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FISP Fact Sheet

Most New York City property owners and managers know that NYC Local Law 11/98, now called the Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP), requires an inspection of a building's facades. The purpose of this law is to require building owners to detect hazardous conditions on the façade and to ensure the safety of pedestrians and neighboring properties. Some of the unsafe conditions commonly found include spalling bricks, damaged lintels, bowing parapet walls, unsupported air conditioners, loose terra cotta, damaged water-stops, cracked figurines and terraces.

Every 5 Years

At least one of the building facades must be inspected hands-on from a scaffold, and that facade must be representative of the building’s other exterior walls in construction and condition.

Buildings Over 6 Stories

The building code requires that these inspections use both visual observation and hands-on inspection.
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QEWI Inspection

Our Qualified Exterior Wall Inspectors examine parapets, balconies, railings, and fire escapes. With high-powered binoculars.

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Identify Deterioration

Each of the public street side facades requires hands-on inspection. If there is no fire escape available, then a scaffold drop is installed for a thorough inspection

Document Deterioration

Our QEWI are New York State Registered Architects (RA) and licensed Professional Engineers (PE). We are trained how to identify deterioration and prescribe remedies to ensure your building is safe.

Repair Assessment

The engineer/architect must inspect repairs of unsafe conditions within two weeks after the repairs are made.

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SWARMP or UNSAFE

Buildings are filed as Safe, Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program (SWARMP), or Unsafe. A Safe building needs no further action.

 

A SWARMP building must be repaired in the time frame listed in the report by the Engineer or Architect. An Unsafe building must be repaired within 30 days. (Owners can request extensions from the DOB.)

Repair Schedule

The Department of Building code requires the drafting of drawings containing detailed plans and specification for the repair of defective façade. These defects can be prioritized into three categories:

HAZARDOUS -   Repaired immediately
SWARMP - Repaired in  2 to 3 years
COSMETIC- Repaired at owner's discretion

The extent of the plans and specifications can be tailored to meet the building’s requirement.

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