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Windstorm WPI-8 Certifications in Texas
The windstorm certificate of compliance required in the Texas coastal catastrophe area, inspected and submitted by an engineer appointed by the Texas Department of Insurance.
What it is
Windstorm WPI-8, in plain terms
The windstorm certificate of compliance required in the Texas coastal catastrophe area, inspected and submitted by an engineer appointed by the Texas Department of Insurance.
The WPI-8 is the certificate of compliance issued by the Texas Department of Insurance for construction inside the designated catastrophe area along the Texas coast. It records that the work was inspected and found to comply with the windstorm building code applicable where the structure stands, and it is the document an insurer looks for before windstorm coverage is written through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.
There are two routes to one. The Department may inspect the work itself. The alternative, and in practice the common one, is inspection and certification by a Texas licensed Professional Engineer appointed by the Department for windstorm inspections, who documents compliance on form WPI-2 so that the Department can issue the WPI-8.
The inspection is sequenced with construction rather than performed once at the end. Roof deck attachment, sheathing, framing connections, and opening protection all have to be observed before they are covered up. That is the single most common reason a coastal project cannot be certified later: not that the work was done badly, but that nobody was there to see it while it could still be seen.
Two situations reach this page and they are not priced the same way. Work that has not started, or that is under way and still open to view, is inspected in sequence and carries a published price. An existing building where the work is already finished and covered is quoted after a conversation, because whether it can be certified at all is not knowable from a form.
Three things decide that case. The first is when the work was done rather than when the house went up: under Texas Insurance Code section 2210.251 the date that matters is the date of the work, and a structure can have more than one, so a roof replaced last year on a house built in 1975 is reached by it. The second is that the construction which would be inspected is already covered, so parts of it have to be opened up before anything can be verified. The third is that where opening protection does not meet the standard, doors and windows may need replacing before a certification is possible at all. Any of the three can change what the work is, which is why it is scoped one property at a time rather than sold at a price.
Who orders one
The people who need this document
- Builders and general contractors working inside the catastrophe area
- Roofing contractors reroofing a coastal structure, which is itself a certifiable improvement
- Owners who need windstorm coverage through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association
- Buyers and sellers who have found that a prior improvement was never certified
- Insurance agents assembling what a carrier needs before binding coverage
The deliverable
What arrives at the end
- Field inspections at the stages the code requires, documented with photographs and measurements taken while the work is open to view.
- Form WPI-2 prepared and submitted to the Texas Department of Insurance by the appointed engineer, with the supporting record attached.
- The WPI-8 certificate of compliance, which is issued by the Department itself on the strength of that submission.
What an order asks for
Worth having to hand. Nothing here is unusual, and an order that arrives with it moves without anybody having to telephone back.
- Why do you need this
- What kind of property
- How does the technician get in
Where it matters most
Regions where this work carries the most weight
Coverage is statewide. These are the regions whose conditions put this service near the front, and why.
Questions
Common questions
- Which Texas counties require a WPI-8?
- The designated catastrophe area covers the fourteen Texas seacoast counties, Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Galveston, Jefferson, Kenedy, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, and Willacy, together with the part of Harris County east of State Highway 146. Structures outside that area do not need one.
- The building is already finished and was never certified. What happens?
- It is looked at one property at a time rather than quoted from a price list, and three things decide it. The age of the house is not the question: Texas Insurance Code section 2210.251 turns on the date of the work, so a reroof done last year on a house built in 1975 is reached by it, and work done before January 1, 1988 is treated differently and may be eligible without inspection at all. The construction that needs inspecting is already covered, so parts of it have to be opened up before it can be verified. And if the doors and windows do not meet the opening protection standard, they may need replacing before a certification is possible. That is why this case is quoted after a conversation about the property rather than carrying a published price, and why the answer is sometimes that it cannot be certified.
- Is the WPI-8 the same thing as the engineer's letter?
- No, and the difference matters at closing. The appointed engineer submits form WPI-2. The Texas Department of Insurance issues the WPI-8 on the strength of it. The two are spoken about interchangeably in the field, but the document a title company or a carrier needs is the one issued by the Department.
- Can a WPI-8 be obtained after the work is already finished?
- Not straightforwardly. The certificate rests on inspections made while the work was open to view. Where a structure was completed without inspection, an appointed engineer may be able to evaluate it after the fact through a separate and more involved process, and in some cases the only remedy is to expose the work again.
- Does a WPI-8 transfer to a new owner?
- Yes. It attaches to the structure and to the improvement it certified rather than to the person who owned it at the time, and it remains on file with the Department. A buyer can ask for the certificate history on a coastal property before closing.
- What happens if required opening protection was never installed?
- The inspection records what is present. Where an element the applicable code requires is absent, it cannot be certified, and the certificate does not issue until the work complies. An engineer who certifies around a missing element is risking an appointment that took years to obtain.
Start a job
Tell us what the letter is for and we will tell you yes or no
Send the address, what the document is for, and the date it has to be in hand. Some jobs this firm cannot take, and you will hear that in the first conversation rather than after you have paid and waited.