Local Law 11 penalties: late filing, Unsafe and SWARMP

The DOB penalty schedule

Local Law 11 penalties are civil penalties set by DOB in 1 RCNY 103-04 and listed on the Department's facade fees and penalties page. There are four of them. Two are for not filing the report, two are for not fixing what the report found.

The penalties are issued against the owner and paid through DOB NOW: Safety. They stack. An owner who files late and whose report finds an Unsafe condition that is not repaired in time can owe the late filing penalty and the Unsafe penalty for the same building, for the same cycle. They are also separate from any Environmental Control Board violations DOB may issue for the condition itself, and from the cost of the shed and the repair.

Figures you may see on other sites, such as $5,000 a month or a flat $25,000, are not DOB's civil penalty schedule. The section below on figures to ignore explains where they tend to come from.

Filing fees

Fees are not penalties. Every owner pays them, on time or not.

The filing fee is per report, so a building rated Unsafe pays it twice in a cycle: once for the initial report and once for the amended report after the repairs. The extension fee is paid when the QEWI asks DOB for more time to correct an Unsafe condition. The waiver fee is paid when an owner asks DOB to waive penalties that have accrued, which DOB may or may not grant. None of these fees include the QEWI's own charge for the inspection and report, which is a private contract between the owner and the inspector and varies by building.

Late filing and failure to file

The two filing penalties look similar and are often confused. They apply to different situations.

A late initial FISP report carries a civil penalty of $1,000 per month. A report is late when it is filed after the building's sub-cycle window closes. The penalty runs per month from the close of the window until the report is filed. An owner in sub-cycle 10A whose report goes in three months after the 10A deadline owes three months of the late penalty. The Cycle 10 deadlines guide shows which window applies to which tax block.

Failure to file an initial FISP report carries a civil penalty of $5,000 per year. Failure to file is the status of a building with no report at all for the cycle. DOB records it as No Report Filed. The penalty is annual and keeps accruing for each year the building stays in that status. An owner in that position for Cycle 9 is still liable for the Cycle 9 penalty while Cycle 10 opens, which is why DOB's early filing notice for Cycle 10 is conditional on the outstanding penalties being paid first.

The practical difference is that late filing is a fixable lapse with a monthly meter, while failure to file is an open-ended liability. Either way, the report is still owed. Paying the penalty does not discharge the inspection.

Unsafe condition penalties

An Unsafe rating carries the heaviest penalties because it is the one tied to public safety. The sequence is fixed. The QEWI finds the hazard, the owner puts up public protection at once, the Unsafe report is filed, and a 90-day clock starts.

Two points on the Unsafe penalty. First, it is avoidable by an extension. If the QEWI files an extension request before day 90 and DOB approves it, the penalty does not start while the extension runs. Repairs that need a permit, scaffold access and weather often cannot be done in 90 days, and the extension exists for that. Second, the schedule rises. The year one figure is the floor, and an Unsafe condition that sits for years costs more each year under 1 RCNY 103-04.

Filing the amended report is what stops the clock. Repairs that are complete but not reported are, as far as DOB's records go, not complete. The SWARMP vs Unsafe guide covers what the Unsafe rating requires beyond the penalties, including the shed.

SWARMP condition penalty

The SWARMP penalty is smaller and is a one-time figure rather than a monthly one. On its own it is the least of an owner's problems. The reason it matters is what comes with it. A SWARMP condition that is not repaired by the date in the report must be reported as Unsafe at the next inspection. At that point the owner is no longer looking at the SWARMP penalty but at public protection, the 90-day deadline and the Unsafe monthly penalty above. The small penalty is the warning; the conversion to Unsafe is the cost.

Figures to ignore

Searching for Local Law 11 fines turns up numbers that are not on DOB's schedule. The two most common are $5,000 a month and a flat $25,000.

The $5,000 a month figure looks like a confusion of DOB's annual failure to file penalty with its monthly late filing penalty. On DOB's schedule the $5,000 is per year, and the monthly figures are $1,000. The $25,000 figure does not appear on the DOB facade fees and penalties page or in 1 RCNY 103-04 as a FISP civil penalty. It may come from a different DOB violation class or from a summary of what a long-running Unsafe condition can add up to, but it is not a penalty an owner is charged for a facade filing.

When a figure matters, check it against the DOB fees and penalties page and the rule. Both are linked in the sources on this page. We update this guide when DOB changes the schedule.

What the penalties mean for contractors

The penalty schedule is why an Unsafe filing is a deadline, not a suggestion. The owner is paying monthly from day 90 unless the QEWI gets an extension, and the extension itself costs a fee and needs a credible repair plan. A contractor with a scope, a price and a start date is what makes that plan credible.

The schedule also explains the shape of the work. Late filing penalties push owners to file inside their sub-cycle window, so filings cluster toward each deadline. The SWARMP carry-over pushes owners with unrepaired Cycle 9 conditions into Unsafe status in Cycle 10. Both effects put new Unsafe reports on NYC Open Data every week. The facade restoration leads page lists them, and the Local Law 11 guide explains the program the penalties enforce.

Numbers behind this guide: NYC Unsafe facade filings, counted every week.