Local Law 11 Enters Cycle 8 Next Month
Jan. 30, 2015 — New York City's Façade Inspection Safety Program (FISP), also called Local Law 11, requires that owners of buildings with six or more stories above an exposed basement wall undergo an exterior inspection every five years. The law is currently in its seventh cycle, but after February 21, Cycle 8 will begin, and boards will want to confirm with their management companies that all the necessary steps are taken to ensure that all reports and supplemental forms are submitted.
Included with the Cycle 7 reports, all buildings that need to comply with Local Law 11 now have to go one step further and inspect all balconies, terraces, handrails, canopies, antennae, satellite dishes, air conditioners, and fire escapes and file a supplemental statement.
Who Does the Inspection?
A qualified architect or engineer must do the inspection to check for structural soundness and submit the supplemental statement to the city — confirming whether the status of these exterior structures is SAFE, UNSAFE, or SWARMP — no later than February 2.
The qualified exterior wall inspector (QEWI) can submit the signed and sealed supplemental statement to the Department of Buildings (DOB) Façade Unit via regular mail or in person at its office on the fourth floor of 280 Broadway. According to the memo dated May 5, 2014 that DOB distributed to FISP consultants and building managers and owners, there is no fee for this additional statement.
Penalties
According to the DOB's website, penalties are as follows:
· Late filing of the initial report incurs a $250-per-month penalty.
· Failure to file an initial report incurs a $1,000-per-year penalty.
· Failure to correct UNSAFE conditions incurs at $1,000-per-month penalty.
Stay One Step Ahead
Howard L. Zimmerman Architects, P.C. (HLZA) is a full-service architectural firm that specializes in the interior and exterior restoration, preservation, and alteration of existing buildings.
HLZA has available on its website information about Local Law 11, including how co-op and condo boards can stay a step ahead of inspections and ensure that their buildings' guardrail systems are up code.
Some of the measures boards can take include:
- Contracting an engineering entity to perform uniform and/or concentrated load tests on select areas of the guardrail system to determine whether or not it conforms to the current New York City building code.
- Implementing an annual routine maintenance plan to address potentially dangerous conditions more promptly than is required by Local Law 11.
- Informing tenants to pay attention to the condition of all guardrails on their respective balconies, and promptly reporting any outwardly unsafe conditions to the building superintendent for immediate repair.
A Look Back at Why Local Law 11 Is Important
Before it became Local Law 11 in 1998, it was Local Law 10. The DOB created and implemented the law in 1980 in response to the 1979 death of Barnard College student Grace Gold when she was struck by masonry falling from a building façade in Manhattan.
Fast-forward to March 2010. The DOB conducted extensive safety reviews following the death of Connor Donohue when he from a 24th-floor balcony, and found that "hundreds of building owners had failed to file required inspection reports on their balconies" — included, reported The New York Times, the company that managed the building in which Donohue lived.
The most recent tragedy occurred in the early hours of August 1, 2013. Jennifer Rosoff fell to her death from her 17th-floor condominium at 400 East 57th Street after the 78-year-old aluminum railing on her balcony she leaned against gave way.
Investigators first on the scene told DNAinfo that the railing "was installed in 1931 without welded rivets. The non-welded rivets that were used popped out as Rosoff pressed her body against it."
Sources also told DNAinfo that "in 1931 … the applicable city building code from 1926 did not mandate certain weight-bearing requirements that would address riveting, the type of metal used and how they were fastened to the structure."
As a result of the incident, however, the DOB issued Stonehenge, the management company that had recently purchased the building, with two violations, DNAinfo reported. But what about before?
According to The Times, the DOB said "an inspection report had been filed for Ms. Rosoff's building in February, several months late; the company incurred a $250 penalty." Despite being late filing its report, the building, according to CBS New York, had "no recent complaints or violations on record, pertaining to the balconies."
It is perhaps this last point — that the building had filed its inspection report, albeit late, and had no violations on record — which emphasizes the importance of HLZA's advice. Especially in the city's older buildings, wear and tear can have catastrophic results. Boards have an opportunity to be proactive by ensuring their property managers conduct annual checks to see if maintenance or replacement is required, thereby ensuring the safety of their buildings' residents.
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