The Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 (‘MUDs Act’) was enacted with the primary purposes of reforming the law relating to the ownership and management of common areas of multi-unit developments, and facilitating the fair, efficient and effective management of owners' management companies (OMCs).
Section 3.1 of the MUDs Act provides, in respect of any multi-unit development in which no residential unit was sold before the coming into operation of that section, that where a developer transfers their interest in a residential unit in that MUD after that date, he or she must first furnish the OMC with a certificate, from a suitably qualified person, that the relevant parts of the development have been constructed in compliance with the fire safety certificate concerned issued for that development pursuant to the Building Control Acts 1990 and 2007. This provision will typically refer to multi-unit developments constructed after the coming into operation of the MUDs Act.
Section 17.2 of the MUDs Act further provides that the fire safety equipment installed in the development, and the arrangements in place for the maintenance of such equipment, must be confirmed annually to each member as part of the OMC’s annual report. The full text of the MUDs Act is available: www.revisedacts.lawreform.ie/eli/2011/act/2/revised/en/html.
It may also be of help to consult the website of the Apartment Owners’ Network, which provides links to a number of fire safety resources published by Government Departments and other relevant public bodies and is available www.apartmentownersnetwork.org/fire-safety-library/.
The Deputy will be aware that fire safety and building regulations come, primarily, under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Further information on fire safety can be obtained on his Department’s website.
In addition, under section 18(2) of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003, responsibility for ongoing fire safety in buildings of all kinds (other than dwellings) is placed on the ‘person having control’ of each building. In the case of a building containing flats or apartments, this may, for example, be an Owners Management Company. Responsibilities include requirements to take all reasonable measures to guard against the outbreak of fire, provide reasonable fire safety measures, and provide appropriate procedures for ensuring the safety of persons on the premises, including, as far as is “reasonably practicable”, in the event of an outbreak of fire. For more information on the duties of an OMC under the Fire Services Acts, please see the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage ‘Fire Safety Guide for Building Owners’, available at:
www.apartmentownersnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/218254_7273fa79-7b17-4525-ac64-ea2774bb9cac-1.pdf.
Separately, it may interest the Deputy to know that in 2023 the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced the launch of a scheme under his Department which will provide support for the remediation of apartments and duplexes with fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects, constructed between 1991 and 2013. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage also published in July 2023, a Code of Practice for remediation of such defects to ensure a consistent approach nationwide to remediation, which will allow stakeholders such as OMCs and industry to align their work with its provisions. Furthermore, an Interim Remediation Scheme for the funding of emergency fire safety defect works in apartments and duplexes was launched last month and is now open to applications from OMCs.
