The Town of North Hempstead added penalties to its stop work orders with a resolution at a Town Board meeting last Tuesday after going 17 years without clearly outlined punishments for ignoring such orders.
According to the resolution, the board has found it “imperative” to implement penalties for violations of stop work orders because contractors, corporations and homeowners “often times ignore stop work orders” issued by the Building Department.
Town code regarding stop work orders, which are issued when a project is not in compliance with code or being built “in an unsafe or dangerous manner,” was last amended in 2002.
It allows the building commissioner to notify the property owner, owner’s agent or whoever is doing the work to stop until the order has been rescinded. There were no penalties in the code, however, for ignoring a stop work order.
A contractor or property owner now faces a fine ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 on the first offense, $5,000 to $10,000 for a second offense, and a fine of $10,000 to $20,000 for the third offense and beyond. They could also face up to 15 days in jail for any of these offenses.
