SWARMP vs UNSAFE vs SAFE: The NYC Facade Classifications Explained

Three Classifications at a Glance

New York City's Facade Inspection Safety Program, known as FISP and originally enacted as Local Law 11 of 1998, requires every building taller than six stories to retain a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector, commission a hands-on facade inspection, and file a classification report with the Department of Buildings once per five-year cycle. There are only three possible outcomes on that filing: SAFE, SWARMP, or UNSAFE. Every NYC commercial building over six stories carries one of those three labels at all times, and the label determines whether the owner owes DOB nothing, owes a repair plan, or owes an emergency sidewalk shed by the end of the week.

The distribution matters. According to the current NYC FISP filing roster, 1,590 buildings are flagged UNSAFE right now, 5,583 buildings carry a SWARMP classification inside the active Cycle 10 remediation window, and the remainder of the eligible stock sits at SAFE until their next inspection comes due. If you are a facade restoration GC, a property manager, or a building owner trying to work out what your filing actually obligates you to do, this guide walks through each classification, what it means in plain English, and what changes when Cycle 10A closes on February 21, 2027.

One-sentence summaries before we go deeper. SAFE means the QEWI inspected the facade and found nothing that needs to be repaired before the next cycle. SWARMP means the facade is safe today but has conditions that will become unsafe if the owner does not repair them inside the five-year window. UNSAFE means the facade has conditions that are an immediate public hazard and the owner has to protect the sidewalk and file a repair plan right now.

SAFE

A SAFE classification is the outcome every owner hopes for. It means the Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector, after both a visual inspection from street level and the close-up inspection required by rule, found no conditions on the facade that require repair before the next five-year cycle. No cracked lintels that need to come out, no spalling brick over the sidewalk, no loose terra cotta, no parapet movement, no balcony rail corrosion that rises to the level of a repair obligation.

The obligations under a SAFE filing are simple: there are none until the next cycle. The owner does not owe DOB a repair plan, does not owe a sidewalk shed, and does not owe a follow-up filing. The only thing the owner owes is a fresh inspection five years later, when the next cycle sub-period comes due for that building's filing block.

On a DOB filing, a SAFE report shows up as a short TR6 (Technical Report) with the QEWI's seal, the inspection date, the classification line marked SAFE, and the next-cycle due date. The QEWI files it electronically through DOB NOW. The QEWI is always the filing party. The owner signs off, but the person who stakes their professional license on the classification is the engineer or architect who did the inspection.

SWARMP (Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program)

SWARMP is the classification most NYC facade contractors build their sales pipeline around, and its full name is the clearest definition of what it means: Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program. The facade is safe right now, today, but the QEWI has identified conditions that will become unsafe if they are not repaired within the cycle. A SWARMP filing is a promise, on the QEWI's seal, that the owner will complete specific documented repairs before the window closes.

The obligations are substantive. The owner must complete the listed repairs within the cycle window, which in practice means before the next scheduled inspection five years later. The SWARMP filing is not a permission slip to ignore the conditions; it is a deadline. The QEWI documents the specific defects, includes photographs, and describes a remediation plan. If the owner wants to change the scope or timeline, they have to come back through the QEWI and re-file.

What happens if the SWARMP conditions are ignored is the part every owner needs to understand. At the next cycle filing, the QEWI is required to look at whether the previously-documented SWARMP conditions were remediated. If they were not, the next filing cannot be SWARMP again for the same conditions. The classification auto-converts to UNSAFE, the owner inherits every obligation that comes with an UNSAFE filing, and the enforcement clock starts the day the new filing is stamped. That is why SWARMP is not a place to park a building; it is a countdown.

SWARMP is the sweet spot for facade restoration GCs because it represents the genuine work pipeline. Unlike UNSAFE, where the owner is already in crisis mode and often already has a contractor locked in, SWARMP is where owners are still shopping, still comparing bids, and still deciding who will do the repair. The filing tells you the conditions exist, documents them on the engineer's seal, and gives you a five-year window to sell into.

