A new contractor regulation has been implemented. Residential contractors in New York will soon be required to provide certain homeowners with information relating to the benefits and costs of having automatic fire sprinkler systems installed.
The New York Legislature, this past August, passed emendments to the General Business Law and the Executive Law. These amendments will require all contractors in New York constructing single or 2 family homes, fewer than three stories, to provide the owner with written materials, to be prepared by the Office of Fire Prevention and Control.
If the buyer chooses to have such a system installed, the builder is required to install the fire sprinkler system (at the owner’s expense). These changes appear in a new Article 35-F of the General Business Law, Sections 759 and 759-a, and a new Section 156, subdivision 21 of the Executive Law.
They take effect on December 3, 2014. Although the Office of Fire Prevention and Control has not yet released the materials you will need, you can check back at their Web site at http://www.dhses.ny.gov/ofpc/ for those materials to be released in advance of the effective date of the law. The full text of the law, Chapter 201 of the Laws of 2014, is available at http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/frmload.cgi?MENU-40526013.
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The author, John Caravella Esq., is a construction attorney and formerly practicing project architect at The Law Office of John Caravella, P.C., representing architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, and owners in all phases of contract preparation, litigation, and arbitration across New York and Florida. He also serves as an arbitrator to the American Arbitration Association Construction Industry Panel. Mr. Caravella can be reached by email: John@LIConstructionLaw.comor (516) 462-7051.
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