L.A.’s Self-Certification Pilot Program – Enter at Your Own Risk
By Sarah A. Johnson, Esq.
In the wake of the wildfires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles earlier this year, the City of Los Angeles decided to implement a Self-Certification Pilot Program (the “Program” or the “Pilot Program”), allowing licensed architects and engineers to self-certify that their plans comply with the Los Angeles County Building Code, thereby eliminating the need for a full building plan check review. While the goal of the Pilot Program is to expedite rebuilding of the parts of the city that were destroyed, the Program has raised significant concerns among design professionals as to their increased potential liability if they were to participate.
In April 2025, the City of Los Angeles issued Emergency Executive Order No. 6: Return and Rebuild, authorizing the Department of Building and Safety (“LADBS”) to implement the Pilot Program.1 The Pilot Program is limited to single-family dwellings, garages, or accessory dwelling units either damaged or destroyed by the January 2025 wildfires.2
Participating architects and engineers must be licensed in California, must have been responsible for ensuring Code compliance in Los Angeles County for at least 3 years, and possess professional liability (PL) insurance with limits of not less than $500,000 per claim and $1 million in the aggregate.3
Moreover, participating architects and engineers must provide a signed Self-Certification Acknowledgement Form (the “Self-Certification Form”), wherein they certify that “the building plans meet all applicable Los Angeles County Building Code requirements” and that they “agree to protect, defend, and indemnify Los Angeles County and its officers and representatives against any and all claims, liabilities, judgements, costs, expenses, delays, demands, or injuries arising out of, or in any way connected with, the design, construction, Code compliance review, or issuance of a building permit for the project.”4
The required Self-Certification Form increases not only the design professional’s liability exposure, but also the design professional’s potentially uninsured exposure.
Concerning increased potential liability in general, the agreement to defend and indemnify the City of Los Angeles and others exposes the professional to claims by third parties (not the client who contracted for the services) that those third parties are otherwise unlikely to have. Furthermore, the certification of compliance with building code opens the door to claims for a technical failure in compliance, which does not necessarily result in any damages.
With respect to PL insurance, there is no coverage for liability assumed under a contract or agreement under any normal PL policy, unless the insured professional would have such liability in the absence of the contract or agreement. In signing the Self-Certification Form, the professional agrees to protect, defend, and indemnify Los Angeles and others from all claims in any way connected with the design, construction, code compliance review, or issuance of a building permit for the project.
This indemnification is so broad that it could result in the imposition of liability on the professional without the professional being found negligent in the performance of professional services as an architect or engineer, and even perhaps where the alleged injury or damage is not related to the professional’s services at all. Moreover, it is unlikely that the insured professional would be liable for the attorney’s fees and costs of another party in the absence of an agreement in the Self-Certification Form.
Likewise, the professional’s certification that the plans meet all applicable code requirements is likely to be construed as a warranty or guarantee of code compliance, and most PL policies contain exclusions for claims arising out of express warranties or guarantees. Accordingly, the Self-Certification Form could result in significant uninsured exposure for the professional signing the form.
Additionally, many of the property owners who lost their houses in the wildfires are presumably going to want their houses rebuilt more or less the same as the house existed prior to the wildfires. It is anticipated that these property owners will request that architects and engineers simply update the old plans and drawings and then self-certify so that construction can begin. The concern with this process is that the professional doing the certification is not the one who created the initial plans and drawings, and they may not bring every item of someone else’s plans and drawings up to code.
Such a scenario is ripe for claims specifically asserting breach of warranty or guarantee, as the only real service that the professional is providing is the update and certification of plans, as opposed to their creation. In other words, the claim against the professional is likely to be for breach of the warranty or guarantee that the plans comply with code, which is unlikely to be covered by PL insurance, as opposed to the typical claim for breach of contract or negligence for the professional’s failure to meet the applicable standard of care, which is typically covered by PL insurance.
While helping property owners rebuild is certainly commendable, and there is no doubt a need to expedite the procedural hurdles involved in doing so, architects and engineers should be aware of the significant risk not only of increased potential liability, but also of uninsured exposure, inherent in participation in L.A.’s Self-Certification Pilot Program, and they should proceed with caution.
1 LOS ANGELES, CAL. Em. Exec. Order No. 6, Return and Rebuild Subject: Self-Certification Pilot Program (April 22, 2025).
2 Id.; https://recovery.lacounty.gov/rebuilding/self-certification.
3 LOS ANGELES, CAL. Em. Exec. Order No. 6; https://recovery.lacounty.gov/rebuilding/self-certification/.
4 LOS ANGELES, CAL. Em. Exec. Order No. 6; https://recovery.lacounty.gov/rebuilding/self-certification/ (hyperlink; then follow: Self-Certification Acknowledgement Form hyperlink).
