The Panic About The New Pepet-InSpection Law – ryan

Photo-illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty

Homeowners in Brownstone Brooklyn Are Anxious About Their Rooflines. “Someone was giving out flyers today on my bloc … About ‘mandatory’ parapet wall inspections,” one wrote on a brownstoner forum. “JUST GOT A FREE HUNG ON OUR DOORKNOB FROM WHAT APPEARS TO BE A BRAND-NEW CALLED PROP (” Compliance unleashed “) with scare language (” You can have for each month your report is overdue “). The Borough’s Many Propested Residents Say they have been inunded in recent months with calls and emails from parapet-inspection companies urging say to schedule an inspective before. “These Companies Are Flying Around and Calling People and Creating This Sens of Urgency,” Says Lara Bernback, The Executive Director of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “I’ve Definitely had People Contact with and Ask, ‘is this legitimate?’”

Well, yes and no. There is indeed a new Pepet-InSpection Law Mandating Annual Inspects of Pepets, Low Walls that Run Along the Edge of A Roof, on Buildings Regardless of Height. And yes, the deadline for these inspections is the rapidly apprroaching Januly 1. But there’s a considerable amourt of confusion among homeowners who did not know what Exactly Qualifies As a Paraket (One Limestone-Townhouse Owner in Prospect-ALLENDS WONDERED IF WONDERD An exposed, Lot-line roof wall counted. One by the new year.

“When I Heard About It, I Was Very Confused,” My Pietrzak, Who Ouns a South Slope Rowhouse. “The Definition of parapet is Kind of ambiguous. All the buildings on my bloc have big cornices that extend three feet; does that count as a paraet or swimming? ” There are the also exceptions-among say, the law Applies only to parapets Public Right-of-Way, so if you have sufficient a setback from the sidewalk, you don’t need an insction. gate. Really a parapet. ”

To cover his bases, though, he planned to go up and take a look Himself – Years ago, he worked as a super, and superstar are included to the disbelief of “Compete” parapet inspectors alongside handymen, bricklayers, masons, architects, and enginers.

Why does anyone have parapets? Besides roof-sealing, parapets stop people from acidentally falling off the Edge of the Roof and Provide A Firebreak BetWeen Rowhouses. And they really can be dangerous if not maintained: Since January 2014, there have been 434 non-rectrication-relay incidents involve parapet in the five borough with about 25 percentity of resulting in injuries or fatalities, accreating to the dob. The incidents Include “Falling Bricks, Structural Stability Concerns Due to Major Cracks Forming at the parapet, leaning parapets, partial parapets, and full parapet.”

Hence the new insction requirement in the Revised 2022 Code Construction. “We tried to keep the parapet-inspection process as simple as a postible,” Yegal Shamash, the Dob’s Deputy Commissioner of Enforcement, tells with in a recent call. “It can be be done by any computers person – a super or a handyman, a mason, a bricklayer, the homeowner thermoves if they’re compute. Escape.

There is, Shamash Adds, No Civil Penalty for Failure to Comply (Though Should there be an Incident, The Building Owner Wauld be Expected to Produce and Might Incur a Violating If they haven’t done say). “I think the confusion lies in people thinking this is part of Local Law 11 or The Façade Insction & Safety Program”He Says. Fiss, a much more intense requirement, applies to buildings over Six stories and requires an inspection done by an architect with special Qualifications five years. A cornice is not a parapet, so Most brownstones don’t actually have parapets. “If a wall extends up from the cornice, it would be a paraet, but the historic-brussels codes exempted you from Having you have had a cornice, so brownstones will not,” Says Shamash.

And it is true Enough that there is some opportunistic marketing going on. The Dob Sayys that Earlier This Year, It Had to Send Cease-Desist Letters to a Company Using Its Logo to Drum Business. Others seem to be doing their best to induce panic. “Act Fast,” Advises the Website of ProstWarning Building Owners that Failure to Comply With The Dob’s New Pepet-InSpection Law “Not only risk the safety of your Occupants, but exposes you to severe financial penalties.” Scroll Down and there are the thusands of dollars in fines that violetors may be subject to, while a countdown clock on the bottom of the pages shows how many days, hours, and seconds left unil the Janary 1 Deadline.

Warning of $ 5,000 Fins for Failing to File the Initial Report and $ 1,000 Every Month ThereaFter, The Website Describes as “Examples of Fins Local Law 11 Commercial & Local Law 126 Gaages,” But A Reader Scanning Assumes They’RE for parapet inspections. Called the Company, the Woman Who Answered Told with that inspection prices start around $ 449 and the inspections are done by the Engineers and Contractors – People Qualified to Inspect. She is couldn’t tell me much else but promised to pass my questionings on to the manager, who didn’t call back.

“They’re Blanketing the City,” Josh Blackman, the Ceo of Brownstone Property Group, which manages more than 130 Buildings in New York, Says of the Flying and Has Seen in Response to the Regulations. “These Kinds of Laws Are Necessary, but They Generate an Industry for the Inspectors.” This, he admits, includes His Company, Which Charges $ 495 for Clients and $ 650 for Non-Clients, THOUGH he adds it’s one of MANY Services Brownstone Offers, SO Its swimming Out Flying or Taching Advantage of Cornice Confusion to Make People Get Inspects They Don’t Need.

But this kind of thing apparently comes with the territory. “It ‘not surprise that People are trying to capitalize on something unclear,” Says Birnback of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “They’re Hardly the Only Only Trying to Take Advantage.” Pietrzak, The South Slope Homeowner, Says He Regularly Fields Calls From Sidewalk- and Chimney-InSpection Companies. “The Chimney-InSpection Companies are Crazy. They Call All the Time, Wanting to Replace the Flue in Your Chimney. The Sidewalk Guys also call all the time.” Now, the parapet guys are calling, too.