UNSAFE

UNSAFE is the classification that brings the sidewalk sheds. It means the QEWI identified conditions on the facade that constitute an immediate hazard to public safety: falling brick, loose terra cotta, structural cracking, parapets that have moved, lintels that are failing, balconies that could drop. If the engineer signs UNSAFE, they are saying that without emergency protection, somebody on the sidewalk could get hurt.

The obligations kick in immediately. The owner must install a sidewalk shed (or an equivalent DOB-approved protective measure) right away, retain a QEWI to file a repair plan, and complete the repairs within the 90-day window or the longer window specified in the filing depending on the scope. There is no version of UNSAFE that allows the owner to wait and see. The shed goes up, the repair plan gets filed, and the work has to start.

What happens if UNSAFE is ignored is where the fines start. DOB issues ECB violations, failure-to-correct fines begin accruing at $1,000 per month per building as the baseline, civil penalties can stack on top, and in serious cases DOB can issue a vacate order for the building. The enforcement posture on UNSAFE filings is not theoretical; these violations show up on the building's record, and they do not come off until the repair is closed out with a follow-up TR6 classifying the building SAFE or SWARMP.

The current scale of the problem: 1,590 buildings in NYC are classified UNSAFE on their most recent FISP filing. That is the active emergency pipeline. Every one of those 1,590 buildings owes a shed or has one up, owes a repair plan or has one filed, and every one has an owner on the clock. As with SAFE and SWARMP, the QEWI is the filing party. The owner signs, but the engineer files.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Which One Is My Building?

If you are an owner or a property manager trying to work out where your building sits, walk through the decision tree below. It is the same flow a QEWI would use when you first call to ask whether you need to worry about FISP.

1. Is the building over six stories? If no, FISP does not apply and you do not need to file anything. Low-rise buildings are exempt from Local Law 11.
2. If yes, a QEWI inspection is required every five years. Your building sits in one of three sub-cycles (A, B, and C) based on its block, and each sub-cycle has its own filing window.
3. What does your latest filing say?
   • SAFE: no action required until your next scheduled cycle. Keep the record.
   • SWARMP: start planning the documented repairs now. You have until the cycle closes, and every month you wait is a month you are closer to the auto-conversion to UNSAFE at your next filing.
   • UNSAFE: stop. Sidewalk shed or equivalent protection must be in place, a QEWI must file a repair plan, and the work must start within the window specified.
4. Do not know your current status? FISP filings are public record. Look the building up on NYC DOB BIS or on the public facade filings page linked in the Sources section below. Search by address or BIN and the most recent TR6 will tell you what the current classification is, what cycle it was filed under, and who the QEWI was.

What Cycle 10A Changes

Everything in this guide matters more right now because of one date: February 21, 2027. That is when the Cycle 10A filing sub-period closes, and it is the first major sub-period cutoff for Cycle 10. Every unrepaired Cycle 9 SWARMP condition that was not remediated before a Cycle 10 filing goes in auto-converts to UNSAFE on the next filing. The engineer cannot re-classify the same condition SWARMP a second cycle in a row. The conditions were documented on the last filing, they were not fixed, so they get the upgraded label whether the owner is ready for it or not.

The group with the highest exposure today is the 1,847 SWARMP buildings that do not yet have an architect of record filed for Cycle 10. Those owners have not even started the process of retaining a QEWI for the next inspection, which means they are running out of runway to complete repairs before the cycle closes. Once the deadline hits, DOB's $1,000 per month per building failure-to-correct fines start accruing against the newly-UNSAFE classifications, and the enforcement posture that currently falls on 1,590 buildings begins to apply to a much larger set.

For a full breakdown of the deadline and what it forces to happen, see the FISP Cycle 10A deadline guide. For the underlying data set and how DeedGraph traces each building toward the people behind the LLC when a public trail exists, see the facade vertical page.

Sources

• NYC DOB Facades program (FISP)
• Local Law 11 of 1998
• NYC Open Data
• Urban Green Council