Client requesting letter of Sign off
Client requesting letter of Sign off
(OP)
I have a client selling a recently completed project. The buyer wants me to write / sign a letter stating
that the project was building in compliance with my structural drawings. I have inspected things, and to my knowledge,
it is fine, but I am very reluctant to put that into a letter because I feel that this is way of taking the
fall for any type of blemish or hairline crack that may appear in the future....whether it was my fault or not.
In my viewpoint, that is the purpose of the building department and their act of issuing a Certificate of Occupancy.
I don't want to get in the way of that because they didn't pay me to accept that responsibility.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance.
that the project was building in compliance with my structural drawings. I have inspected things, and to my knowledge,
it is fine, but I am very reluctant to put that into a letter because I feel that this is way of taking the
fall for any type of blemish or hairline crack that may appear in the future....whether it was my fault or not.
In my viewpoint, that is the purpose of the building department and their act of issuing a Certificate of Occupancy.
I don't want to get in the way of that because they didn't pay me to accept that responsibility.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance.





RE: Client requesting letter of Sign off
RE: Client requesting letter of Sign off
I suppose you could carefully word the letter stating that you visited the site only X times, observed only for general compliance with the contract documents, etc. - essentially just stating what you did do and then adding a long list of things that you didn't do (continuous on-site inspection, material testing, etc.)
But I'd hesitate to even do that since I have no contractual obligation to the buyer of the property.
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RE: Client requesting letter of Sign off
RE: Client requesting letter of Sign off
My wife, a doctor, gets this sort of request, i.e. "certify that this patient is completely free of disease or mental issues."
TTFN (ta ta for now)
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RE: Client requesting letter of Sign off
Can try claiming it's not included in your scope/responsibility but that doesn't always fly, especially if you've agreed to provide support in obtaining necessary permits or similar language.
As an example, in one of our primary markets the building department requires the SEOR to verify that final special inspection reports do not indicate any unresolved code discrepancies before they'll issue the CO. Kind of pointless because those same reports are also furnished to the building department and they could certainly verify it themselves. But they do it to everyone and won't issue the CO without a letter from the SEOR verifying what they want verified. If we don't like it, we can't do projects in this market. Just have to be careful you don't overrepresent what you've done and don't agree to anything more than the standard of care as doing so is very likely outside the bounds of your liability insurance.