FISP Penalties Explained:
What Non-Compliance Really Costs

How FISP Penalties Work

The Facade Inspection & Safety Program is enforced through a system of escalating financial penalties. The Department of Buildings does not simply send a reminder letter when a building misses its filing deadline. Instead, penalties begin accruing automatically, and they continue to grow until the building comes into compliance.

There are three main categories of FISP penalties, each triggered by a different type of non-compliance. Understanding the distinction between them is important because the costs, timelines, and resolution paths are different for each.

The penalty system is designed to be punitive enough to motivate compliance. And the DOB has increasingly used liens, enforcement actions, and even building vacate orders as additional tools to compel non-compliant owners to act.

Late Filing Penalties

Late filing penalties are the least severe category, but they are also the most common. A late filing penalty is triggered when a building misses its sub-cycle deadline but eventually files the required FISP report. In other words, the inspection was done, but it was done late.

How Much Does Late Filing Cost?

The DOB imposes a $1,000 per month late filing fee for the period between the sub-cycle deadline and the date the report is actually filed. This fee is straightforward: if you are 6 months late, you owe $6,000. If you are 18 months late, you owe $18,000.

Late filing penalties may seem manageable in isolation, but they often stack on top of other charges. A building that files late and also has unsafe conditions will face late filing fees plus failure-to-correct penalties, dramatically increasing the total.

Failure to File Penalties

Failure to file is the next level of severity. This penalty applies when a building does not file a FISP report at all within its designated cycle. Unlike a late filing, where the inspection eventually happens, failure to file means the building has gone through an entire cycle (or multiple cycles) without submitting any report to the DOB.

How Much Does Failure to File Cost?

Failure-to-file penalties are significantly steeper. The DOB can impose penalties of $5,000 to $10,000 per filing period, and these penalties are applied per cycle. A building that has never filed a FISP report and has missed multiple cycles can face cumulative failure-to-file charges of $20,000 to $50,000 or more.

Additionally, buildings that fail to file may receive a DOB violation, which carries its own separate fine structure. These violations appear on the building's public record, visible to anyone who searches for the property on the DOB's Building Information System (BIS) or through tools like MyBuildingSafe.

The DOB may also issue an Order to Comply directing the building owner to hire a QEWI and file a report within a specified timeframe. Failure to comply with an Order to Comply can result in additional penalties and potential court proceedings.

Failure to Correct Penalties

Failure to correct is the most expensive category of FISP penalties. These charges apply when a building has been classified as UNSAFE or SWARMP and has not completed the required repairs within the mandated timeframe.

How Much Does Failure to Correct Cost?

Failure-to-correct penalties can range from $1,000 to $5,000 per month, depending on the severity of the condition and how long it has been outstanding. For UNSAFE conditions, the higher end of this range typically applies. Over the course of a 5-year cycle, a single failure-to-correct violation can accumulate to $60,000 to $300,000.

Beyond the financial penalties, failure to correct an UNSAFE condition can trigger mandatory sidewalk shed installation, which costs building owners $15,000 to $30,000 to install and $5,000 to $15,000 per month to maintain. Combined with the DOB penalties, the total cost of an unresolved UNSAFE condition can easily exceed $100,000 per year.

In extreme cases, the DOB can issue an emergency declaration and perform the repairs using a city-hired contractor, then bill the building owner for the cost. These emergency repairs are almost always more expensive than they would have been if the owner had handled them proactively.

How Penalties Accumulate Over Time

The most damaging aspect of FISP penalties is their compounding nature. A building that falls out of compliance in one cycle and does not address the issue often finds itself facing dramatically larger bills in subsequent cycles.

Consider a simplified scenario:

This example does not include the cost of the sidewalk shed (which could add another $75,000 to $200,000 over the same period) or the actual repair costs. The total financial exposure for a building that ignores FISP for 5 years can easily exceed $300,000 to $500,000.

Real Examples: What Buildings Actually Owe

The penalty amounts described above are not theoretical. Thousands of NYC buildings currently have outstanding FISP-related penalties. Here are representative examples based on publicly available DOB data:

The average UNSAFE building in Manhattan owes approximately $74,000 in penalties. However, the range is enormous: some buildings owe as little as $5,000 (recently classified), while the worst offenders owe over $500,000.

Penalties Across Multiple Cycles

One of the most important things building owners need to understand is that FISP penalties do not reset between cycles. If your building owed $50,000 in penalties at the end of Cycle 8, that balance carries forward into Cycle 9. New penalties then begin accumulating on top of the existing balance.

This means buildings that have been non-compliant for multiple cycles face exponentially growing penalty balances. A building that missed Cycles 7, 8, and 9 may owe penalties spanning 15 or more years of non-compliance.

The DOB has also become more aggressive about enforcement in recent years. In Cycle 9, the department has increased its use of liens, which are placed against the property and must be satisfied before the building can be sold or refinanced. For many building owners, the lien is what finally forces action because it directly impacts the property's financial position.

How to Resolve Outstanding Penalties

If your building has outstanding FISP penalties, the resolution process involves several steps. The sooner you start, the less you will ultimately pay, because penalties stop accumulating once the building comes into compliance.

Step 1: Determine What You Owe

Use MyBuildingSafe to look up your building and see its current FISP status, violations, and estimated penalties. You can also check the DOB's BIS system directly, but MyBuildingSafe aggregates the data into a more readable format.

Step 2: Hire a QEWI and Get Inspected

If your building has never been inspected or is overdue, the first priority is hiring a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector to perform the facade inspection and file the required report with the DOB. This immediately stops late-filing and failure-to-file penalties from growing.

Step 3: Complete Required Repairs

If the inspection reveals SWARMP or UNSAFE conditions, you need a licensed contractor to perform the repairs. Once repairs are completed and the QEWI files a follow-up report confirming the conditions have been corrected, failure-to-correct penalties stop accumulating.

Step 4: Apply for Penalty Reduction

In some cases, building owners may be able to negotiate a reduction in outstanding penalties, particularly if they can demonstrate good-faith efforts to come into compliance. The DOB and the Environmental Control Board (ECB) have some discretion to reduce penalties, especially when the violations have been corrected. Consulting with an attorney experienced in DOB enforcement matters is advisable for buildings with large outstanding balances.