Building owners in Ireland face a set of fire safety obligations that begin before a building is constructed and continue throughout the life of the building. These obligations are set by two overlapping regulatory frameworks: the building regulations, which govern the design and construction of the building, and the fire safety legislation, which governs how the building is managed and maintained once it is occupied.
Understanding both frameworks is important for building owners, property managers, and landlords who have legal responsibilities in relation to the fire safety of the buildings they own and manage. Getting fire safety wrong is not simply a regulatory compliance issue. It has direct consequences for the safety of the people who occupy or use the building, and it has legal, financial, and reputational consequences for the building owner if those obligations are not met.
This article explains the fire certificate requirements and fire safety obligations that apply to building owners in Ireland, covers the ongoing passive fire protection maintenance obligations that arise from those requirements, and explains how FireShield Ireland can help building owners manage fire protection in their buildings throughout their operational life.
FireShield Ireland carries out passive fire protection and structural steel fireproofing on commercial buildings across all 32 counties of Ireland and throughout Northern Ireland. Our full range of services is at https://fireshieldireland.com/services/passive-fire-protection/.
The Fire Safety Certificate: What It Is and Why It Matters
The Fire Safety Certificate is a specific instrument of building control in the Republic of Ireland that applies to new buildings used for certain purposes and to existing buildings undergoing material change of use. It is issued by the local authority fire service and certifies that the design of the building complies with Part B of the Building Regulations in relation to fire safety.
The Fire Safety Certificate is not the same as a fire safety inspection of the completed building. It is an assessment of the design, carried out before construction begins. The certificate confirms that if the building is built in accordance with the submitted drawings and specifications it will comply with the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations. The completion certificate submitted at the end of construction confirms that the building was actually built in accordance with the certified design.
For building owners, the Fire Safety Certificate has two important practical implications. First, the building cannot be legally occupied as a commercial premises without a valid Fire Safety Certificate having been obtained for the design of the building and a completion certificate having been submitted to confirm that the building was constructed as certified. Second, the Fire Safety Certificate and the associated completion documentation, including the passive fire protection documentation from the fire protection contractor, forms the basis of the building’s fire safety record and must be maintained and available for inspection by the fire authority.
A building owner who purchases a commercial building without obtaining the Fire Safety Certificate and completion documentation has a significant gap in their fire safety records. Any subsequent queries from the fire authority about the adequacy of the building’s passive fire protection, or any need to demonstrate to a future purchaser or tenant that the building was constructed to a certified fire safety standard, cannot be satisfactorily addressed without this documentation.
Buildings That Require a Fire Safety Certificate
The buildings that require a Fire Safety Certificate in the Republic of Ireland are set out in the Building Control Regulations. They include new buildings and extensions used for the following purposes: dwellings other than individual houses, garages and car parks, shops, office buildings, industrial buildings, institutional and educational buildings, assembly and recreational buildings, and certain other non-residential building types.
In practice this means that almost every significant commercial building in Ireland requires a Fire Safety Certificate. Office buildings, retail centres, warehouses, apartment buildings, hotels, schools, hospitals, and all other commercial and institutional buildings are subject to the requirement.
Buildings that were constructed before the current building control system was introduced, and which have not undergone a material change of use since that time, may not have a Fire Safety Certificate. This is a common situation with older commercial buildings in Ireland and is a due diligence point that building purchasers should investigate as part of the acquisition process.
Ongoing Fire Safety Obligations for Building Owners
The Fire Services Act 1981 as amended by the Fire Services Act 2003 imposes ongoing fire safety obligations on the owners and occupiers of premises in Ireland. These obligations apply throughout the life of the building and are enforced by local authority fire authorities through inspections and enforcement notices.
The key ongoing obligations for building owners include maintaining the building in a condition that does not create a fire safety risk, ensuring that all fire safety systems and equipment in the building are maintained in good working order, providing and maintaining adequate means of escape from the building in case of fire, and keeping a fire safety register for the building that records all fire safety inspections, maintenance activities, and incidents.
