Consulting & Compliance

Known as BCAR, and often as SI 9, they set out how compliance with the Building Regulations is certified in Ireland. They require named parties to take responsibility in writing at the start of the works and again at the end: a design certifier for the design, an assigned certifier for inspection and certification, and the builder for the building.

It is the certificate lodged at the end of the works, signed by the assigned certifier and the builder, stating that what was built complies with the Building Regulations. It has to be submitted to the building control authority and validated on the register before the building may be opened, occupied or used, so it sits on the critical path of handover, not after it.

Only a registered professional: an architect on the RIAI register, a building surveyor on the SCSI register, or a chartered engineer on the register maintained by Engineers Ireland. They also have to be competent for the works in question, which is a separate test from being registered at all.

The design certifier certifies that the design, as designed, complies with the Building Regulations. The assigned certifier is appointed for the construction stage: they plan and coordinate the inspections, gather the ancillary certificates from everyone who contributed, and sign the certificate on completion. One is about the drawings, the other about what was actually built.

For works inside statutory certification, the notice goes in with the appointments and undertakings of the design certifier, the assigned certifier and the builder, the design certificate, and a preliminary inspection plan. Works cannot lawfully start until it is lodged and validated, so it is worth treating the paperwork as part of the programme.

It can. A declaration of intention to opt out can be filed with the commencement notice for a single dwelling or an extension, which removes the requirement to appoint certifiers and lodge the statutory certificates. Check with the lender and the solicitor first: many lenders discourage it, and some will not release funds without full certification.

No. Where the works are subject to statutory certification, the building may not be opened, occupied or used until the Certificate of Compliance on Completion has been submitted and included on the register. Planning the certification around the intended occupation date, rather than after it, is the way to avoid an empty finished building.

It is going back through a design to find the same performance for less money: a different structural system, a simpler grid, less material in the same member. It is worth doing while the design can still absorb the change, which usually means before tender. Done after the frame is ordered it tends to save less than it costs to implement.

It is a declaration, made after an inspection, that the property on the ground is the one described in the title and shown on the Land Registry map. Solicitors ask for one on a sale, a remortgage or probate, usually when the boundaries on site do not quite match the map, or when the title is old enough that nobody has checked the two against each other in years.

A map of the property drawn to the mapping requirements of Tailte Éireann, which now runs the Land Registry, with the boundary marked on the current base map. It is needed for a first registration, for a transfer of part of a holding such as a site sold off a farm, and for correcting a boundary that the registered map has wrong. A map that does not meet the requirements is sent back, which holds up the sale behind it.

When a structural question has to be settled by somebody other than the two sides arguing about it: a defects claim against a builder, an insurance dispute, a boundary or neighbour case, or a claim that is going to mediation, arbitration or court. An expert's duty is to the court rather than to the client who appoints them, which is what makes the report worth relying on. It is best brought in early, before positions harden.