Tennessee enforces the 2018 IRC, with exceptions

Record of adoption

In force since

Jul 16, 2020

Legal citation

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0780-02-23-.02

Adopted by

Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, State Fire Marshal’s Office

Second reading

Agreed Oct 19, 2026

Applies

Statewide, with exceptions

Also called

IRC

Residential code is adopted in chapter 0780-02-23 (one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses), not in 0780-02-02. The 2021 IRC was not adopted in the 2025 update. The effective date comes from the agency’s history table and the rule history.

Exceptions

• Exempt jurisdictions (municipalities certified to enforce their own building and fire codes, which must be kept within 7 years of the latest edition and approved/audited by the State Fire Marshal) are not subject to the statewide codes except for state buildings, educational occupancies and state-licensed occupancies.
• Local governments may exempt one- and two-family dwellings by a 2/3 vote of the governing body; renovations of existing one- and two-family dwellings are outside the statewide standards.

How Tennessee adopts the IRC

• Agency rule
• A recent law changed the process

The State Fire Marshal’s Office (Dept. of Commerce and Insurance) adopts model-code editions by rulemaking under T.C.A. 68-120-101 (chapters 0780-02-01 NEC, 0780-02-02 building/fire/energy, 0780-02-23 residential), filing with the Secretary of State. No legislative approval step was found; the General Assembly constrains content by statute (for example no mandatory sprinklers in one- and two-family dwellings, 2/3 local vote for local sprinkler mandates) and in 2025 Public Chapter 149 carved a roof-reflectance requirement out of the 2021 IECC.

Cycle. Irregular, roughly every 4 to 8 years and not every code at once: NEC 2017 since 2018; residential IRC/IECC 2018 since 2020; IBC/IFC/commercial IECC 2021 since 2025.

Laws, rulings, and other actions

1. Jun 25, 2009Legislation
   Public Chapter 529, Tennessee Clean Energy Future Act2009 regular session

   Added energy efficiency and one- and two-family dwellings to the statewide standards, barred mandatory sprinklers there, and let local bodies opt out by 2/3 vote.

   Enacted Jun 25, 2009, amendments to 68-120-101 effective Jul 1, 2010

   publications.tnsosfiles.com (opens in a new tab)

How it was checked

Partial

Researched in the state’s own record. The seal stays broken until the passage is on file word for word.

Read twice: a second, blind reading of the state’s record agreed with the first on Oct 19, 2026.

The state’s record was last read on Oct 19, 2026, from four source pages.

Evidence 4 sources

Sources for the record itself come first, the state’s own records ahead of others. A label marks a source about something else, such as an exception. A source marked secondary is not the state’s own record.

• “International Residential Code (IRC), 2018 edition, published by the ICC, with amendments;”

• About an exception

Tracker cross-checks

Code adoption trackers are a cross-check. They are not Tennessee’s own record.

• ICC’s code adoption mapCross-checkAgrees with the record

  State Tennessee 21 18 21 21 21 21 X 09 12 21 21 X X X (second entry read as IRC)

  mitek-us.com (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

Related pages

• See Tennessee’s IRC on the map
• IRC adoption in every state
• All six codes in Tennessee

Other codes in Tennessee

• NEC2017 NECPartial
• IBC2021 IBCVerified
• IFC2021 IFCVerified
• IECC residential2018 IECCPartial
• IECC commercial2021 IECCVerified