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For Immediate Release: January 18, 2024
Contact: dobcommunications@Buildings.nyc.gov, (212) 393-2126

DOB ANNOUNCES FIRST ROUND OF PENALTIES FOR LATE PARKING STRUCTURE INSPECTION REPORTS
New Data for Periodic Inspection Requirement Shows That a Majority of Parking Structure Owners Have Complied With the Law Thus Far

NEW YORK – Initial penalties have been levied to over 400 property owners around the city for missing the deadline to file required engineering inspection reports for parking structures on their properties, New York City Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo announced today.
Under the city’s Periodic Inspection for Parking Structures (PIPS) program, the 1056 properties with parking structures located in Lower Manhattan, Midtown and the Upper West Side were required to file their first PIPS report to the Department of Buildings prior to January 1, 2024. DOB has received 655 to date, a 62 percent compliance rate. Department staff are reviewing these reports, and uploading accepted reports on the DOB NOW Public Portal website where they will all be accessible to New Yorkers.

“These inspection reports for parking structures are not just more paperwork for property owners, they are a powerful new tool to protect the public against hazardous building conditions,” said Commissioner Oddo. “I am happy to see that most of these property owners are complying with the law, and many are taking steps to repair their buildings. For those who have not lived up to this legal responsibility, get those late reports in as soon as possible because monthly penalties have already started, and will continue to rack up until we get compliance.”

Parking structures located in other areas of the city will also have to submit PIPS reports to the city the coming years, based on a timeline cycle which has every parking structure inspected once every six years. This important inspection requirement was first implemented on January 1, 2022, as part of the city’s Construction Code revision process, and is a significant enhancement in the city’s oversight of parking structures, which are subject to unique wear-and-tear and require regular maintenance.

Property owners in the first target area who had not yet filed their required paperwork at the beginning of January have already accrued a $1,000 penalty; the same penalty will be issued monthly until the reports are submitted. A $5,000 additional penalty will be issued at the end of the year for property owners still not in compliance -- totaling $17,000 in penalties every year. This enforcement structure is substantially similar to the Department’s long-running Façade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP), also known as “Local Law 11”, which has historically high compliance rates.

As property owners get accustomed to this new inspection requirement, and more late reports are submitted, DOB leadership expects compliance for this new inspection program to improve.

Following a fatal parking structure collapse that occurred in Manhattan in April 2023, DOB took action to strengthen the PIPS program by moving up the first reporting requirement timelines for 3317 parking structures located in Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs. The original rules for the program had parking structures located in the Upper East Side, Upper Manhattan and all of Brooklyn filing their first engineering reports to the city by December 31, 2025, and parking structures located in Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx filing their first engineering reports by December 31, 2027. Now, parking structures in these areas will also have to file a one-time initial observation report to DOB by August 1, 2024. This new required observation report, will be in addition to the previously required engineering reports that are still due in 2025 and 2027.

The requirement for this new one-time initial observation report was created by the Department to get more parking structure owners to investigate the structural condition of their parking structures on an accelerated timeline, with an eye towards catching potential problems before an incident occurs.

In the interest of public transparency about parking structure safety, the Department has also updated its publicly available real-time PIPS map, including more information and now allowing members of the public to download the data. The Department has multiple real time analytics maps, including for sidewalk sheds, building facades, major construction projects, after hours variances, all created to give New Yorkers greater transparency and understanding of their built environment. The Department is committed to using technology to promote compliance with the city’s important building safety laws, while informing the public about buildings in their neighborhoods.