Developers violating stop-work orders now subject to greater fines, jail time. The City Council unanimously approved two bills, increasing the penalties for violating stop work orders or undertaking illegal demolition work on one- and two-family homes. Council Speaker Christine Quinn explained that the changes would improve construction safety by deterring builders from working without proper permits. Council Member Vincent Gentile noted that builders would no longer be able to write off fines and penalties as a cost of doing business.

The Council raised the fines for failing to comply with a stop-work order from a flat $500 per violation to an incremental structure with a $2,000 fine for the first violation, $5,000 for the second, and $10,000 for each additional violation. The penalties must be paid before the Department of Buildings will allow work to continue.

The bill also increased civil penalties for working without a permit. For one- and two-family homes, the civil penalty increased from two times the cost of the required permit to four times, with the minimum penalty increasing from $100 to $500. For all other buildings, the civil penalty increased from ten times to 14 times the cost of the required permit, with the minimum penalty increasing from $500 to $5,000. Any person found to have continued work despite a stop-work order will be subject to an additional penalty between $2,000 and $15,000 for each violation, as well as a maximum jail sentence of six months.

The second bill made unauthorized demolition work on one- or two-family homes a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $5,000 to $10,000, with a maximum jail sentence of six months.

Int. No. 216-A, amending Admin. Code §§ 26-118, 26-212.1, 26-248 (Nov. 15, 2006); Int. No. 132-A, amending Admin. Code § 26-248 (Nov. 15, 2006).