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What has to be on a hood cleaning certificate?

Published · Compliance Binder

When an exhaust system is inspected or cleaned, NFPA 96 calls for a certificate showing the name of the servicing company, the name of the person who performed the work, and the date of the inspection or cleaning, maintained on the premises. Three fields, named in the standard.

Why this matters more than it sounds

The document most operators actually keep is an invoice, and an invoice frequently has none of the three. It shows a company name, a payment amount, a billing date, and a line reading something like "hood service" or "KEC". It proves somebody was paid. It does not record who did the work or when the system was actually cleaned, and billing dates routinely differ from service dates by weeks.

At the moment an inspector or an adjuster is establishing a timeline, the difference between a service date and an invoice date is the whole question. See why an adjuster cares about the dates more than the documents.

What a good certificate also tends to carry

Beyond the three named items, most competent cleaners include material that is worth having even though the standard does not require it:

  • The extent of cleaning. Which parts of the system were cleaned, and specifically whether the vertical duct and the fan were included or only the hood and filters. This is the most common scope dispute.
  • Areas not accessible. A note that a duct run could not be reached is important. It is a documented condition, and if it appears on three consecutive reports with nothing done, that is a pattern somebody will ask about.
  • Before and after photographs. Common practice, and genuinely useful evidence of condition over time.
  • Recommendations, for example access panels needing fitting, or a fan belt needing replacement.
  • The next service date the cleaner is working to, which tells you what interval they think you are on.

Checking a certificate when it arrives

It takes about thirty seconds and almost nobody does it. Confirm the address is yours, the date is the service date, a technician is named, and the scope matches what you believe you are paying for. A certificate for the wrong site is a common and entirely silent error in multi-location operations.

The sticker is not the certificate

Many cleaners leave an adhesive label on the hood recording the date. That is a useful field reference and it is not the record. See why the sticker does not satisfy the requirement.

This page describes what published standards say. It is not legal advice and it is not a determination about any premises. The requirements that apply to your building, including how often work must be done and what must be kept, are set by your authority having jurisdiction, which is usually your local fire marshal or health department. Where this page and your inspector disagree, your inspector is right.

Keeping this straight without thinking about it

Binder stores the certificate itself and records the service date against the location, so the date that gets tracked is the one on the document rather than the day it happened to arrive.

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