Paudie Coffey, Minister for Housing, announced last Tuesday (28th July) that the requirement for new-build homes and large extensions to be inspected and certified by an assigned certifier will be dropped. This change to the Building Control Regulations is expected to come into effect on 1st September 2015.
The Building Control (Amendment) Regulations were signed into existence in March 2014, despite warnings from building industry stakeholders that the legislation was rushed, impracticable and placed an excessive burden on self-builders.
Click here to read a blog I wrote about those regulations back in January 2014.
The regulations were a knee-jerk reaction, an attempt to solve the problems identified in developer-built projects such a Priory Hall. These apartments were signed off by the developer's in-house architect (anyone see a slight problem with that arrangement?), but were missing critical components to prevent the spread of fire from one unit to the next. They were a potentially lethal time-bomb. In 2011, all of the occupants were forced to move out of their homes by Dublin City Council, who assured them that remedial works would be carried out in a matter of months. However, thanks to the recession the developer had since gone bust and those works did not take place. The apartment owners, however, were still required by the banks to keep up mortgage payments on their abandoned and unusable homes. The stress took its toll and in 2013 one of the former residents, a father of two young children , took his own life. The government reacted and S.I. No. 9 of 2014 came into being.
The new Building Control Regulations required construction projects to be inspected by a competent professional (registered architect, chartered engineer or chartered surveyor) on a very regular basis. Frequent inspection is a good thing but, naturally, it comes at a price. For the average one-off house, the guidance from the R.I.A.I indicated that the amount of site inspections would double. Not only would the number of site visits rise, the volume of associated paperwork would also increase, as the new certification process required input from multiple parties and carried more onerous legal responsibilities than before.
The regulations were reactive to problems caused by cowboy developers looking to cut corners. However, in my experience, self-builders are the best builders. They may not understand all the buildng regulations or quite how building physics works (which is why I do recommend that self-builders collaborate with a professional to work out compliant construction details), but their quality control is second to none. If you are building your own home for your own family or your own future, you are not going to take shortcuts.
Another problem that was particularly tough on self-builders was the clause relating to the occupation of the dwelling. Many self-builders move into partially complete homes and save money on rent and travel, as they take their time to finish off the rest. This was not possible under the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations. The building had to be fully finished and signed off by the Buildng Control Authority before anyone was allowed to occupy or use it.
There were a lot of grey areas, including fear about the legal rights of someone to self-build. The govenment insisted building costs would only increase by a few thousand. However, the Irish Independent reported last Tuesday that the regulations were adding up to €16,000 to the cost of building a home. Essentially, the government were hiring out the responsibility for compliance with the building regulations to private enterprise (the architects, engineers and surveyors) along with all of the associated additional formidable professional liability. If you ask me to do more work (much of which is pointless paperwork to cover my ass) for which I could be sued, of course I am going to charge for it!
But it did not have to be like this. In the UK, the local authorities regularly send out building inspectors during the construction phase of a project. Builders and designers alike know that they have to do things properly, because there is a very strong possibility of inspection. In Ireland, we failed miserably at sending out independent inspectors. I worked on sites in Ireland for 12 years and never once met a building control officer. I worked on sites in the UK for 18 months and met three.
I am unclear as to how much detail will still be required by Building Control at commencement notice stage - must there be documentation to prove compliance? While the need to engage an assigned certifier will be dropped, your site can still be inspected by a building control officer from the local authority. The government is claiming that a minimum of 15% of all construction sites will be inspected .... that remains to be seen.
So - from September, you will be able to self-build your home or extension without assigned inspections and certification. Your home still must comply with the building regulations and for that, I recommend that you work with someone who knows what they are doing to develop a clear set of construction drawings. Inspections are also a good idea too. This will ensure that the building is being built as intended and some small but vital details are not slipping through the net. However, you will not need to pay for someone to turn up at your site 4 or 5 times a month and for them to spend hours on the paperwork to prove they are fulfilling that role.
Go forth and build!
Click here for the press release from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.
updated 3:00pm 04/08/2015
Copyright 2015, Féile Butler - Mud and Wood
