If you are comparing cleanup companies after a death or a crime, you will see the word licensed on nearly every website. It is worth knowing what it can and cannot mean in Texas, because the usual way people pick a contractor does not work here.
There is no Texas cleanup license
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation publishes the trades the state regulates. The list includes mold assessors and remediators, sanitarians, and code enforcement officers. It does not include crime scene cleanup, biohazard remediation, trauma scene cleanup or unattended death cleanup. No such license exists to hold.
So a company advertising a “Texas cleanup license” is describing something that is not real. That is not always dishonesty — the phrase is common in the industry, and even the Attorney General’s compensation pages use “licensed crime scene cleanup company” loosely — but it tells you nothing about the company, and it should not be the reason you choose one.
One place the word still appears, and what to do about it
The Texas Attorney General’s own compensation pages say that “if you hire a licensed company, their service costs may also be reimbursed”. That wording matters if you are claiming crime-scene cleanup costs back from the state, and it sits awkwardly with the fact that no such license exists. Read it as meaning a legitimate, insured business rather than a licensed trade — and when you file, submit the company’s certificate of insurance, its registration details and an itemized invoice. If a claims officer asks about licensing, the honest answer is that Texas issues no license for this work; ask them what evidence of legitimacy they want instead, in writing.
“OSHA-certified” is not a thing either
The federal standard that governs this work is the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens standard, 29 CFR 1910.1030. It requires an employer to have a written exposure control plan, to train employees who may be exposed, to provide protective equipment, and to offer hepatitis B vaccination. Those are real obligations and they matter.
What the standard does not do is certify anyone. There is no OSHA certificate for a cleanup company or its technicians. A company can honestly say its technicians are trained under the bloodborne pathogens standard and that it maintains the exposure control plan the standard requires. “OSHA-certified” is marketing.
What does separate one company from another
Four questions, in order of how much they tell you:
1. What insurance do you carry, and can I see the certificate? Ask specifically about pollution or environmental liability. Ordinary cleaning or janitorial insurance does not cover biological contamination work, and the certificate will show you the carrier, the limits and the expiry date. A company that will not send it should not be on your list.
2. Where does the material go, and who transports it? This is the question almost nobody asks, and it is the most revealing. Texas rules exclude household waste from the definition of medical waste — waste from single or multi-family dwellings can go out with ordinary municipal solid waste — so a family clearing a home is not breaking the rules. But a contractor hauling untreated medical waste for someone else needs a state registration, under 30 TAC 326.53. You can look a company up in the TCEQ Central Registry by name. A firm that cannot explain its waste route is telling you something.
3. Are your technicians trained under 1910.1030, and do you keep the exposure control plan? Phrase it that way. A company that does this work properly will answer immediately; one that trades on the word certified often cannot.
4. Will I get a written scope and price after you look at it, before any billable work? An on-site assessment followed by a written estimate is the normal way this trade works. Verbal quotes over the phone, before anyone has seen the property, are not.
Two more things worth asking
Will you bill my insurer directly? Many companies will, and it changes your cash position entirely.
What is not included? Removing contaminated flooring is cleanup; replacing it afterwards is restoration, and it is frequently a separate job with a separate price. Know which one you are buying before the truck arrives.
What a good answer sounds like
You are not looking for certificates and logos. You are looking for a company that says, without hesitating: here is our certificate of insurance, our technicians are trained under the bloodborne pathogens standard, waste leaves under our transporter registration number, and you will have a written scope and price before we start. That is a higher bar than any license Texas could have issued.
Every company listed on this network has to answer those questions before it appears on a city page. The full standard is on our how we verify page.