Your QEWI's report just landed, and the board has to turn it into a plan the building can live with. Below is how we'd build that plan, and how to keep residents on your side while the work goes on. For what the repairs themselves involve, see our page on Local Law 11 / FISP repairs.

Banu is the contractor on these projects. Your attorney and managing agent advise the board on approvals, notices and what your proprietary lease, bylaws or condo documents require.

Where should the plan start?

With the report. Every condition your QEWI lists has a location, a description and a classification: Safe, SWARMP or Unsafe. The SWARMP and Unsafe conditions are your required scope. Anything else the board wants to add is optional. Keep it on separate lines so the board can judge it on its own merits.

Then write down the dates that constrain you:

  • your Cycle 10 filing window (look it up by block or address)
  • the 90-day correction date for any Unsafe condition, counted from filing
  • the timeframe your QEWI gave each SWARMP item
  • if the shed over an Unsafe façade was first permitted on or after January 12, 2026: 5 months to file construction documents, 8 months to file a permit application, 2 years to finish repairs

Put them on one page. From here on, every decision the board makes is working toward one of those dates.

How do you get proposals the board can compare?

Ask every contractor to answer the report line by line, using your QEWI's numbering. That way the board is comparing one scope instead of several readings of it. How to compare façade repair proposals goes into this in detail. Each proposal should break out:

  • Base work, listed by condition and elevation
  • Units for hidden work, for whatever nobody can measure until the wall is open: per brick, per linear foot of lintel, per square foot of stone patch
  • Access and protection: Scaffold, sheds and rigging, and how many months each stays up
  • Permits: DOB, plus DOT if the sidewalk or street is affected and LPC if you're landmarked
  • Exclusions and assumptions, written in plain English

Some of the work sits outside the contractor's scope: the engineer's or architect's drawings and site visits, the QEWI's re-inspection, the amended filing with DOB, and the time your attorney and managing agent spend. Put those on the plan too, with their own dates.

The things that move scope and schedule most are the height of the work, how long access stays up, how much steel is hidden behind the masonry, whether materials have to be matched for LPC, and the season. What shapes a façade restoration takes each one in turn.

How do you plan for what nobody can see yet?

Start by finding out how much of the scope is still an educated guess. The board makes that call with its engineer, and these questions should shape it:

  • How much of the wall was probed before the proposal was written?
  • How much of the scope is hidden steel, anchors or backup masonry?
  • Has the building been repaired before, and how well?
  • Are there landmark matches that could need rework?

Then use the units and assumed quantities to run scenarios. What happens to the schedule if hidden conditions come in low, at the expected quantity, or high? Agree in advance how extra work gets approved, so a lintel found on a Tuesday doesn't sit waiting for next month's board meeting.

Can you phase the work?

Often, within the deadlines. Unsafe conditions come first. They're due within 90 days of filing, and an extension of up to 90 days is available with documentation. SWARMP items can be scheduled within the timeframe your QEWI set, but any that aren't repaired before the next cycle's inspection are filed Unsafe, with a $2,000 penalty.

Buildings usually phase in one of these ways:

  • Street-facing elevations first, so the shed can come down sooner
  • By year, within your QEWI's timeframes
  • By trade, grouping work that needs the same access

There's a trade-off. Every time the scaffold comes down and goes back up, the building lives through another setup and another round of notices. Ask for a phased and an unphased schedule so the board can see the difference side by side.

What does the board need to decide, and when?

Five things, each tied to a date:

  • The scope. Approve the required SWARMP and Unsafe work, and decide separately on anything optional.
  • The engineer's role during the work. Agree who reviews hidden conditions when the wall is opened, and who approves extra work.
  • The contractor. Choose from proposals that answer the report line by line.
  • The phasing and the schedule. Approve a plan that works backward from your deadlines.
  • Who speaks for the board. A single point of contact, often working with the managing agent, so the contractor, the engineer and residents hear the same thing.

Whether shareholders or unit owners also have to approve, and how notices go out, depends on your proprietary lease and bylaws or your condo's documents.

What should you tell shareholders and unit owners?

Tell them before the rumors do, and put it in writing:

  • what the QEWI found, with photos
  • what the law requires, and by when
  • the scope, and why each part is in it
  • the schedule, including when scaffold and sheds go up and when they come down
  • how residents will be affected: noise, window access, terraces
  • which apartments crews may need to enter, and when
  • who to contact with questions

Be specific about sheds. Since January 2026, shed permits last 90 days and need a progress report at each renewal. We send photo updates at key milestones (How we work shows the format). Keep them, and the shed progress reports, with the permits and approvals: when the job ends, that record is what your QEWI works from.

What happens if the work waits?

  • SWARMP left unrepaired is filed as Unsafe in the next cycle, with a $2,000 penalty, a 90-day repair deadline and public protection, usually a shed.
  • Unsafe conditions left uncorrected draw monthly penalties under 1 RCNY 103-04, and the protection stays up.
  • Idle sheds can be penalized per linear foot per month from the second renewal: $10 if the shed is under 3 years old, $100 at 3 to 4 years, $200 after 4 years (that tier capped at $6,000 a month). DOB expects to begin imposing these in early 2027.
  • New sheds over Unsafe façades carry milestone penalties: $5,000 to $20,000 each for missing the 5-month documents deadline, the 8-month permit application or the 2-year completion deadline.
  • Late filing draws a penalty of $1,000 a month, and failure to file $5,000 a year.

Meanwhile the wall keeps deteriorating. A cracked brick turns into a rebuilt section, and a rusting lintel cracks more brick every winter it's left alone.

Sources

This article is general information, not legal advice. Your QEWI confirms your building's obligations, and your attorney advises on board and owner approvals.