Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
(a) Introduction and purpose. Section
381 of the
Executive Law provides for the administration and enforcement of the Codes and
authorizes the Secretary of State to promulgate regulations establishing
minimum standards for such administration and enforcement. In addition,
subdivision 2 of section
382 of the
Executive Law provides, in part, that any person, having been served, either
personally or by registered or certified mail, with an order to remedy any
condition found to exist in, on, or about any building in violation of the
Uniform Code, who shall fail to comply with such order within the time fixed by
the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of State pursuant to subdivision 1
of section
381 of the
Executive Law, such time period to be stated in the order, shall be punishable
by a fine of not more than $1,000 per day of violation, or imprisonment not
exceeding one year, or both. The purpose of this section is to fix, for the
purposes of subdivision 2 of section
382 of the
Executive Law, the time within which a person or entity served with an order to
remedy is required to comply with such order to remedy.
(b) Definitions. In this section, the
following terms shall have the following meanings:
(1) Order to remedy. An order to remedy any
condition found to exist in, on, or about any building in violation of the
Uniform Code.
(2) Comply with an
order to remedy. To remedy completely each violation described in the order to
remedy.
(c) Time for
compliance with order to remedy. For the purposes of subdivision 2 of section
382 of the
Executive Law, the time within which a person or entity served with an order to
remedy is required to comply with such order to remedy is hereby fixed at 30
days following the date of such order to remedy.
(d) Statement to be included in order to
remedy. For the purpose of complying with that part of subdivision 2 of section
382 of the
Executive Law that provides "such time period to be stated in the order," an
order to remedy shall include a statement substantially similar to the
following: "The person or entity served with this Order to Remedy must
completely remedy each violation described in this Order to Remedy by _____ ,
which is thirty (30) days after the date of this Order to Remedy."
(e) Service. An order to remedy shall be
served personally or by certified or registered mail within five days of the
date of the order. For the purposes of this section:
(1) if an order to remedy is served
personally by any authorized means that requires more than one action by the
person effecting service (such as service by "delivery and mail" similar to
that authorized by CPLR 308), the order to remedy shall be deemed to be served
on the date on which the last required action is taken; and
(2) an order to remedy served by certified or
registered mail shall be deemed to be served on the date it is
mailed.
(f) Requiring
immediate commencement of corrective action. Nothing in this section shall be
construed as prohibiting any authority having jurisdiction that issues an order
to remedy from including in such order to remedy provisions ordering the person
or entity served with such order to remedy:
(1) to begin to remedy the violations
described in the order to remedy immediately, or within some other specified
period of time which may be less than 30 days; to continue diligently to remedy
such violations until each such violation is fully remedied; and, in any event,
to complete the remedying of all such violations within 30 days of the date of
such order to remedy; and/or
(2) to
take such other protective actions (such as vacating the building or
barricading the area where the violations exist) which are authorized by the
code enforcement program of the authority having jurisdiction or by any other
applicable statute, regulation, rule, local law or ordinance, and which the
authority having jurisdiction may deem appropriate, during the period while
such violations are being remedied.
(g) Other means of enforcing the Uniform
Code. Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring an authority
having jurisdiction to issue an order to remedy in a given situation where
violations of the Uniform Code are found to exist if, in the judgment of the
authority having jurisdiction, such violations can be addressed adequately by
the use of other enforcement tools or by other means. Nothing in this section
shall be construed as limiting the authority of an authority having
jurisdiction to employ any other means of enforcing either or both of the
Codes, including, but not limited to:
(1)
issuing notices of violation;
(2)
issuing appearance tickets;
(3)
commencing and prosecuting an appropriate action or proceeding pursuant to that
part of subdivision 2 of section
382 of the
Executive Law that provides that any owner, builder, architect, tenant,
contractor, subcontractor, construction superintendent or their agents or any
other person taking part or assisting in the "construction" (as defined in
subdivision 4 of section
372 of the
Executive Law) of any building who shall knowingly violate any of the
applicable provisions of the Uniform Code or any lawful order of a city,
village, town, county, state agency or the Secretary of State made thereunder
regarding standards for construction, maintenance, or fire protection equipment
and systems, shall be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 per day of
violation, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both for the first 180
days, and for the following 180 days shall be punishable by a fine of no less
than $25 and not more than $1,000 per day of violation or imprisonment not
exceeding one year, or both and thereafter shall be punishable by a fine of no
less than $50 and not more than $1,000 per day of violation or imprisonment not
exceeding one year, or both;
(4)
commencing and prosecuting an appropriate action or proceeding pursuant to
subdivision 3 of section
382 of the
Executive Law which seeks, in a case where the construction or use of a
building is in violation of any provision of the Uniform Code or any lawful
order obtained thereunder, an order from a Justice of the Supreme Court, New
York City civil court, a city court, district court, or county court directing
the removal of the building or an abatement of the condition in violation of
such provisions;
(5) commencing and
prosecuting an appropriate action or proceeding pursuant to subdivision 4 of
section
382 of the
Executive Law that provides that where a building has been altered in violation
of any provision of the uniform code or any lawful order obtained thereunder,
and such alteration impedes a person's egress from such building during a fire
or other emergency evacuation, the owner of such building who has knowledge of
such alteration or should have had knowledge of such alteration shall be
subject to a civil penalty of up to $7,500;
(6) issuing stop work orders;
(7) revoking or suspending building permits,
operating permits, and/or certificates of occupancy pursuant to the procedures
established in the code enforcement program of the authority having
jurisdiction or pursuant to any other applicable statute, regulation, rule,
local law or ordinance;
(8)
commencing and prosecuting an appropriate action or proceeding to impose such
criminal and/or civil sanctions as may be provided in any applicable statute,
regulation, rule, local law or ordinance;
(9) condemning and/or placarding a building
in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Uniform Code;
(10) taking any action authorized by the
procedures for identifying and addressing unsafe structures and equipment as
established in the code enforcement program of the authority having
jurisdiction or by any other applicable statute, regulation, rule, local law or
ordinance; or
(11) issuing orders
to remedy violations of the Energy Code pursuant to subdivision (1) of section
11108 of the Energy Law.
(h) Office of Fire Prevention and Control.
For the purposes of this section, the term order to remedy shall not include
any order issued by the Office of Fire Prevention and Control pursuant to
section
156-e of the
Executive Law (or pursuant to any regulation promulgated thereunder) requiring
the remedying of any condition found to exist in, on or about any building
under the jurisdiction of a public college or independent college (as these
terms are defined in section
807-b of the
Education Law) which violates the Uniform Code. Nothing in this section shall
be construed as fixing the time within which a public college or independent
college shall have to comply with any such order, or as requiring any such
order to include the statement prescribed in section 1203.5(d).
