What is a 7 day notice for building work?

How it works in Ireland

Article 20A of the Building Control Regulations sets out the 7 day notice. It is submitted to the building control authority, which is your county or city council, and it must be submitted not less than 7 days before work commences. It applies to works that need a fire safety certificate, and where it is proposed to start work before that certificate has been granted.

It is not a lighter version of the commencement notice. It travels with a valid fire safety certificate application, a 7 day notice statutory declaration, and the same compliance documents a standard notice needs for a new dwelling. Those include drawings, a schedule of the plans and calculations still to come, the online assessment on the BCMS, the preliminary inspection plan, the certificate of compliance (design), the appointment of the assigned certifier and the builder, and the fee. It can be filed electronically or on the Third Schedule form.

The same duties as after a commencement notice follow. If you change the assigned certifier or the builder, or ownership changes before completion, tell the authority within 14 days.

What to ask

Ask your certifier or architect whether your project needs a fire safety certificate at all, since many one-off houses do not, and which notice they are filing. Ask which documents are still to be prepared and when. Ask the council how it handles validation, because work has not properly commenced until the notice is valid.

A common mistake

Treating the 7 day notice as a faster way to start. Seven days is a minimum before commencement, not a promise that the council will have accepted the notice by then. It also does not replace the fire safety certificate: starting early on this route means the work proceeds before the certificate is granted, so any changes it requires have to be made to work already built.

For most self-build houses the standard commencement notice is the route to use. See the guide for how the two fit together.