Missing a facade inspection deadline is one of the most expensive compliance failures a NYC building owner can make. This guide walks through the penalty timeline from Day 1 through Month 12, what the Department of Buildings does at each stage, and how to recover if you are already past due.
Local Law 11, now formally known as the Facade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP), requires the exterior walls and appurtenances of buildings six stories or taller in NYC to be inspected every five years by a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (QEWI). The program was created after a fatal facade collapse on the Upper West Side in 1979 and has been expanded several times since.
The FISP program operates in five-year cycles, each divided into two sub-periods (A and B) of approximately two and a half years each. Every covered building is assigned to a sub-period based on its block number. The assignment is permanent. Your building's sub-period does not change from cycle to cycle.
The current cycle is Cycle 10. Sub-Period A ran from February 21, 2022 through February 21, 2027. Sub-Period B runs from February 21, 2027 through February 20, 2029. If your building was assigned to Sub-Period A and you have not filed your Cycle 10 report, you are already late. Penalties are accruing.
The financial consequences of a missed FISP deadline begin immediately and compound every month. Here is what happens at each stage.
| Time After Deadline | What Happens | Cumulative Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Filing deadline passes. Building is flagged in DOB system as non-compliant. Late filing fee of $250 is assessed. | $250 |
| Month 1 | First monthly penalty of $1,000 begins accruing. DOB may issue a Class 2 violation. | $1,250 |
| Month 2 | Second monthly penalty. Building appears on DOB non-compliance reports. | $2,250 |
| Month 3 | Third monthly penalty. ECB summons may be issued for the violation. Hearing date scheduled. | $3,250 |
| Month 6 | Six months of accrued penalties. If facade has not been inspected at all, DOB may escalate enforcement. ECB hearing proceeds. | $6,250 |
| Month 9 | Nine months of accrued penalties. Continued non-compliance may trigger additional DOB enforcement actions including Commissioner's Orders. | $9,250 |
| Month 12 | Full year of accrued penalties. Violation remains open. Building is flagged for all DOB transactions. | $12,250 |
The Department of Buildings does not send a polite reminder letter and wait for you to respond. The enforcement process is systematic and largely automated. Here is the sequence.
When a sub-period deadline passes, DOB's Building Information System (BIS) automatically flags buildings that have not filed a FISP report. This flag is visible to anyone who looks up the building in BIS, including prospective buyers, lenders, insurance underwriters, and tenants doing due diligence. The flag does not go away until the report is filed.
DOB issues a violation for failure to file the FISP report. This is typically a Class 2 violation, which is a serious category in the DOB violation hierarchy. The violation is recorded against the building's permanent record. Even after the report is eventually filed and the violation is resolved, the historical record of the violation remains in BIS.
The violation triggers an Environmental Control Board (ECB) summons. ECB is the adjudicatory body that hears DOB violation cases. The building owner (or the owner's representative) must appear at an ECB hearing to respond to the summons. If the owner does not appear, a default judgment is entered. ECB penalties for FISP violations can be significant, often ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the building's compliance history and the severity of the situation.
For buildings with extended non-compliance, DOB can issue a Commissioner's Order requiring immediate action. In extreme cases, DOB can order the installation of sidewalk protection (a sidewalk shed) at the building's expense, regardless of whether the facade has actually been inspected. The rationale is straightforward: if the building has not been inspected, DOB has no way to know whether the facade is safe, and the default assumption for public safety purposes is that it may not be.
When a QEWI engineer completes a FISP inspection, the facade receives one of three determinations. The determination has direct consequences for what happens next, and a late filing increases the likelihood of the worst outcome.
The facade and its appurtenances are in a condition that does not pose an immediate danger. No repairs are required before the next filing cycle. This is the best outcome. The FISP report is filed, and the building's obligation is complete until the next cycle.
The facade has conditions that require repair, but those conditions do not pose an immediate safety threat. The building owner must complete the specified repairs within a defined timeline and file a subsequent report confirming the repairs were made. SWARMP is a common finding. It means the facade needs work, but the work can be scheduled and completed over the next one to two years.
The facade has conditions that pose an immediate risk to public safety. Unsafe findings require immediate protective measures, including potential installation of a sidewalk shed, netting, or other protective barriers. The owner must remediate the unsafe conditions and file a subsequent report. Unsafe findings also trigger mandatory DOB notification within 24 hours of discovery.
Of all the consequences of a missed FISP deadline, the sidewalk shed is the one that changes the financial calculus most dramatically. If your facade is classified Unsafe, or if DOB orders sidewalk protection because you have not filed an inspection at all, the building must install and maintain a sidewalk shed for as long as the unsafe condition exists.
For buildings with extended sidewalk shed installations, the cumulative cost can reach $200,000 to $400,000. This dwarfs the late filing penalties. The sidewalk shed is not a fine. It is an ongoing operational expense that persists until the building's facade is brought back into compliance.
FISP Cycle 10 began in February 2022. The current status of the two sub-periods is as follows.
All buildings assigned to Sub-Period A should have filed their Cycle 10 FISP report by February 21, 2027. Buildings that have not filed are now accruing late penalties. If your building is in Sub-Period A and you have not filed, every month of delay adds $1,000 to the cumulative late filing fee, on top of the initial $250 and any ECB penalties.
