City Council Set to Extend Local Law 152 Compliance Deadline for 2020

Department of Building’s (DOB) 2020 compliance deadline for Local Law 152 of 2016 is extended for another six months.

DOB to extend the December 31, 2020 Local Law 152 inspection deadline for buildings in City Community Districts 1, 3 and 10 in all boroughs until June 30, 2021. The Council Committee on Housing and Buildings held a hearing on the legislation on December 2nd and as we went to press, the Council passed the bill at their Stated Meeting on December 17th.

This year, building owners in City Community Districts 1, 3 and 10 in all boroughs were required to inspect their gas lines between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. However, once the legislation is signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, building owners in the above-mentioned Community Districts will now have another six months to comply. Furthermore, the bill provides that for such buildings inspected between September 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020, the certification of correction may be submitted later than 120 days or later than 180 days following the inspection date, as applicable, but no later than June 30, 2021.

As a reminder, Local Law 152 of 2016 requires an inspection by a licensed master plumber of all exposed gas lines in a building from point of entry up to individual tenant spaces. Building owners or managers are then required to submit inspection reports through DOB. If the Inspection Certification submitted to DOB indicates that conditions requiring correction were identified in the Gas Piping System Periodic Inspection Report submitted to the owner, the owner must submit to DOB, within 120 days of the inspection, an Inspection Certification signed and sealed by the licensed master plumber who conducted the inspection, stating that the conditions have been corrected.

This law applies to most buildings, except R-3 occupancy buildings (one- and two-family dwellings). Furthermore, if your building does not have a gas piping system, you are still required to comply with the law. A registered architect or a professional engineer must sign and seal a DOB Gas Piping Period Inspection Certification form that states that your building contains no gas piping. The form, which must be submitted by building owners to DOB, can be found at https://on.nyc.gov/2Easfu6. This inspection certification must be submitted once every four years by the end of the inspection year for the Community Board District in which your building(s) is located.

The following is an updated schedule (pending the enactment of the above-mentioned legislation) for building compliance based on Community Board Districts between 2020-2023:

Know Your Community Districts

• January 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 (City Community Districts 1, 3 and 10) • January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021 (City Community Districts 2, 5, 7, 13 and 18) • January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022 (City Community Districts 4, 6, 8, 9 and 16) • January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023 (City Community Districts 11, 12, 14, 15 and 17)

As you can see, building owners in City Community Districts 2, 5, 7, 13 and 18 that are required to perform inspections and comply with Local Law 152 beginning January 1, 2021 do not have a six-month extension and are still required to comply by the end of the 2021 calendar year. Once inspections are complete, building owners must submit to DOB the Gas Piping System Periodic Inspection Certification form signed and sealed by the licensed master plumber who conducted or supervised the inspection within 60 days of the inspection.

There is no filing fee for the submission of inspection certifications. All certifications must be submitted to DOB through the DOB online certification submission portal that can be found at https://on.nyc.gov/2Rx3oDL. Failure to file an inspection certification before the compliance deadline may result in a civil penalty of $10,000. In addition, building owners are required to keep all reports and certifications on file for at least 10 years and make them available to the DOB upon request.