Tennessee Code Annotated
Tenn. Code Ann. § 13-7-211 (2026)
Certificate of insurance or workers' compensation policy required for issuance of building permit - Return of certificate or policy - Exemptions - Liability - Violations
✓ current as of May 2026
- (a) No building permit shall be issued until the municipal office which issues such permits receives a copy of either a certificate of insurance or a workers' compensation policy as evidence of the existence of workers' compensation insurance.
- (b) The municipal office shall keep on file such copy of either the certificate of insurance or of the workers' compensation policy for the life of the permit. After the building permit has expired, the municipal office shall return by mail the copy of the certificate of insurance or the workers' compensation policy within ten (10) working days to the person who obtained the permit.
- (c)
- (1) This section does not apply to those persons who are not required by title 50, chapter 6, to obtain workers' compensation coverage, to any person who performs work on such person's own property in such person's own county of residence, or to any person who directly supervises work on such person's own property in such person's own county of residence.
- (2) Persons not required to present evidence of compliance with §§ 50-6-405 and 50-6-406 pursuant to this subsection (c) shall present or sign an affidavit which attests to their exemption from this section. A person authorized to issue building permits who issues a building permit to a person exempted from this section shall keep on file for the life of the permit such affidavit of exemption.
- (d) A person authorized to issue building permits, who in good faith accepts an affidavit of exemption, a copy of the certificate of insurance, or a copy of the workers' compensation policy, shall not be liable in any criminal or civil action alleging the person obtaining the building permit was subject to §§ 50-6-405 and 50-6-406 and such person did not in fact have workers' compensation coverage. Compliance with this section shall be a rebuttable presumption that the person authorized to issue building permits acted in good faith.
- (e) A violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
Acts 1993, ch. 520, § 2; 1999, ch. 520, § 34; 2003, ch. 359, § 12.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1
case, 2010–2010 · leading case: Natalie Hagan v. Michael Phipps (Tenn. Ct. App. 2010).
Natalie Hagan v. Michael Phipps (Tenn. Ct. App. 2010). “6 Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 13-7-211 (a), the building inspector would not have been authorized to issue a permit without an affidavit of exemption or evidence of workers’ compensation insurance.”
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