Fire safety and access rules for your new house

A new house, used as a dwelling other than a flat, does not need a fire safety certificate or a disability access certificate. You still need to meet Part B (Fire Safety) and Part M (Access and Use) of the Building Regulations.

Ask your designer to confirm the classification before relying on either exemption. A flat, granny flat or commercial element can change the answer. Agree the design, inspections and records with your designer and building control authority before construction starts.

Fire safety certificate: the exemption

Part III of the Building Control Regulations 1997 (S.I. 496 of 1997) requires a fire safety certificate for works and buildings to which Part B of the Building Regulations applies, with a list of exemptions. Article 11(2) lists them. Those relevant to a self-builder are:

• a building used as a dwelling other than a flat (a house);
• a single-storey building used as a domestic garage;
• a single-storey building ancillary to a dwelling, such as a summer house, conservatory, coal shed, garden tool shed or bicycle shed, used only for recreation, storage or keeping plants or animals, and not used for business or habitation;
• single-storey agricultural storage buildings of the kind the article describes.

The exemption also covers works in connection with such a building, provided the building remains one of those types afterwards.

The exemption removes the separate certificate application. Your design and construction still have to comply with Part B. Agree who will check concealed fire-safety details, when they will inspect them and what records they will keep before the work is covered.

Where the exemption stops

• Flats. The exemption says “other than a flat”. A flat is separate, self-contained premises that forms part of a building divided horizontally from another part. An apartment block, or a house you split into upper and lower flats, needs a fire safety certificate. Check this at design stage if you plan to rent part of the house.
• Material change of use. Turning a building into something that is not a dwelling, such as converting a barn to a guest accommodation business, can bring the certificate requirement in.
• Non-exempt ancillary buildings. A two-storey outbuilding, or one used for business or habitation, is not within the garden-building exemption.

If your project has any of these features, ask building control early. A fire safety certificate application has its own fee, drawings and processing time, and cannot be bolted on at the end.

Do you need a disability access certificate?

A single dwelling house exempt from the fire safety certificate requirement is also exempt from the disability access certificate requirement. Part M still applies to the house. You need to design and build for access and use even though there is no separate certificate application.

The link between the two certificate requirements is in Article 20D of Part IIIB, introduced by the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 351/2009). It covers the works and buildings to which Part III applies under the listed paragraphs of Article 11(1). Ask building control to confirm the scope if your project includes anything beyond the single house.

Design and inspect the fire-safety details

For dwelling houses, S.I. 57/2017 introduced requirements B6–B10 and the B11 definition of a dwelling house as a dwelling other than a flat. The following is a practical summary, not a specification:

Part	Discuss with your designer
B6 Warning and escape	Early fire warning, escape routes, bedroom escape arrangements and protected stairs where required
B7 Internal linings	Appropriate wall and ceiling lining performance
B8 Structure	Stability in fire, separation from adjoining buildings, fire-resisting subdivisions and concealed fire/smoke spread
B9 External spread	External walls, roof coverings and separation from neighbouring buildings
B10 Fire-service access	Access for appliances and facilities needed by the fire service

Use Technical Guidance Document B (Dwelling Houses) for detailed solutions for typical houses. Following the relevant Technical Guidance Document (TGD) is evidence of compliance; suitable alternative approaches are possible. Ask your designer which edition and transitional provisions apply.

Agree who checks the construction and records the evidence. Put checks for fire stopping around service penetrations and cavity barriers into the inspection plan before the work is covered. These are hold points: stages when work must remain visible until the agreed check is done. See assigned certifier explained.

Part M: access and use

The current Part M was substituted by S.I. 608/2022, which took effect on 1 January 2023 subject to transitional provisions and revoked the 2010 amendment. It requires adequate provision for access and use. It also includes a changing-places toilet requirement that depends on building use and size; ask your designer which provisions apply to your project.

Part M does not apply to extensions to and material alterations of existing dwellings where the works do not create a new dwelling.

For your new self-build house, Part M applies. Technical Guidance Document M covers the route from the boundary to the entrance, entrances and thresholds, circulation space and doors, a toilet on the entrance level, and other dwelling provisions. Plan these features on the first drawings to avoid costly alterations later:

• a level or gently sloping approach and a level threshold at the main entrance;
• door widths and hall clear widths that a wheelchair user can pass;
• the entrance-level toilet layout and space needed for the dwelling provisions;
• socket and switch heights, where the guidance asks for them.

Check these details before approving the layout, entrance levels or external works. A doorway or approach that needs changing later can affect several trades.

Choose inspections and compliance records

A single dwelling on a single-unit development can opt out of statutory certification by submitting the prescribed declaration with its commencement notice under S.I. 365/2015. Building Regulations still apply, and the owner still needs competent design, construction and appropriate evidence of compliance. Agree inspection and record-keeping arrangements before choosing this route.

Where the statutory certification route is used:

1. At commencement, the designer’s certificate of compliance (design) states that the design complies with the Building Regulations, including Parts B and M, and the assigned certifier gives an undertaking and a preliminary inspection plan. See commencement notice and BCAR.
2. During construction, the assigned certifier coordinates and carries out inspections against that plan. This is not continuous site supervision.
3. At completion, the builder and certifier sign the certificate of compliance on completion, with the inspection plan as implemented. See certificate of compliance on completion.

Confirm separately what evidence your lender, insurer and warranty provider require, including whether they accept an opt-out project. The Building Control Act 1990 gives building control authorities powers to inspect and to take enforcement action where the regulations are breached, whether or not a certificate was required. See building regulations for self-builds.

Before you approve the drawings

• Confirm with your designer that the house is a single dwelling and not a flat in the sense of the regulations.
• If you plan a granny flat, annex or rentable unit, ask building control whether it triggers a fire safety certificate before the design is fixed.
• Agree how Parts B and M will be covered in the design and inspection records for your chosen certification route, with checks before fire stopping and cavity barriers are concealed.
• Check smoke and heat alarm provision with your designer and your insurer.
• Keep the as-built drawings and product certificates for fire-stopping materials.

For where this sits in the overall programme, see the stages of a self-build.