since Chapter 7 showed that licensed work may follow an edition a political subdivision has previously adopted; and WHETHER ANYTHING IN THE SUBCHAPTER has been amended since you last looked. All three are answerable from the published rules in a few minutes, and all three change the job rather than the paperwork. This book is written against a pinned version of both instruments, and the honest thing a reference book can tell you is that a pinned version is a photograph. Verification against the current text is not a lack of confidence in the book. It is the job.