Temporary Certificate of Occupancy

The Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, GSA 3686A, is the General Services Administration (GSA) form certifying that fire protection and life safety systems for a specific area of a building have been completed, inspected, successfully tested and approved, as a 30, 60 or 90 day certificate.

The printed statement on the form says the certificate ensures those systems are in place for the specific area named, to provide a reasonable degree of safety to the occupants from fire and similar emergencies. The form also states that it is valid only for the premises of the project address.

It has 22 lines. They identify the certificate number (line 1), the property name, address, city, state and ZIP code (lines 2 to 4), the GSA Project Manager (line 5) and the specific area of the building covered (line 6). They record approved and previous uses and occupancies (lines 7 to 10), the certificate type and expiration date (lines 11 and 12), the design occupant load (line 13), sprinkler requirements and installation (lines 14 and 15), the building code and edition (line 16), the type of construction (line 17), the description of use (line 18) and special stipulations or code modifications (line 19). The GSA Approving Official's name, signature and date close the form (lines 20 to 22).

The revision printed on the form is 9/2006. The form is a temporary certificate: it covers one area of a building for a limited term, not the whole building for an open-ended period.

The form is used inside GSA projects. It is completed for a specific area of a building and carries the name of the GSA Project Manager for the project (line 5). The person who approves and signs it is the GSA Approving Official, whom the form's instructions identify as the GSA Regional Fire Protection Engineer (lines 20 to 22).

Use one certificate for each specific area of the building that the certificate covers. If a certificate is for a building with multiple areas or floors, line 13 asks for the maximum number of occupants permitted by Code for each area or floor associated with it.

The certificate is valid only for the premises of the project address printed on it, so it cannot be reused for another property. The form does not say who may request it or who may sign on behalf of the Approving Official; only the Approving Official's signature block is provided.

The form prints no filing deadline. It is completed when a specific area of a building is to be certified for temporary occupancy, after its fire protection and life safety systems have been completed, inspected, successfully tested and approved, as the certificate statement says.

Timing is built into the certificate itself. On line 11 you check a 30 Day, 60 Day or 90 Day certificate, and on line 12 you enter the date the certificate will expire. Line 22 records the date the certificate was signed.

Form GSA 3686A prints no mailing address, portal or appointment rule, so it names no submission channel of its own. The completed certificate is signed on line 21 by the GSA Approving Official, identified on line 20 as the GSA Regional Fire Protection Engineer, and line 5 names the GSA Project Manager for the project.

GSA publishes the form and its instructions at https://www.gsa.gov/system/files/GSA3686A-06.pdf, and lists it on its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy forms page. Because the certificate is valid only for the premises of the project address, check that lines 2 to 4 match that address before it is signed.

FillingPDF lets you fill out and download the PDF; any delivery to GSA follows the channels GSA uses for the project.