Buildings assigned to Sub-Period B have a two-year filing window that opened on February 21, 2027. While the deadline is not until February 2029, the practical advice is to complete the inspection in the first year of the window. There are two reasons for this. First, if the QEWI finds SWARMP or Unsafe conditions, you need time to remediate before the filing deadline. Second, QEWI availability tightens significantly in the final six months of any sub-period as building owners rush to meet the deadline.
If your building has already missed its FISP filing deadline, the priority is to stop the bleeding. Penalties accrue every month, and the longer the delay, the more expensive the recovery becomes. Here is the recovery process.
Contact a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector and schedule the critical examination as soon as possible. A QEWI is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) or Registered Architect (RA) with the specific qualification to perform FISP inspections. Not every engineer or architect holds the QEWI designation. Confirm the qualification before engaging.
The QEWI performs a close-up, hands-on inspection of the building's exterior walls, appurtenances (balconies, cornices, parapets, lintels, fire escapes), and other facade elements. Close-up inspection typically requires scaffolding, a swing stage, or a boom lift. The inspection must cover the entire exterior of the building, not just the street-facing facade.
After the inspection, the QEWI prepares the Technical Facade Inspection Report (TR6) documenting the findings, the determination (Safe, SWARMP, or Unsafe), and any required remedial work. The TR6 is filed through DOB NOW: Safety. Filing the report stops the accrual of the $1,000/month late penalty.
If the facade is determined to be SWARMP, the building must complete the specified repairs and file a subsequent report. If the facade is Unsafe, immediate protective measures are required, and the remediation must be prioritized. The QEWI typically specifies the timeline for remediation in the TR6 report.
Filing the TR6 does not automatically dismiss the late-filing violation. The violation must be resolved through the standard DOB process, which may involve an ECB hearing, payment of penalties, and documentation that the building is now in compliance. An experienced compliance professional or attorney can help navigate the ECB process and potentially negotiate penalty reductions.
For buildings with extended FISP non-compliance (typically more than 12 to 18 months past the deadline), DOB's enforcement posture shifts from financial penalties to direct enforcement actions.
DOB can issue a Commissioner's Order requiring the building owner to take specific actions within a defined timeline. Failure to comply with a Commissioner's Order can result in additional penalties, contempt proceedings, and in extreme cases, DOB performing the work and liening the property for the cost.
If DOB determines that an uninspected building poses a risk to public safety, it can order the immediate installation of protective measures (sidewalk shed, netting, or barriers) at the owner's expense. This can happen even if the facade has never been inspected and no specific deficiency has been identified. The absence of an inspection is itself treated as a safety risk.
Open FISP violations and unfiled inspections are visible in DOB BIS. Any party conducting due diligence on the building (buyer, lender, insurance underwriter, prospective tenant) will see the non-compliance. For sales, open FISP violations frequently trigger price adjustments, escrow holdbacks, or deal delays. For refinancings, lenders may require the violation to be resolved as a condition of closing. The reputational and transactional costs of extended FISP non-compliance often exceed the direct penalty costs.
DOB does not grant individual extensions to the FISP filing deadline. The sub-period deadlines are fixed by rule. In rare circumstances, DOB has issued blanket extensions affecting all buildings in a sub-period (as happened during the COVID-19 pandemic), but these are extraordinary measures. For standard compliance, the deadline is the deadline.
From engaging a QEWI to filing the TR6 report, the typical timeline is four to eight weeks for a straightforward building and eight to sixteen weeks for a more complex facade or a building with access challenges. If the inspection reveals SWARMP or Unsafe conditions, the full remediation and close-out process can take six to eighteen months beyond the initial filing.
The late filing penalty itself ($250 plus $1,000/month) is statutory and cannot be waived by DOB. However, ECB penalties assessed through the hearing process are subject to negotiation and judicial discretion. An owner who demonstrates that the violation has been cured (the report has been filed) and that the delay was not willful may receive a reduced ECB penalty. Having an attorney or experienced compliance professional at the ECB hearing typically improves the outcome.
FISP violations run with the building, not the owner. If you acquired a building with an unfiled FISP report, the obligation to file and the accrued penalties transferred to you at closing. This is one reason that FISP compliance status should always be verified during pre-acquisition due diligence. If the violation was not disclosed or accounted for in the purchase agreement, that is a matter between the buyer and seller, but it does not relieve the current owner of the filing obligation.
No. The responsibility for scheduling and filing the FISP inspection rests with the building owner, not the QEWI. The QEWI is engaged by the owner to perform the inspection and prepare the report. If the owner does not engage a QEWI before the deadline, that is the owner's responsibility. Managing agents and property managers who are responsible for compliance on behalf of the owner may have contractual liability, depending on the management agreement.
No. The FISP report documents the current condition of the facade. The QEWI reports what they find, whether that is Safe, SWARMP, or Unsafe. The purpose of the report is to identify conditions, not to certify that the facade is in perfect condition. Many buildings file SWARMP reports that include a list of required repairs. Filing the report is separate from completing the repairs. The filing stops the late penalty. The repairs are addressed on the timeline specified in the report.
If your building has missed its FISP deadline or is approaching the end of its sub-period, we can help. Our QEWI engineers perform critical examinations, prepare TR6 reports, and file through DOB NOW: Safety. We also handle violation remediation and ECB hearing support.