What does Local Law 49 of 2025 actually change?

Local Law 49 of 2025 amends NYC Administrative Code Section 28-302.2 so that critical examinations of a building's exterior walls and appurtenances are conducted 'at periodic intervals as set forth by rule of the commissioner,' with those intervals required to fall between 6 and 12 years, replacing the old fixed five-year report filing cycle. It also moves a new building's first required exam from the fifth year after an exterior wall goes up to the eighth year. The amendment was passed by the City Council on March 26, 2025, signed by the Mayor on April 17, 2025, and takes effect October 1, 2026.

Does Local Law 49 change my building's current FISP deadline?

No. Local Law 49 only authorizes the Department of Buildings to set a new interval by rule; it does not set that interval itself, and as of this writing DOB has not proposed a rule implementing it. Until DOB adopts and publishes that rule, Cycle 10's existing sub-cycle filing windows and deadlines, based on the last digit of your building's tax block number, remain fully in effect and unchanged.

Where does the 6-to-12-year range come from, and is six years guaranteed?

The range comes directly from the amended statute: Section 28-302.2 now requires DOB's rule to set intervals 'between 6 to 12 years.' Local Law 49 also required DOB to commission a study and deliver recommendations to the City Council Speaker by December 31, 2025. That study, Thornton Tomasetti's FISP Recommendations Report (delivered December 10, 2025), recommended a six-year baseline cycle among other changes, but a consultant recommendation is not a rule. DOB could adopt six years, a longer interval, or a risk-tiered mix of intervals once it actually proposes and finalizes a rule.

What happens to new buildings under Local Law 49?

For new construction, the law itself (not a future rule) moves the first required critical examination from the fifth year after a building's exterior wall is erected or installed to the eighth year, measured from the issuance date of a temporary or final certificate of occupancy, or as otherwise prescribed by rule. This is a direct statutory change that takes effect October 1, 2026 along with the rest of Local Law 49, independent of whatever interval DOB eventually sets for established buildings.

What should a building owner or board do right now?

Keep filing to your published Cycle 10 sub-cycle window; Local Law 49 does not pause or extend it. Separately, track any proposed rule DOB publishes at rules.cityofnewyork.us implementing the 6-to-12-year interval, since that rule (not the Thornton Tomasetti recommendations) is what will eventually set your next cycle length. If your last FISP report came back SWARMP or Unsafe, the repair deadline your QEWI assigned still applies regardless of any future change to the inspection interval.

COMPLIANCE

Local Law 49 of 2025: NYC's FISP Inspection Interval Moves to 6-12 Years

Published October 10, 2026

The headline: the five-year FISP cycle is no longer fixed in law

For as long as most building owners and managers have dealt with the Facade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP), the rule has been simple: a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector examines your exterior walls and appurtenances at least once every five years, and you file a technical report with the Department of Buildings under Local Law 11.

That fixed five-year language is gone from the statute. Local Law 49 of 2025 amends NYC Administrative Code Section 28-302.2 to let the DOB Commissioner set the inspection interval by rule, anywhere between 6 and 12 years. The Council passed it March 26, 2025, the Mayor signed it April 17, 2025, and it takes effect October 1, 2026.

For a visual walkthrough, see our briefing slides: Your façade clock and your sidewalk shed.

What the statute actually says

Pulling directly from the certified text of Local Law 49, Section 28-302.2 is amended to read:

“A critical examination of a building’s exterior walls and appurtenances thereof shall be conducted at periodic intervals as set forth by rule of the commissioner, … provided such periodic intervals are between 6 to 12 years. The initial examination for a new building shall be conducted in the eighth year following the erection or installation of any exterior wall …”

Two things changed, and it’s worth separating them because one is immediate and the other is pending:

New buildings — effective now, in the law itself. The first required exam for a new building moves from the fifth year after an exterior wall goes up to the eighth year, tied to the TCO or CO date. This is a statutory change, not something DOB has to write a rule for.
Everyone else — pending a DOB rule. For buildings already in the FISP universe, the actual interval between exams won’t change until DOB proposes and adopts a rule setting a specific number somewhere in the 6- to-12-year band. Local Law 49 doesn’t pick that number for you.

