How to Comply with New Facade Inspection and Reporting Rules

Earlier this year, the Department of Buildings (DOB) issued final rules on façade inspections that owners are required to conduct on their buildings that are greater than six stories high. The rules implement Local Law 38 of 2007 that staggered façade inspection and reporting deadlines to make it easier for owners to comply with the new requirements.

According to Craig A. Hargrove, vice president and director of architecture with Hoffman Architects, an architecture and engineering firm specializing in the rehabilitation of building exteriors, owners should consider performing exterior repairs that need to be performed from the last inspection cycle as soon as possible. “We are entering the last construction season before the next cycle starts, and costs for sidewalk bridging, scaffolding, contractors, and design professionals are only going to go up from here,” he says. “Also, in the economy as it is right now, we are not likely to see pricing like this again in the foreseeable future. We've seen a 25 percent roll back in construction costs. If owners are looking for a bargain, now is the time for them to start preparing documents and undergoing repairs,” Hargrove adds.

We will review the changes implemented by the final rule and provide an action plan you should undertake to help minimize delays and avoid unexpected fees, penalties, and costly last-minute repairs.

Planning for Cycle 7

One of the changes implemented by the rules requires a qualified inspector to file periodic reports listing probable causes of deterioration as well as timetables for repair. As required before, buildings are then classified as “safe,” “unsafe,” or “safe with a repair and maintenance program” (SWARMP).

The last façade inspection report you filed with the DOB may have indicated that your building was SWARMP and listed conditions that you needed to repair to keep your building safe. If so, make sure you've repaired all those conditions before you file your inspection report for the next inspection cycle.

If you don't repair the listed SWARMP conditions, you won't be able to certify that you did so in your next inspection report, and your architect or engineer will have to rate your building as unsafe in the Cycle 7 report. The DOB will then issue a violation against you based on the unsafe rating, and you'll have to repair the conditions and submit an amended report to the DOB within 45 days. If, instead, you try to submit the next inspection report without the certification and with a safe or SWARMP rating, the DOB will reject your report.

There's another reason to make sure you've made the repairs listed in your last inspection report. The DOB's façade safety program requires you to make these repairs within the recommended time stated in the inspection report. If you don't, you could get hit with a violation for “failure to maintain” based on a SWARMP condition that has deteriorated. The DOB reviews inspection reports submitted with SWARMP ratings and sends out inspectors to verify whether owners have repaired the conditions listed as needing repairs within the time set out. If an inspector observes unsafe conditions that should already have been repaired, the inspector will give you a violation.

Staggered Inspection Cycles

Previously, every building with six or more stories in New York City had the same filing deadline. As a result, near the end of the inspection cycle, many building owners would scramble to complete required inspections and repairs, and the DOB would be overwhelmed with reports.

Local Law 38 was passed in hopes that the repairs would be performed by experienced professionals, since the new, staggered cycles would prevent a shortage of architects, engineers, and contractors as a single deadline approached.

The next inspection cycle runs from Feb. 21, 2010, to Feb. 21, 2015, and the last digit in your building's block number determines the applicable filing period within this cycle. You can look up your building's block number on the DOB's Building Information System (BIS) Web site.

Once you know the last digit of your building's block number, refer to the following box to find out by when you must get your façade inspected and file a report. The deadline might be sooner than expected. If your building falls in the first filing window, you could face a filing deadline as soon as February 2012, which is not a lot of time to plan and complete repairs on any SWARMP items from Cycle 6, before they are designated as unsafe in Cycle 7.

Find Your Building's Cycle 7 Filing Window

Subsequent Filing Cycles

For every five-year report filing cycle after Cycle 7, owners will be required to continue to file reports within a staggered two-year filing window. As in Cycle 7, the applicable filing period will depend on the last digit of your building's block number.

Block # ends in 4, 5, 6, or 9. You must get the façade inspected and file the report between February 21 of years ending in 0 and 5 and February 21 of years ending in 2 and 7.

