Safe, SWARMP or Unsafe: what your facade report actually commits you to
The three FISP classifications and the clock each one starts. Unsafe means 90 days to repair and an amended report two weeks after. SWARMP means a completion date between one and five years out.
What is the difference between SWARMP and Unsafe on a NYC facade report?
Unsafe means the condition is a present hazard: it must be corrected within 90 days of filing, and an amended report must be filed within two weeks of completing the repairs. SWARMP — Safe With a Repair and Maintenance Program — means the facade is safe today but has conditions that must be repaired by a stated completion date, which cannot be less than one year or more than five years out. Safe means no action beyond the next cycle. The three are defined in 1 RCNY 103-04(a).
What matters on a real job
Unsafe starts a 90-day clock
Correct the condition within 90 days of filing the report, then file an amended report within two weeks of finishing the repairs. Public protection usually goes up immediately and stays up until the amendment is accepted.
SWARMP is a promise with a date
You are telling the City the building is safe now and naming the date you will have fixed it — not less than one year, not more than five. Missing that date is a $2,000 penalty, and the condition does not get to stay SWARMP forever: the next cycle will look at whether you did it.
SWARMP is the one people underestimate
It reads like "no problem" and it is not. It is a scheduled obligation with a filing attached, and it is the reason a shed that went up "temporarily" is still there four years later.
The QEWI decides, not you
The classification is the inspector's professional judgement under 1 RCNY 103-04(a). What a PM controls is the evidence and the repair scope that follows from it.
Source: NYC DOB — FISP Cycle 10 Service Notice, Follow up #1, Facade Compliance and Façade Fees & Penalties (nyc.gov/buildings). Checked 7 Oct 2026.