The fire authority has powers to carry out inspections of commercial premises to assess compliance with these obligations. Where the fire authority identifies a fire safety deficiency, it can issue a fire safety notice requiring the building owner to carry out remedial work within a specified timeframe. Failure to comply with a fire safety notice is a criminal offence.
For building owners the most practically significant ongoing obligations in relation to passive fire protection are those relating to the maintenance of the building’s passive fire protection measures and the management of any building works that might affect those measures.
Maintaining Passive Fire Protection in Occupied Buildings
The passive fire protection measures installed in a building during construction, including structural steel fireproofing and fire stopping, do not in general require routine maintenance in the way that active fire protection systems do. Structural steel fireproofing installed correctly during construction does not need to be tested, serviced, or reactivated.
However, passive fire protection can be damaged or compromised during the life of a building in ways that building owners need to be aware of and manage effectively.
Building works during the occupied life of a building are the most common source of passive fire protection damage. When tenants fit out new office space, when services are upgraded or extended, when floor layouts are reconfigured, or when any other building works are carried out that involve drilling, cutting, or otherwise penetrating compartment walls and floors, the passive fire protection is at risk of being damaged or compromised.
Every time a service penetrates a compartment wall or floor, it must be fire stopped using a certified fire stopping system. In the original construction of the building this is managed as part of the building control compliance process. In subsequent tenant fit-outs and service upgrades it is the responsibility of the building owner and the fit-out contractor to ensure that fire stopping is correctly installed for every new or modified penetration.
In practice, fire stopping of subsequent penetrations in occupied commercial buildings is one of the most commonly deficient elements of passive fire protection found during fire safety audits in Ireland. The volume of service modifications that occur during the life of a commercial building is substantial, and each one creates a potential pathway for fire and smoke to spread between compartments if it is not correctly fire stopped.
Building owners should include fire stopping management as a standard element of their building maintenance programme and should require any fit-out contractor or building services contractor working in the building to confirm that all new penetrations through compartment boundaries have been fire stopped using certified products and systems.
Building Works Affecting Structural Steel Fireproofing
Structural steel fireproofing installed during construction can be damaged by subsequent building works in ways that compromise its fire resistance performance. The most common causes of structural steel fireproofing damage in occupied buildings are mechanical damage from impact during maintenance or fit-out activities, drilling or cutting into the fireproofing to fix services or fittings to the steel, and chemical damage from spills or contact with incompatible materials.
When structural steel fireproofing is damaged, the damaged area must be repaired before the building’s structural fire resistance is considered to have been restored. Repair of Monokote spray applied fireproofing involves cleaning the damaged area, removing any loose or delaminated material back to a sound substrate, and applying fresh Monokote to the required thickness. The repaired area must be re-measured to confirm it achieves the required thickness and the repair must be documented.
Building owners should require any contractor carrying out work in areas where structural steel fireproofing is present to confirm that they are aware of the fireproofing and will take precautions to avoid damaging it. Where damage occurs, it should be reported to a competent fire protection contractor for assessment and repair.
FireShield Ireland carries out repair and reinstatement of Monokote spray applied fireproofing on existing buildings across Ireland and Northern Ireland. We assess the extent of the damage, carry out the repair, and provide documentation confirming the repair has been completed and the required fire resistance period has been restored.
Change of Use and Refurbishment
A change of use of a commercial building, or a significant refurbishment that affects the building’s structure or fire safety systems, may require a new Fire Safety Certificate application to be made to the local authority fire service. A change of use that results in the building being used for a purpose with more demanding fire safety requirements than its previous use will require the building to be upgraded to meet the new requirements.
For building owners considering a change of use or significant refurbishment, the fire safety implications should be assessed at the design stage of the project. The fire authority should be consulted at an early stage to confirm the requirements for a new Fire Safety Certificate application and to understand what upgrading of the building’s passive fire protection may be required.
