DOB is now charging contractors for inspections nobody shows up for — and the industry is not happy about it, according to The Real Deal.

Here's the mechanic: you schedule a DOB inspection, an inspector arrives, and if the site isn't ready — no one's there to let them in, the work isn't actually done, access isn't provided — that's a no-show. Under the new policy, DOB charges you a fee for wasting the trip. Miss the appointment enough times and you're not just out the fee; you're back at the end of the scheduling line, which on a live job means real float.

Contractors and expediters interviewed by The Real Deal say the fee lands on situations that aren't always the contractor's fault — inspectors show up outside the scheduled window, or a super gets pulled to another emergency on-site and can't meet the inspector at the exact minute. DOB's position is straightforward: inspectors' time is a limited resource, and a no-show anywhere in the five boroughs is a slot another job could have used.

The math that matters for a GC or super: treat every scheduled DOB inspection like a subcontractor mobilization — confirm the window, staff someone to meet the inspector for the full window, and build in a buffer if you're relying on a sub to have the work truly complete. A $200–$500 no-show fee is a rounding error against a $10 million job. The scheduling penalty — getting bumped back into DOB's queue — is not. On a schedule with liquidated damages attached, a week's delay because you got re-queued costs more than any fee DOB could charge.

There is no adjudication process detailed yet for disputing a no-show call when the inspector, not the contractor, missed the window — worth flagging to your expediter now, before it costs you on a live job.

This is a policy change, not an enforcement action: no firm is named, and DOB has not published a formal rule text yet, only the fee's rollout. Confirm the current fee schedule and appeal process directly with DOB before budgeting around it.