Certificate of Inspection

The Certificate of Inspection or inspection certificate article provides information about the third party inspection agency inspection certificate requirements.

This is named third party inspection certificate or third party inspection certificates for goods.

Certificate of Inspection and TPI Company

The third party inspection company issues inspection certificate after inspection and when the goods shipped to the buyer premises.

We recommend you review Pre-Shipment Inspection article first, we will wait for you here.

As mentioned in above article, when there is LC between buyer and seller, the inspection certificate content and wording must be in accordance clause 46.A in the LC, otherwise the buyer and seller bank will reject the certificate and purchase fund will not be negotiated.

Generally LC’s mandate the inspection certificate issued after the B/L (Bill of Lading), it means the certificate of inspection must be issued when shipment is done and seller or manufacture have no more access to the consignment.

Seller will receive the fund when delivered shipping document and certificate of inspection to its bank.

It means when the goods is in the way and still not arrived to the buyer premises, the seller receive the purchase fund.

This is the advantage of transaction through LC, in this method LC fulfills interest of both parties e.g. buyer and seller.

Which party must receive the inspection certificate?

Either buyer pay for third party inspection fee or seller pay, the ownership of the inspection certificate is the seller. Seller must deliver the certificate to the bank and receive its fund.

Sometimes dispute happen between buyer and seller, and buyer asking from third party Inspection Company which not deliver the certificate to the seller.

This is not logical request from Inspection Company, the inspection company must be independent and if there is no discrepancy in the inspection must issue the certificate and deliver to the seller.

For more detail review Third Party Independent Inspection article.

The following items are included in the content of the certificate of Inspection:

  • Applicant :(The name of buyer company which has opened the LC)
  • Consigned to the Order of :( The name of the LC opened bank or buyer bank’s)
  • Beneficiary: (The name of the seller)
  • LC No. and LC Date
  • Custtom Tariff Code No.
  • Proforma Invoice No. and Date
  • Purchase Order No. and Date
  • Insurance Policy No.
  • Country of Origin
  • Place of Inspection
  • Date of Inspection
  • Scope of Inspection
  • Port of Discharge
  • Type of Packing
  • Number of Packages
  • Description of Goods (with reference to the packing list number and Date)
  • Bill of Lading No. and Date
  • Gross weight
  • Conclusion (as per LC, 46.A clause , if even there is syntax error in the LC should not be corrected)
  • Name and Signature of Authorized Person
  • Place and Date of Issue

The following wording also is stated in the inspection certificate to protect and indemnify Third Party Inspection Company

"This inspection has been performed at the time and place of inspection and within the limitation of instructions received but without prejudice and without releasing suppliers and/or shippers and/or other parties involved from their contractual obligations nor does it prejudice buyer's right of claim towards sellers/suppliers for compensation of any apparent and/or hidden defects not detected during our random inspection or occurring thereafter. It is also subject to "General Terms & Conditions of Inspection services”.