In some change of use projects, the structural fire resistance of the existing building is inadequate for the proposed new use and must be upgraded. This can involve retrofitting structural steel fireproofing to existing steel that was either not fireproofed during original construction or was fireproofed to a lower standard than is now required. We carry out retrofit structural steel fireproofing on existing buildings across Ireland and Northern Ireland, including buildings undergoing change of use or significant refurbishment.
The Fire Safety Register
Building owners and occupiers of commercial premises in Ireland are required to maintain a fire safety register for the building. The fire safety register is a record of all fire safety-related activities for the building, including fire safety inspections, testing and maintenance of fire safety systems, fire drills and evacuation exercises, any fire incidents or near-misses, and any building works that have affected the fire safety of the building.
The fire safety register provides the documentary evidence that the building owner is managing the fire safety of the building in an ongoing and systematic way. It is inspected by the fire authority during fire safety inspections of the premises and is a key document in demonstrating compliance with the Fire Services Acts.
For passive fire protection purposes, the fire safety register should include the original fire protection documentation from the building’s construction, including the Fire Safety Certificate, the completion certificate, and the passive fire protection completion documentation from the fire protection contractor. It should also include records of any subsequent building works that have affected the passive fire protection, any passive fire protection damage that has been identified and repaired, and any fire safety audits or surveys that have assessed the condition of the passive fire protection.
Building owners who do not have the original passive fire protection documentation for their building should consider commissioning a passive fire protection survey of the building to establish the current condition of the fire protection and to provide a baseline against which future changes can be assessed.
Northern Ireland: The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010
In Northern Ireland, the ongoing fire safety obligations for building owners and occupiers of non-domestic premises are set out in the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, made under the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. These regulations require the responsible person for any non-domestic premises to carry out a fire risk assessment, implement appropriate fire safety measures, maintain those measures in good working order, and keep records of the fire risk assessment and the fire safety measures in place.
The fire risk assessment for a commercial building in Northern Ireland should include an assessment of the passive fire protection measures, including the structural fire resistance, the fire compartmentation, and the fire stopping. The assessment should identify any deficiencies in the passive fire protection and the remedial actions required.
The responsible person for a commercial building in Northern Ireland is typically the building owner for landlord-controlled areas and the principal tenant for tenant-controlled areas. In multi-occupancy buildings both the building owner and the individual tenants have responsibilities in relation to fire safety within their respective areas of control.
We are available to provide technical input to fire risk assessors and building owners in Northern Ireland who require information about the passive fire protection installed in their building or about the condition of that protection following building works.
Fire Safety Compliance for Landlords
Landlords of commercial property in Ireland have specific fire safety obligations in relation to the buildings they rent out. These obligations arise both from the building regulations requirements, which the landlord must meet as the person who is responsible for the building’s condition, and from the ongoing fire safety obligations under the Fire Services Acts.
Landlords should ensure that all commercial buildings they own have a valid Fire Safety Certificate and a complete completion documentation package. When letting a commercial building, landlords should include provisions in the lease that require the tenant to comply with the building’s fire safety requirements, to carry out any fit-out works in accordance with the building’s fire safety design, and to fire stop all new service penetrations correctly.
Landlords should also retain the right to inspect the building for compliance with fire safety requirements and to carry out any remedial works required to maintain the building’s fire safety in cases where the tenant fails to do so.
We provide technical support to commercial landlords in Ireland and Northern Ireland who need to assess the fire safety compliance of their buildings, including the adequacy of the passive fire protection, and who require remedial fire protection work to be carried out on existing buildings in their portfolio.
Getting Help with Fire Protection for Your Building
For any query about passive fire protection in an existing building, including assessment of the current condition of the fire protection, repair of damaged fireproofing, retrofitting of fire protection to underprotected steel, or fire stopping of service penetrations, contact FireShield Ireland.
We carry out passive fire protection work on both new construction and existing buildings across all 32 counties of Ireland and throughout Northern Ireland, and we provide the documentation required to support the building’s fire safety record and compliance with the fire safety regulatory framework.
https://fireshieldireland.com/services/passive-fire-protection/
https://fireshieldireland.com/services/commercial-fire-protection/
North: +447340781054 South: +353871128539