The city's Department of Buildings has clarified a much-maligned safety regulation that requires owners of buildings over a certain size to hire full-time site safety inspectors when major facade work is done, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal by Joseph De Avila.
Residential and commercial property owners have grumbled about the regulation for years, and to their surprise, the article continued, the Department of Buildings recently said that inspectors could be employees of the contracting companies performing the actual work.
Charging as much as $100 an hour, the inspectors can cost a co-op building thousands of dollars in additional fees for a project, the article continued.
"'It really is onerous,' said Elli Siegal, who lives in a co-op on 70th Street. Her building will soon have major work down to its facade, but has yet to file plans for that work with the Department of Buildings. Shareholders there are preparing to pay as much as $30,000 for a full-time site safety inspector. That's on top of the $250,000 costs for the facade work," the article said.
"The inspectors typically work as independent contractors and are hired in addition to construction contractors performing the actual work. Depending on the complexity of the project, inspectors working on a full-time job often find themselves with a lot of downtime and little to do, property owners say," the article said.
The regulation was introduced in 1983 in response to a fatal crane accident in 1982. At the time it covered major construction sites for large buildings. In the 1990s, it began to be applied to facade renovation projects as well.
The article said that the department recently clarified the safety-manager rules with officials at the Real Estate Board of New York: "Many property owners and contractors for years believed that safety inspectors had to be independent third-parties hired to monitor contractors. The buildings department officials said that inspectors could be employees of the contracting companies performing the actual work."
"'It's infuriating to pay someone for what seems to be like nothing'" is a common complaint heard from property owners, said Angela Sung, senior vice president of management services and government affairs for the Real Estate Board of New York," the article said.
The Department of Buildings "requires that site safety managers have active license with the department. They can be employed by the contractor or sub-contracted out. There has been no change regarding that requirement," said Jennifer Gilbert, a spokeswoman with the Department of Buildings.
Residential and commercial property owners have grumbled about the regulation for years, and to their surprise, the article continued, the Department of Buildings recently said that inspectors could be employees of the contracting companies performing the actual work.
Charging as much as $100 an hour, the inspectors can cost a co-op building thousands of dollars in additional fees for a project, the article continued.
"'It really is onerous,' said Elli Siegal, who lives in a co-op on 70th Street. Her building will soon have major work down to its facade, but has yet to file plans for that work with the Department of Buildings. Shareholders there are preparing to pay as much as $30,000 for a full-time site safety inspector. That's on top of the $250,000 costs for the facade work," the article said.
"The inspectors typically work as independent contractors and are hired in addition to construction contractors performing the actual work. Depending on the complexity of the project, inspectors working on a full-time job often find themselves with a lot of downtime and little to do, property owners say," the article said.
The regulation was introduced in 1983 in response to a fatal crane accident in 1982. At the time it covered major construction sites for large buildings. In the 1990s, it began to be applied to facade renovation projects as well.
The article said that the department recently clarified the safety-manager rules with officials at the Real Estate Board of New York: "Many property owners and contractors for years believed that safety inspectors had to be independent third-parties hired to monitor contractors. The buildings department officials said that inspectors could be employees of the contracting companies performing the actual work."
"'It's infuriating to pay someone for what seems to be like nothing'" is a common complaint heard from property owners, said Angela Sung, senior vice president of management services and government affairs for the Real Estate Board of New York," the article said.
The Department of Buildings "requires that site safety managers have active license with the department. They can be employed by the contractor or sub-contracted out. There has been no change regarding that requirement," said Jennifer Gilbert, a spokeswoman with the Department of Buildings.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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