Fire Safety Certificates: Important Changes
The Department of the Environment made the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (SI no 351 of 2009) last year. All of these regulations are in force since 1 January 2010.
These regulations introduced important changes in relation to fire safety certificates.
A problem for developers in relation to developments that required a fire safety certificate (FSC) has been that the form of commencement notice required the person submitting it to put in details of the FSC. Developers frequently deferred authorising the preparation of an application for a FSC until planning permission had been obtained and a decision was made to proceed with the construction.
Developers were then faced with a delay while the application for the FSC was prepared, which could take a few months for a large development. A further few months’ delay would then ensue while the Building Control Authority (BCA) processed the application. Developers tended to want to start work on site works, basements, car parks and so on without waiting for an FSC. The result was that developers got their architects or engineers to submit commencement notices without the details of the FSC (which, of course, did not yet exist) and, usually, these were returned rejected by the BCA. Some developers tried to get around this by issuing a commencement notice in relation to site works only, and some local authorities allowed this device, but others refused to countenance it and returned the commencement notice duly rejected.
The above regulations introduced a new form of notice, called a ‘seven-day notice’. This can be filed with the local authority instead of a commencement notice. A seven-day notice has to be accompanied by a valid application for an FSC and a statutory declaration from the applicant, saying that he will comply fully with the Building Regulations, and, within such period as may be specified by the BCA, will carry out any modifications to the works that may be required under the FSC or required under any conditions attached to the FSC when granted. This should largely resolve the practical difficulty that is described above.
These regulations also expressly provide for a revised FSC (if changes are made in the course of the building that necessitate this) and what is called a regularisation certificate, which does what its name implies – that is, it regularises a situation where an FSC should have been obtained but was not. Higher fees are charged for a regularisation certificate, and the fees for a seven-day notice are substantially higher than for a commencement notice.
These regulations include a significant new provision, which imposes a prohibition on opening, operating or occupying buildings unless an FSC has been granted by the BCA in respect of the building. A breach of this prohibition will be an offence and will render a person in breach liable to prosecution under the Building Control Act 1990 as amended.