Independent inspection is essential - Flawed building regulations

AT A moment of crisis, it may be tempting to bend the rules, to take a short cut to quickly resolve a pressing problem — or take advantage of a buoyant, almost insatiable market.

This philosophy may seem a particularly attractive option in a culture where light-touch regulation seems no more than code for hardly any regulation or meaningful supervision at all. Even though this strategy usually means repenting at leisure — especially for consumers — there are plenty of examples of its shortcomings all around the country.

The construction sector is responsible for more than its share of these aberrations. The notorious Priory Hall in Dublin, where residents had to leave their homes because of substandard work and consequent fire hazards, may be the most notorious example but every county, if not every town and village, has its own tottering monuments to light-touch regulation. Some were even built on flood plains.

It is particularly important to reconsider these failings as the building sector seems to be recovering some momentum, a momentum that can only gather pace as the housing crisis is addressed. The Department of the Environment has published figures showing that just over 11,000 homes were built last year, an increase of 2,700 on 2013. These figures are challenged by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, which says the figure overestimates the build by about 20% because those houses were built earlier but only connected to the power grid last year. Nevertheless, both sets of figures are an advance on building activity in recent years.

What is certain, though, is that all new houses are being built in an environment controlled, if that is not too strong a hope or far too strong a word, by regulations introduced by former Environment Minister Phil Hogan — Building Control Regulation SI9. Mr Hogan assured us that the changes would bring an end to light-touch regulation by ending the very questionable practice of self-certification by builders. However, it seems this declaration was wildly over-optimistic if not plainly misleading.

It transpires that, even under legislation supposedly revamped to protect house-buyers, the ‘assigned certifier’ — the architect or engineer who signs off at the end of the build — might be an employee of the developer. This is a blatant conflict of interest and one that seems certain to exact a heavy price on consumers. There are other problems in the new legislation but the most worrying one is that there is still no independent inspection system.

We inspect dead cows, chickens, and pigs to ensure that they are edible. We check dog and television owners to check they have a licence. When we started inspecting nursing homes and homes for the intellectually challenged, we uncovered appalling behaviour and mismanagement. Why can we not inspect buildings before they are put on the market to ensure they comply with building regulations and are fit to live in? Who benefits from this charade put in place by Mr Hogan? Today’s closed and secretive review — the media has been excluded — of the S19 regulations confirms, as if that confirmation were needed, that it is not the public.

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