Alteration of Plans During Plan Checks (EFF. 5/30/97)

Questions have also been brought forward relating to the altering of sealed plans by building officials during the plan review check process.  After reviewing its statutes and rules, the Board developed this substantive policy statement.  This substantive policy statement is offered as guidance to persons interpreting Board statutes and rules.

Substantive Policy Statement

Documents that are signed and sealed by registrants that represent the exercise of the registrant’s professional discretion and judgment are professional documents. Arizona Revised Statute § 32-125 requires registrants to seal plans, specifications, plats or reports prepared by the registrant or his or her bona fide employee.   Substitution of a registrant’s professional judgment that results in a modification to the document constitutes the practice of the profession.  If the modification is performed by a nonregistrant, the nonregistrant must be working under the direct supervision of a registrant.  Additionally, the supervising registrant shall sign and seal the changes to the documents.  No person may alter a registrant’s sealed professional document except under the following circumstances:

Another registrant may, when employed to check the documents, modify the documents.   However, the registrant modifying such documents shall clearly delineate all modifications, seal those changes, and be held fully responsible for the changes made and the impact of those changes on the original design. A.R.S. § 32-125(B).

Any person checking documents for compliance with any applicable statutes, codes, ordinances, rules or regulations such as building codes, fire codes or zoning ordinances may "redline" and/or list required changes to meet the codes, as this is not the practice of the profession.  However, a nonregistrant may not require modification of a professional document submitted for review, unless that modification is supported by reference to an applicable code or standard.  In other words, a nonregistrant shall not modify, in any manner, a document embodying the discretion or judgment of a registrant, unless the nonregistrant can cite a specific code or standard to support that modification.

Filed with the Secretary of State on 5-30-97.

Applicable Laws

Arizona Revised Statutes §§ 32-101(A), -121, -128(B), -130, and -145.

Arizona Administrative Code R4-30-301(A)(3) and R4-30-304.

Profession, in this policy statement, means architecture, assaying, engineering, geology, landscape architecture, or land surveying.