Certification opt-out review urged

The Construction Industry Council has called on the environment minister to commit to reviewing a new ‘opt out’ on statutory certification of new one-unit properties — even though the regulation only comes into force tomorrow.

Where a building owner opts out of statutory certification, the compliance documentation lodged with the local authority will no longer have to be certified by a registered construction professional, such as an architect.

The opt-out only applies for building projects that commence after September 1, and multi-unit property developments will still need the statutory certification to be signed off.

The CIC — which includes Engineers Ireland, the Construction Industry Federation and the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland — has claimed this will lead to a “two-tier” housing sector and raised the prospect of the return of the so-called “cowboy builder”, claiming the opt-out does not protect the consumer and may lead to further problems in future when houses that are not signed off are being sold.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly, alongside his colleague Paudie Coffey, minister of state at the Department of the Environment, announced at the end of July that they would ease the application of the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 9 of 2014) for single dwellings and for domestic extensions.

Mr Coffey said the new regulations would “level the playing field for individuals and families planning to build or extend their own home”, and there was also a pledge that a new local authority inspection process will be developed.

The new regulations come into effect tomorrow, but in a letter written to Mr Kelly, the CIC said there was “no empirical data” for claims of exorbitant fees and that typically the amount charged was between €3,000 and €4,000 — “in line with what the department expected”.

One reason given for the new regulation was that the charges applied for the signing-off on the certification were unduly high and added to the cost of a build, but in the letter the CIC said “the use of inflammatory language such as: consumers ‘...will no longer be held to ransom by excessive quotes for design and completion certificates...’ is an affront to the industry”.

The CIC also said the statutory inspection regime required by S.I. No. 9 had been “seriously compromised”, claiming: “Your decision to provide the ‘opt out’ option along with compromising the principle of ‘competence’ does not appear to align with the department in its goal to protect the consumer. This action, we believe, will seriously undermine consumer protection, facilitate non-compliance and reduce professionalism in an area with the most vulnerable end users.”

The CIC queried whether local authorities could meet required inspection rates of between 12% and 15% and claimed at least 85% of single-unit new builds would not be inspected.

“The building owners who ‘opt out’ may struggle to sell their houses and see their homes devalued, as they cannot guarantee the quality and safety of their dwelling to a potential buyer.”

The letter, signed by CIC chair Caroline Spillane, calls for a meeting with the minister to seek a commitment to a full review of the policy by September 2016 “at the earliest”.