Leading the way in New York City Facade Safety
Secure your building's future—schedule your FISP Cycle 10 consultation with CANY to meet the latest façade safety standards. Our team will guide you every step of the way.
Façade and Safety Inspection Program (FISP)
The New York City skyline is an eclectic landscape of the historic, the futuristic and everything in between. Less romantic is the imperative to protect the public from the potential of falling debris from deteriorating buildings that make up that skyline.
In response, New York City imposed the Façade Inspections and Safety Program (FISP), formerly Local Law 11. It has become a five-year rolling program legally obligating all owners of buildings taller than six stories in the city to retain the services of a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (QEWI*) to undertake a hands-on inspection of the building’s exterior at 60 feet intervals along the facades that the public can access. This includes balconies, fire-escapes, and anything else appurtenant to the exterior walls. Results must be digitally filed by the QEWI with the DOB within three two-year filing windows, based on the building’s block number (see chart below). Inspections will determine if your building is either safe, safe with a repair and maintenance program, or unsafe.
How can CANY help?
We have been helping clients navigate FISP requirements for almost 30 years. We understand the pain-points, relying on lateral thinking, knowledge of capital planning and an ability to see the FISP in the context of other code requirements, like Local Law 97 and the recently introduced annual Parapet Inspection. We understand buildings, and what they mean to people, and have eased even the most temperamental of heritage buildings through the process.
We’re pioneers. From the outset we saw that there were better, more accurate, cost- effective ways to complete inspections. We were one of the first to deploy Industrial Rope Access (IRA) for FISP inspections and have seen our access methods adopted across the industry, setting the gold standard for cost effective inspections to comply with the new DOB requirement of 60-foot inspection intervals. We take the safety of our city’s skyline very seriously.
As you would expect from CANY, we have a team of QEWIs, registered professionals empowered by the DOB to oversee the FISP inspection and file the report. But we also have in-house teams with the breadth of experience and capability to partner with you throughout the whole process, from creative solutions to physically comply with FISP requirements, to capital planning to figure out how that can be achieved. We also support the Get Sheds Down initiative and will work with you to find safe alternatives, where possible, or get your shed down with a comprehensive repair plan.
We know that complying with the FISP is a huge part of building ownership responsibility, whether commercial, residential, or otherwise. And it’s getting tougher. With closer scrutiny, higher expectations, bigger fines, plus public concern, non-compliance is not an option.
What could the FISP reveal?
There are three categories established by the DOB and determined by the QEWI:
Safe: No repair work is required during the cycle and the building is likely not to become unsafe during the next five years.
Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program (SWARMP): Conditions suggest potential for the building to become unsafe and action must be taken within the timeframe established by the QEWI. This would be no later than the next filing deadline or it will automatically be categorized as Unsafe in the next cycle.
Unsafe: Conditions represent an immediate danger to the public and protection measures must be undertaken immediately, with repairs addressed within 90 days. A series of time extensions of up to 90 days each are usually granted by the DOB if the owner is genuinely working to address the issues. When an Unsafe report has been filed, the DOB usually sends an inspector to verify the extent of the conditions, confirm that adequate safety measures are in place to protect the public and assess the progress of the repairs. Subsequently, the DOB will issue violations based on the unsafe filing status and if public protection measures are in place.
What’s the current timetable for filing?
Beginning on February 21, 2025, the FISP program will be in its 10th cycle, and is scheduled as follows, with three assigned groupings determined by the last digit of a building’s block
number.
What can you do?
Planning for the FISP is essential, so now is the time to talk to us at CANY to make sure any issues FISP could present don’t become a problem.
After you fill out our form, our team will process your request and one of our industry leaders will be in touch shortly
Joe Badolato
Chief Strategy Officer
Thomas Seminara
Chief Business Officer