A Third Party Oversight Inspection takes place when a property has had previous construction completed, and its building permit inspection(s) were handled by a third-party inspection company, not a D.C. Government inspector. The purpose of this inspection is to ensure that the third-party inspection company has accurately inspected the workmanship of the construction.
As a landlord, you are required to have a Third-Party Oversight Inspection only when you are trying to obtain Certificates of Occupancy for properties that have 2 or more units (condos and coops are exempt).The inspection will take place between 9 am and 4 pm on the date provided by the Building Inspection Division of the Department of Buildings (DOB), and will take approximately 30-90 minutes, depending on the size of the property and the extent of the work done. It is strongly recommended that plans and permits be at the inspection site on the day of inspection for the inspectors’ review. If you contracted out the work, we also recommend having your contractor present in case the D.C. inspector has questions pertaining to the construction.
After the inspection is completed, the DOB inspector will provide the inspection report with the inspection result of pass or fail. If you fail the inspection, D.C. will allow you to make repairs and/or modifications without penalty in most instances. Once the corrections and repairs have been made, you will need to contact the third party inspection company again to have them certify the property and submit the final inspection report certification directly to DOB.