The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, T.D., today (27 February, 2014) confirmed that the new Building Control Regulations will commence from this Saturday 1 March 2014. The Government discussed this matter this morning and welcomed the commencement of the new regulations.
The Building Control Amendment Regulations 2013 set out to prevent the future reoccurrence of poorly constructed dwellings, pyrite damage and structures breaching fire regulations left as a legacy of a poorly regulated housing boom.
“This is about restoring consumer confidence in construction as an industry,” said the Minister. “The new Regulations are a major step forward and will for the first time give home-owners clarity, traceability and accountability at all stages of the building process. They will provide consumers with the protection they deserve.”
Assigned Certifiers, who can be registered architects, engineers or building surveyors, will inspect building works at key stages during construction. The Assigned Certifier and the builders will both certify that a finished building complies with the requirements of the building regulations.
The new regime will reduce the incidences of defective works on site and the resultant associated costs of carrying out remedial works will reduce accordingly.
Owners/developers will now be required to assign a competent person (i.e. Assigned Certifier) to inspect and certify the works. Industry sources suggest this requirement will typically cost between €1,000 and €3,000 per housing unit, to the overall building costs, although in reality this cost will be decided by market forces.
Note for Editors
Self-Build Projects
There have been wild exaggerations of the increased costs that the new Regulations will impose on the self-build home sector.
There is no change in the technical performance standards which a newly finished home must meet. The statutory obligations that currently exist in a self-build scenario are not new – they already apply under the Building Control Act 1990.
Any person who intends to build their own home (e.g. by direct labour) can still do so. As before, the building must be built in accordance with the Building Regulations. The only change is that they will incur the additional design and certification costs outlined above. There should be no additional building costs.
Nothing in the new regulations prevents direct labour – owners are required to satisfy themselves that persons they engage to carry out works are competent.
From a self-build perspective:
o The owner will, as before, assume responsibility as builder for ensuring that the building will comply with the building regulations. They must also satisfy themselves that any one they employ to undertake works is competent to do those works.
o At commencement, they will notify the local authority that they themselves are the builder and sign the builder’s undertaking required for building control purposes.
o At commencement a Self-Builder must also assign registered professionals (i.e. architect, building surveyor or chartered engineer) to:
§ certify the design, and
§ inspect the works (i.e. Assigned Certifier).
o The design certifier and the assigned certifier can be the one and same person. This Assigned Certifier will be the point of contact with the building control authority for lodgement of compliance documentation and certificates, etc.
o At completion the Self-Builder and the Assigned Certifier will both certify the building in line with their responsibilities.
Registration as an Assigned Certifier
Only professionals on one of the three statutory registers, namely of architects, building surveyors or chartered engineers, may certify designs and/or act as Assigned Certifier under the new Building Control Regulations. Persons who have been engaged in the design of buildings and who have not registered to date but may be eligible to do so, should contact the registration bodies (Engineers Ireland, RIAI, SCSI) for advice in relation to the routes to registration that may be open to them. In view of issues and concerns raised in relation to access to the statutory register of architects, Minister Hogan tasked Mr Garrett Fennell, Solicitor, to carry out a review of the routes to entry to the statutory register. The Minister has accepted in principle the recommendations made by Mr Fennell and he expects the RIAI, as registration body, and the various bodies who represent practically trained architects, to work constructively with the Department to do all that is reasonable and appropriate to ensure that all persons who are competent and entitled to register as architects are facilitated in doing so.