How often does a building have to be inspected under FISP?

Once every five-year filing cycle, with the exact filing window set by the building's block number. A hands-on inspection of a representative section is required along with the visual survey of all elevations. Between cycles, owners are still responsible for correcting any condition that becomes unsafe.

Does FISP apply to a five-story brownstone?

No — the filing requirement covers buildings taller than six stories. Owners of smaller buildings have no FISP report to file, but they remain responsible for facade safety, and the same water-and-joint failures FISP looks for are what drive restoration work on smaller brownstones.

What should I do first if my building was classified Unsafe?

Protect the public way below the condition — typically a sidewalk shed — and treat the filing as the emergency it is. Then get the failed area inspected, a written repair scope priced, and the correction moving against the DOB deadline, so the inspector can file the amended report that closes the classification.

Local Law 11 (FISP) Explained for NYC Building Owners

Local Law 11 — administered today as the Facade Inspection & Safety Program, or FISP — requires owners of New York City buildings taller than six stories to have their exterior walls and appurtenances inspected by a qualified exterior wall inspector and to file a technical report with the Department of Buildings once every five-year filing cycle. Each building is classified Safe, SWARMP (safe with a repair and maintenance program), or Unsafe. Safe is the goal. SWARMP is a deadline in disguise. Unsafe is an emergency with a clock on it. This guide explains the program from the side owners actually deal with: the filing, the findings, and the repairs that close them out.

What the law is, and who it covers

Local Law 11 of 1998 created the modern facade-inspection regime; the DOB runs it as FISP. The trigger is height: the law covers buildings taller than six stories, on every exterior wall and appurtenance — the balconies, terraces, parapets, cornices, and other elements attached to the facade. A four- or five-story brownstone is outside FISP's filing requirement, though its owner remains responsible for keeping the facade safe, and smaller buildings are by far the most common setting for the restoration and pointing work described elsewhere on this site.

For covered buildings, the obligation is cyclical, not one-time. The program runs in five-year cycles, and within each cycle a building's filing window is set by its block number — so two similar buildings on different blocks can face deadlines years apart. The current cycle, Cycle 10, opened in 2025. If you manage or own a covered building, the first task is simply knowing your window: it determines whether you have seasons to plan or months to move.

What the inspection involves

The report must come from a qualified exterior wall inspector (QEWI) — a design professional approved by the DOB for this work. The inspection has two layers:

A visual survey of all elevations — every wall, read for cracking, displacement, spalling, open joints, deteriorated details, and the condition of appurtenances.
A close-up, hands-on examination of a representative section — the inspector gets within touching distance of the wall, because some failures (a lintel separating, a joint failed behind its face, stone that sounds hollow) cannot be certified from the sidewalk.

The inspector then files the technical report with the DOB and assigns the classification that drives everything after.

The three classifications

Safe. No repair work is required for filing purposes. The building waits for the next cycle — though ordinary maintenance on joints and details is what keeps it Safe.

SWARMP — Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program. The building is safe today, but the inspector found conditions that will become unsafe if they are not corrected — deteriorating mortar, cracking stone, corroding details, early-stage displacement. The report carries a repair timeline, set by the inspector, within the current cycle. SWARMP is best read as a scheduled obligation: the conditions named in the report must be corrected before the next cycle's filing, or they convert to Unsafe. Owners who treat SWARMP as a pass are simply deferring the same repairs into a worse classification.

Unsafe. A condition that is dangerous now — loose or displaced masonry, cracked-through elements, anything that could fall. An Unsafe filing triggers two clocks at once: the public must be protected immediately (typically with a sidewalk shed or other protection over the public way), and the condition must be corrected and an amended report filed by the deadline the DOB sets — a matter of weeks to months, not seasons, though extensions can be requested. Leaving an Unsafe condition standing is the most expensive posture available to an owner.

What "fixing it" actually means

The inspector identifies and classifies; the repairs themselves are masonry work, and they follow the findings elevation by elevation. On NYC's brick and brownstone building stock, the recurring repair scope reads like this:

Repointing failed joints across the elevation — the single most common SWARMP item
Stone repair or replacement — patching spalled brownstone, replacing cracked-through units, renewing lintels and sills
Metal and detail repair — the elements that shed water: caps, copings, cornices, and the junctions where water enters
Stoop and appurtenance work where the report names it

The sequence that works: inspector's report in hand → written repair scope priced from the report → permits and any required sidewalk shed arranged → work executed elevation by elevation (occupied buildings stay occupied; this work is routinely sequenced around residents) → the inspector returns, verifies, and files the amended report that closes the classification. Owners should settle the permit question at the estimating stage: like-for-like mortar repairs are often treated as minor work, while facade alterations, structural masonry, and work tied to an Unsafe filing typically require DOB permits and filings, and scaffolding or sheds carry their own permits regardless.

What missing actually costs

The law's teeth are administrative and compounding. Owners who miss a filing deadline face DOB penalties and violations, and late filings draw civil penalties that accumulate the longer the report is outstanding. An Unsafe condition left uncorrected escalates the same way — more violations, more scrutiny, and a repair that still has to happen, now under deadline pressure with protection costs running the whole time. The economics of FISP are simple: the inspection is predictable, the SWARMP repairs are plannable, and every stage of delay trades planned work for emergency work. The owners who come through a cycle cheaply are the ones who started at the report, not at the violation.

Where a contractor fits

A masonry contractor cannot file your FISP report — that belongs to the qualified exterior wall inspector. What a contractor does is the work the report calls for: reading the findings, pricing a scope that answers them item by item, and executing the pointing, stone, and detail repairs that let the inspector file the building Safe. Perfect Construction USA Corp performs that repair work on NYC facades — restoration, repointing, and stone repair across the five boroughs. If your building has a report with SWARMP items, or an Unsafe condition that needs a correction scope, call (347) 335-8089 for a free estimate, or start with our brownstone facade restoration page. Regulatory background on permits, sheds, and occupied-building work is collected on our FAQ page.

Local Law 11 (FISP) Explained: What NYC Building Owners Must File, Fix, and Fear Missing