Leni Cummins, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Real Estate Practice Group, discusses inspection regulations for residential building exteriors in The New York Times. New York City currently requires tall buildings to have their facades inspected every five years to protect the public from falling debris, which poses a serious risk to pedestrians. However, buildings that are less than six stories are not subject to the same inspection requirements. Since a crumbling facade is a threat at any height, Leni says that, “While it is not required by code, maintaining facade safety should still be part of a building’s maintenance protocol.” No matter what the building’s height, all owners, including co-op and condo boards, should regularly inspect and maintain their building facades to make sure they are in safe working order.

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