Bounce house rules in Texas: permits, inspection, and insurance

Who regulates inflatables in Texas

Texas Department of Insurance, Amusement Ride Safety

Authority: Amusement Ride Safety Inspection and Insurance Act, Tex. Occ. Code ch. 2151; 28 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 5.9001 to 5.9014 (subchapter J)

Permit or registration

Yes in substance. An amusement ride compliance sticker, valid one year from the date of inspection, affixed to a major component of each ride in a location visible to riders. A certified copy of the insurance policy, with a schedule of rides listing the name and serial number of each insured ride, is filed with the department.

We could not confirm whether the scheme reaches private residential rentals. The department’s FAQ does not address them. Ask Amusement Ride Safety at the Texas Department of Insurance.

Inspection

Annual. The inspection must include a test of stress- and wear-related damage to the critical parts a manufacturer identifies as reasonably subject to failure.

Insurance required by the state

Yes. Motorized trains and continuous air flow inflatables are Class B rides and require limits of liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence. Other Class B rides require $1,000,000 bodily injury and $500,000 property damage per occurrence, or $1,500,000 combined single limit. Class A rides, meaning fixed-location rides designed primarily for children 12 and under, require $100,000 bodily injury and $50,000 property damage per occurrence with a $300,000 annual aggregate, or $150,000 per occurrence single limit with a $300,000 annual aggregate.

Operator requirements

We could not confirm whether the state sets operator or attendant standards. Ask Amusement Ride Safety at the Texas Department of Insurance.

What an operator should know

Texas removes the definitional question by naming the mechanism. The insurance schedule singles out continuous air flow inflatables, which is a blower-fed unit and nothing else, so there is no argument about whether you are covered. Be precise about what that means: inflatables are not a separate ride category in Texas, they are Class B rides carrying their own liability line inside that class, distinct from the line other Class B rides carry. The compliance sticker is the artifact a venue will actually ask to see, and it is valid one year from the date of inspection rather than for a calendar year, so your renewal date drifts with your inspection date.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Every claim above traces to one of these. Where a source is marked as one we could not open, nothing on this page rests on it: it is listed so you can try it yourself.

• Texas Department of Insurance — Amusement ride FAQ tdi.texas.gov · primary source

What to do with this

Knowing the rule is the first half. These four pages are the second half: registering the business, buying the coverage the rule assumes you carry, running a setup that would survive an inspection, and putting the terms in writing before a unit leaves the truck.

• Business license, LLC, and permits

  The registration layer under the device rules: the entity, the free EIN, the local business license, and sales tax on rentals.

• Bounce house rental business insurance

  Where the coverage limits on this page come from, what they cost, and why a general small-business insurer usually will not write inflatables at all.

• Safety and certification

  Anchoring, wind limits, supervision, and the ASTM standard most state inspection programs are written against.

• Free rental contract template

  The agreement that puts your terms, your weather policy, and the supervision rules in writing before a unit leaves the truck.

Rules change between sessions. Confirm the current position with Amusement Ride Safety at the Texas Department of Insurance before you set up.