Who performs the exam doesn’t change: it’s still conducted on the owner’s behalf by a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector (a licensed PE or RA with DOB qualifications), reviewing the prior report and physically inspecting the facade, under rules the Commissioner promulgates.

What Local Law 49 does NOT do

This is the part that gets lost in headlines about “FISP going from 5 years to 6”: no rule has been proposed yet. Section 1 of Local Law 49 separately required DOB to study the appropriate inspection interval and deliver recommendations to the City Council Speaker by December 31, 2025. DOB’s consultant, Thornton Tomasetti, delivered that FISP Recommendations Report on December 10, 2025, recommending (among other changes) a six-year baseline cycle, a six-year first exam for new buildings, abbreviated filings for younger low-risk buildings, reduced hands-on inspection point spacing for shorter plain-facade buildings, clearer severity definitions, a mid-cycle visual check for chronically deteriorating facades, and a drone pilot program.

Every one of those is a recommendation, not a rule. DOB still has to propose a rule, publish it for public comment at rules.cityofnewyork.us, hold a hearing, and adopt a final version before any new interval takes legal effect — and as of this writing, that rulemaking hasn’t started. We go through the full set of Thornton Tomasetti recommendations, what each one would change, and their status in a companion piece: DOB’s FISP Recommendations Report, explained.

Because of that sequencing, Cycle 10 is untouched. The sub-cycle filing windows determined by your building’s tax block number — covered in our FISP Cycle 10 guide — keep running on the existing five-year framework DOB already published. Local Law 49 doesn’t pause, extend, or reset anything about Cycle 10’s current deadlines.

Why this matters for budgeting and board planning

A longer inspection interval sounds like good news — fewer QEWI engagements, fewer filing fees, less scaffold mobilization purely for inspection access. That may well be where this lands. But two things are true regardless of what number DOB eventually picks:

A longer cycle is not a longer repair window. If your last report came back SWARMP (Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program), the repair date your QEWI assigned still applies on its own timeline. An uncorrected SWARMP condition still becomes Unsafe at the next report, whenever that report is due.
Unsafe findings are unaffected. Public protection requirements and repair timelines for Unsafe conditions don’t move with the inspection interval — they’re a separate track, and they interact with the sidewalk shed rules under Local Laws 47, 48, 50, and 51, which we cover in our piece on the new sidewalk shed rules.

For boards building multi-year capital plans, the prudent move is to budget to your known Cycle 10 window now, and treat any future 6-to-12-year interval as a planning assumption to revisit once DOB actually proposes a rule — not as a reason to defer facade maintenance that’s already due.

What to do now

Keep filing to your published Cycle 10 sub-cycle window. Nothing about that changes on October 1, 2026.
Don’t plan around the Thornton Tomasetti recommendations as if they’re law. Watch rules.cityofnewyork.us for the actual proposed rule when DOB files it.
If you have a new building, confirm with your QEWI how the eighth-year first-exam rule applies to your TCO/CO date — this part is already in effect in the statute.
Keep moving on open SWARMP or Unsafe items. Those repair deadlines don’t wait for a new inspection interval.

Altius CM handles the facade restoration work that comes out of FISP findings, and supports the architects and engineers who carry out the inspections — masonry and terra cotta repair, sealant and caulk replacement, parapet and balcony work, roofing and waterproofing tie-ins, and the shed/scaffold sequencing and weekly progress logging that keeps a job moving under the current sidewalk shed rules. See our full scope of services and how we scope and sequence a job on our scale of work page.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your building’s specific filing status and sub-cycle in DOB NOW: Safety, and confirm whether any DOB rule implementing Local Law 49 has been proposed or adopted before relying on a particular inspection interval.

If your last FISP report came back SWARMP or Unsafe, or you just want a straight read on what Local Law 49 does and doesn’t change for your building, talk to us.

Need facade restoration work scoped?

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