Section 4 of the Building Control Act 1990 (as amended) allows a Building Control Authority to grant a dispensation from, or a relaxation of, any requirement of the Building Regulations for buildings or works. An application for a dispensation or a relaxation of a requirement of the Building Regulations may be appropriate in circumstances where that requirement might be considered unreasonable in a certain situation.
The statutory time period allowed to a Building Control Authority to process a Dispensation/Relaxation application is two months. However, all the information must be made available to the authority so that they have sufficient information on which to base a decision. If the documentation submitted is incomplete, this may delay a decision on the application.
The decision of a Building Control Authority may be appealed to An Bórd Pleanála within one month of the decision. Details of the appeal process and fee are sent out with each decision of the authority.
Applications for a Dispensation/Relaxation are submitted online via the Building Control Management System (BCMS).
The fee for the submission of a Dispensation/Relaxation application is €125 where the application relates to a dwelling, or €250 where the application relates to a building other than a dwelling. For details relating to fees see Fifth Schedule to the Building Control Regulations 1997 (as amended).
If you have not used the BCMS previously for the submission of any notice or application relating to Building Control, it will be necessary for you to sign up for a BCMS account in order to access the online submission facility.
Please go to BCMS and use the Sign Up option to register for an account. Instructional videos can be found on the National Building Control Office YouTube Channel.
For details relating to applications for dispensation/relaxation see Building Control Act, 1990 (irishstatutebook.ie)
The Law Reform Commission maintain an unofficial and consolidated version of the Building Control Act 1990 which includes all revisions and can be found at Revised Acts (lawreform.ie).