Local Law 11 facade inspections (FISP), explained

Local Law 11 is the reason New York's taller buildings get their facades professionally examined on a fixed clock, and the reason sidewalk sheds appear — and linger — in front of so many of them. The program it created is formally called FISP, the Facade Inspection and Safety Program, run by the Department of Buildings.

Where the law came from

In 1979, a pedestrian was killed by masonry falling from a Manhattan building. The city responded with Local Law 10 of 1980, requiring periodic facade inspections of street-facing walls on tall buildings. Local Law 11 of 1998 expanded the program substantially: inspections now cover all facades, not just the ones facing the street, and require closer physical examination rather than viewing from the sidewalk.

Who is covered and how the cycle works

The requirement applies to buildings taller than six stories. Every five years, the owner must hire a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — a licensed architect or engineer with specific facade credentials — to examine the exterior walls and file a technical report with DOB. The five-year cycles are staggered into sub-cycles by tax block number so the whole city is not filing at once. Missing the filing window is itself a violation and draws penalties that accumulate until the report is filed.

The three classifications

Every filed report classifies the building one of three ways.

• Safe: no conditions threatening people or property. Nothing further until the next cycle.
• SWARMP — Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program: the facade is not currently dangerous, but the inspector identified conditions that must be repaired before they become unsafe, with a timeframe for doing the work. Letting a SWARMP condition slide past its deadline pushes the building into the next category at the following filing.
• Unsafe: conditions that threaten public safety exist now. The owner must immediately put up public protection — the sidewalk shed or netting — and repair the conditions, then have the inspector verify the work.

Why the sheds stay up

A sidewalk shed goes up fast because the law demands immediate public protection the moment a facade is classified unsafe. It comes down slowly because the repairs behind it are expensive, often need scaffolding, specialized contractors, and sometimes financing the owner does not have. The shed itself, rented monthly, can be cheaper than the repair — which is how some buildings keep a shed for years. A long-standing shed in front of a building is usually the visible edge of an unsafe FISP filing.

Reading FISP status on a building record

For a building over six stories, the useful questions are: did the owner file for the current cycle at all, what was the classification, and if it was SWARMP or unsafe, how long has it been that way. A missed filing tells you the owner is not engaging with the program. An unsafe classification with years of shed history tells you repairs are stalled. As always, records describe filings, not present-day physical reality — a repair completed last month may not show until the paperwork cycle catches up.