On Monday, June 30th, the New York City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings held a vote for a bill introduced by Council member Eric Dinowitz to postpone a gas alarm mandate.
Bill 1281 was proposed with the aim of amending a mandate about natural gas alarms and detectors in residential buildings, as established in Local Law 157 of 2016. Council member Dinowitz introduced the bill on May 28th, saying, “The Department of Buildings set a compliance deadline of May 1, which is obviously passed,… but this May 1 deadline is utterly unachievable. Yet despite this unachievable deadline, the fines for New Yorkers, our constituents, will begin to mount.”
Council member Dinowitz pointed out that there is a lack of devices on the market for residential buildings to install. Local Law 157 requires detectors to meet certain standards, and there is only one company that manufactures a device that is in compliance with the standards.
“This company has faced crippling supply chain issues preventing timely orders. Worse, the sole compliant device has been massively recalled due to a critical malfunction that prevents it from alerting consumers to gas leaks,” the council member said.
Regardless of whether there are natural gas alarm devices on the market, the Department of Buildings can still issue fines for failing to meet the mandate that Council member Dinowitz says is “quite literally impossible to fill.” Bill 1281 postpones the requirement until the DOB can identify and submit 4 separate manufacturers to the mayor and the City Council who produce battery-powered alarms.
With the vote on Monday, the bill is approved by the committee as the requirement is postponed until January 1, 2027, as long as the DOB submits the list by 2026. If they don’t submit a list of manufacturers, the compliance date for the natural gas alarm will be extended to January 2029.
