Fire Safety Certificates

With the exception of houses and certain agricultural buildings, a fire safety certificate is required for all new buildings, specified material alterations, specified extensions and the material change of use of a building.

Following recent amendments to the Building Control Regulations, see S.I. No. 229 of 2021, from Thursday 1st July 2021 all applications for Fire Safety Certificates, Revised Fire Safety Certificates, Regularisation Certificates, Disability Access Certificates, Revised Disability Access Certificates, Dispensations and Relaxations to Limerick City and County Council can be submitted online via the Building Control Management System (BCMS) without the need to submit additional paper copies. The amended application forms should be used when submitting paper applications. Forms are available to download in the supporting documents at the end of this page.

Limerick City and County Council would recommend the BCMS as the preferred method for the submission of all Building Control applications.

If you have not used the BCMS previously, it will be necessary for you to sign up for a BCMS account in order to access the online submission facility. Please go to the BCMS website and use the 'Sign Up' option to register for an account. All instructional videos will be posted on the National Building Control Office YouTube Channel.

Building Control Regulations

The Building Control Regulations 1997 – 2014 has the effect of creating three separate certificates when dealing with fire safety.

(a) Fire Safety Certificate

This is required where the applicant proposes a new building, a new building extension, or certain modifications to an existing building.

(b) Revised Fire Safety Certificate

This is required to update the content of a previously granted fire cert, due to proposed or required changes to the building design.

(c) Regularisation Certificate

This is required where building works requiring a fire cert were commenced or completed post 1st June 1992 without an associated fire cert application.

Any application for a regularisation certificate must be accompanied with a Statutory Declaration. This declaration states that the works comply with part B of the Building Regulations. It also requires the applicant to agree to an inspection by the Building Control Authority and to carry out any additional works required by the Authority.

Please Note: Fuller detail of classes of development requiring a Fire Safety Certificate are outlined in the Building Control Regulations 1997, Section 11, click here.

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Seven Day Notice

The submission of a Fire Safety Certificate application can be accompanied by a seven day notice. This is used where a person intends to commence building works before granting of the relevant Fire Safety Certificate (FSC).

The notice must be submitted not less than seven days in advance of commencement of work and must be in accordance with the requirements of Article 20A (2) of the Regulations. A Commencement Notice will not be required in respect of buildings where a seven day notice has been submitted to the building control authority. 

A seven day notice shall be filed electronically on the BCMS website (Building Control Management System), and needs to be accompanied by a valid Fire Safety Certificate Application which may also be submitted on BCMS.

All documentation, must be submitted before an application can be considered complete for validation purposes.

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Fees

The schedule of fees is listed in the Fifth Schedule of the Building Control Regulations 2009 below:

Fee Exemptions

Development works by certain organisations are exempt from paying Fire Cert application fees (e.g. certain classes of voluntary organisations; not for profit accommodation of homeless persons). 

Full details are listed in Section 22 of the Building Regulations 1997 - 2021

Where a Fee Exemption is being claimed, a completed Building Control Fee Exemption Form must be submitted with the associated application.  

Partial Refund of Fee for Subsequent Applications

In situations of subsequent applications, e.g. where a granted fire cert application is followed within 12 calendar months of the original application, by a revised fire cert application for the same development (i.e. a subsequent application), then there is  provision to refund three quarters of the fee for that subsequent application. For any such subsequent application, the applicant pays the full application fee , but three quarters of the fee is later refunded to the applicant.  

The subsequent application must be for works which are substantially of the same design and construction and on the same site or part of the site as the works covered by the first application. Full details of qualifying applications are outlined in Section 26 of the Building Control Regulations 1997, as amended by Section 15 of the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2009.

Any applicant who considers their application does qualify for a refund of fee,  is advised to notify same to us when submitting their application form. 

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Links

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This service is provided by

Fire and Emergency Services

Phone +353 61 556859
Location
Limerick City and County Council, Lissanalta House, Dooradoyle Road, Dooradoyle, Limerick, V94 WV78