Block # ends in 0, 7, or 8. You must get the façade inspected and file the report between February 21 of years needing in 1 and 6 and February 21 of years ending in 3 and 8.

Block # ends in 1, 2, or 3. You must get the façade inspected and file the report between February 21 of years ending in 2 and 7 and February 21 of years ending in 4 and 9.

Filing Options for Multi-Building Complexes

If your buildings are part of a multi-block complex covering more than one filing window, you can file separate reports for the individual buildings or choose one of the applicable periods and submit a report for the whole complex. If you choose to file within one applicable window, you must continue to file during the selected filing period for as long as you own or manage the buildings.

New Requirements for Inspection/Filing

The rules also contain some new inspection and filing requirements:

QEWI to oversee inspection. Reports may be filed only by those designated as a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (QEWI) by the DOB. QEWIs include New York State licensed civil or structural engineers or New York State registered architects with one or more years of relevant experience.

Filing fee required. There is also a filing fee for each report filed. In the past, there was no filing fee.

Penalty. You can be fined up to $250 for each month that the report is late, until the DOB accepts the report.

“Acceptable report” criteria. The act of filing a report is no longer enough to meet the requirements of the law. The report needs to contain all of the required information for it to be properly filed.

The additional information required in the inspection report includes the potential harm, if any, of exterior appurtenances, including exterior fixtures, flagpoles, parapets, copings, guard rails, window frames, window guards, window air conditioners, flower boxes, and communication equipment. With the new rules, window air conditioners can no longer be designated as SWARMP but must now be classified as either safe or unsafe.

Other required information includes:

• A comparison of the conditions observed with those observed during previous inspections and any information regarding the status of repairs or maintenance performed with respect to the prior conditions;

• A recommended time frame for the repair of SWARMP conditions. The report needs to include a specific date after which the condition is expected to become unsafe. This means that SWARMP conditions may need to be corrected well before the next filing cycle, if the report lists an earlier date for the recommended repair;

• A list and description of work permits that would be required for the necessary work; and

• Photographs of at least one view of the entire street-front elevation for all reports.

Report must be filed within 60 days of inspection. Notwithstanding the filing window period, the rules require that the report be filed within 60 days of the date on which the QEWI completed the physical inspection.

DOB signoff for unsafe conditions. If a report is filed listing unsafe conditions, the rules require the owner to immediately start making repairs to correct those conditions. The conditions must be corrected within 30 days after the inspection report is filed. If you cannot correct the conditions in 30 days, you must put up a sidewalk shed (if appropriate) and file for an extension of time to correct the conditions. If you don't do so, you may be subject to violations and fines. Also, the QEWI must reinspect the building within two weeks after the repairs have been made and obtain the DOB's sign-off on the permit. The QEWI will file a detailed amended report with the DOB stating the revised status of the building. And this amended report requires another filing fee.

Cycle 7 Action Plan

With a proactive approach, owners and managers can take advantage of this crucial time period before the next Local Law 11 cycle to bring buildings up to speed and avoid unexpected fees, penalties, and costly last-minute repairs. Here are some tips provided by Hargrove to help you prepare for the Cycle 7 filing:

1. Review last year's report and identify any conditions listed as SWARMP. Owners should have a thorough understanding of what they are obligated to do under the report.

2. Arrange for an architect or engineer experienced in building exterior remediation to recommend and design needed repairs and to identify any conditions that might be considered unsafe or SWARMP by the Cycle 7 filing deadline. Owners should not rely on the opinion of a contractor as to what qualifies as an appropriate repair. Also, most likely, much of the work needed to be performed will be work that needs city permits. So owners do need proper documents prepared for it.

3. Schedule any needed repairs.

4. Determine your building's filing period by block number. You can use the chart, or your QEWI can do this for you.

5. Schedule the Cycle 7 inspection well ahead of time, before QEWIs are booked close to the deadline.

With a proactive approach, owners and managers can take advantage of this crucial time period before the next Local Law 11 cycle to bring buildings up to speed and avoid unexpected fees, penalties, and costly last-minute repairs.

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