§ 150.003.Liability for Services Rendered During Disaster

A disaster-response immunity with five cumulative conditions.

The section applies only where the architectural or engineering services: are authorized under the professional’s own Occupations Code chapter and board rules; are provided voluntarily and without compensation or the expectation of compensation; are in response to and during a proclaimed state of emergency or declared state of disaster; are provided at the request or with the approval of a federal, state, or local public official acting officially; and relate to a structure, building, roadway, piping, or other system, publicly or privately owned.

All five must hold. The fourth is the one most likely to fail in practice — a professional who arrives on their own initiative, without official request or approval, is outside the section however useful their help.

Where it applies, subsection (b) is broad: not liable for civil damages including personal injury, wrongful death, property damage, or other loss, unless the act, error, or omission constitutes gross negligence or wanton, wilful, or intentional misconduct.

Subsection (c) excludes the professional who is there for business: the section does not apply to someone at the scene to solicit business or perform a service for compensation, for themselves or as an agent.

That is the provision that keeps the immunity honest. Disasters generate work, and a firm assessing damage with an eye to the repair contract is not volunteering.

Subsection (d) settles a question the volunteer condition would otherwise raise: a professional’s entitlement to receive compensation does not determine whether the services were in fact provided voluntarily. What matters is whether they were, not whether they could have charged.