After a recent inspection, the building official requested that I submit a notarized affidavit stating that I installed roof sheathing according to the building code. The job is located in a 120 mph wind zone, so a roof-sheathing nailing inspection is required. It was snowing the day the inspector came to check the roof sheathing. He didn’t want to risk climbing a ladder in the snow, and didn’t want to hold us up, so said we could start roofing.
The inspector didn’t mention the affidavit requirement when he was at the job site and I’ve never encountered this before. I don’t understand what an affidavit is and I’m hoping you can shed some light on what he’s asking for and why.
—Addison Oliveira, Greenwich, Conn.
Editorial advisor Mike Guertin replies: An affidavit is a legal verification of any statements made in the affidavit. In your case, you are swearing that you did indeed use the code-required nails and fastened the sheathing at the required nail spacing.
Inspectors have a couple of options when they can’t complete a required inspection. They can reschedule for another day, ask for photos, waive the inspection, permit a third party like a professional engineer to conduct the inspection and submit a report to the department, or they can require you to submit a signed, notarized affidavit.
The inspector will file the affidavit in the permit folder where it will sit indefinitely unless the roof sheathing blows off in a hurricane and it’s discovered that the sheathing was not fastened properly. Someone (an insurance company inspector, the owner of the house, etc.) could check back through the permit folder and find the affidavit. In that case, you could be held personally liable for the damage, and criminally liable for lying on the affidavit. I checked with code expert Glenn Mathewson, who added the following: “To protect yourself, I recommend using terms like ‘in general compliance,’ ‘approximately,’ ‘appeared in accordance with,’ or ‘based on my observations.’ Engineers use this soft language all the time. No one has ever built something 100% to code. I guarantee you have at least one misplaced nail somewhere!”
If you worked regularly in the town and the inspector knew your work was always done professionally and met the building code, then he might have waived the inspection. My guess is that since the inspector didn’t know you or your work but still wanted to help you keep the job going, he requested the affidavit.
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