BOCA Group News

Changes to NYC DOB Fines and Penalties

The Department of Buildings (DOB) has proposed a change to the Rules of the City of New York that will affect the fines being imposed for late filing of Affirmations of Correction (AOC) for vertical transportation inspections and tests performed in 2022 and 2023.

Background

Affirmations of Correction are required to be filed after a vertical transportation periodic inspection or Category test to indicate that all violating conditions have been corrected. The requirement since January 1, 2022, has been for the violating conditions to be corrected within 90 days of the inspection or test, and for the AOC to be filed within 14 days after correction.

As of January 1, 2022, Rule 103-02 was amended to establish two civil penalties for failing to file an AOC on time: a flat penalty for failure to file the AOC by the due date of $3,000 per device, and a monthly penalty of $150 per device (up to a maximum of $1,800 per device) for untimely filing of the AOC. The DOB has been imposing the “failure to file” penalty on all AOCs that were not filed on time, and then also imposing the monthly penalty for untimely filing until the AOC was filed.

Proposed change

The proposed change to Rule 103-02 would eliminate the $3,000 flat penalty for failure to file the AOC for inspections and tests performed in 2022 and 2023, but only for AOCs that were filed by April 14, 2023, for 2022 inspections and tests, and only for AOCs that were filed by April 14, 2024, for 2023 inspections and tests. This change is being proposed to give building owners more time to adjust to having failure-to-file fines imposed on all late AOC filings.

However, the $3,000 failure-to-file penalty will still apply if no AOC was filed at all. Also note that this rule change would not affect the monthly penalty for late filings.

Both penalties will be imposed on late AOC filings for inspections and tests performed in 2024 and after.

As a result of this proposed change, we recommend ensuring that any AOCs that have not been filed by your maintenance contractors yet for 2023 inspections and tests be filed by April 14, 2024, to avoid the additional $3,000 per device fine.   We also encourage you to manage and monitor AOC filings moving forward. Please contact BOCA Group if you are interested in adding AOC tracking to our services already being provided.

Status

A public hearing is being held by the Department of Buildings on March 13, 2024.

Related information

Failure to file penalties imposed between 2018 and 2021 for late filing of AOCs, and the process to obtain waivers if applicable, would not be affected by this proposed Rule change.