Obtaining appropriate professional and legal advice continues to form part of the due diligence that a person should undertake when considering the purchase of a property.
Separate to this, work is underway in my Department to draft legislation to establish supports for the remediation of fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects in purpose-built apartment buildings, including duplexes, constructed between 1991 and 2013. Since receipt of Government approval in January of this year, I have been working to progress the various programmes of work that are required to place the remediation scheme on a statutory footing. A key aspect of this work is developing a Code of Practice in the context of the Fire Services Acts, to provide guidance to relevant professionals, including guidance on interim safety measures.
The scheme will provide for a form of certification, based on a Code of Practice, in relation to the works carried out to remediate defects in an apartment/duplex building. This is important for a range of stakeholders and processes, for example, insurance bodies, financial institutions, and conveyancing.