First Penalties for Late Parking Structure Reports Issued

DOB recently announced that it had levied penalties to over 400 property owners for missing the deadline to file required engineering inspection reports for parking structures on their properties. Under the city’s Periodic Inspection for Parking Structures (PIPS) program, the owners of parking structures in Subcycle 1A were required to file their first PIPS report to DOB prior to Jan. 1, 2024. According to DOB, it has received 655 to date, which represents a 62 percent compliance rate. 

One level deeper: Subcycle 1A consists of 1056 properties with parking structures located in Manhattan Community Districts 1 to 7, which encompass lower Manhattan, Midtown, and the Upper West Side. Owners in this first target area who had not yet filed their required paperwork at the beginning of January have already accrued a $1,000 penalty; the same penalty will be issued monthly until the reports are submitted. A $5,000 additional penalty will be issued at the end of the year for property owners still not in compliance, totaling $17,000 in penalties every year. 

This enforcement structure is substantially similar to the Department’s long-running Façade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP), also known as “Local Law 11,” which has historically high compliance rates. As property owners get accustomed to this new inspection requirement, and more late reports are submitted, DOB expects compliance for this new inspection program to improve. Parking structures located in other areas of the city will also have to submit PIPS reports to the city the coming years, based on a timeline cycle that has every parking structure inspected once every six years.

Takeaways: Owners responsible for parking structures in Subcycle A should submit any outstanding reports as soon as possible to avoid additional penalties. 

Also, as highlighted, in the February Issue of the Insider, property owners with parking structures in Subcycles 1B and 1C have a new inspection requirement due by Aug. 1. This requirement came about following a fatal parking structure collapse that occurred in Manhattan in April 2023. 

In response to the collapse, DOB moved up the first reporting requirement timelines for 3,317 parking structures located in Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs. The original rules for the program had parking structures located in the Upper East Side, Upper Manhattan, and all of Brooklyn filing their first engineering reports to the city by Dec. 31, 2025, and parking structures located in Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx filing their first engineering reports by Dec. 31, 2027. Now, parking structures in these areas will also have to file a one-time initial observation report to DOB by Aug. 1, 2024. This new required observation report is in addition to the previously required engineering reports that are still due in 2025 and 2027.