The Chamber of Architects has said that it is providing its position on the draft legal notice to amend the Regularisation of Existing Development Regulations published for public consultation, saying that the scheme should be “reconsidered in its entirety to mitigate its social and environmental impacts.”

The Chamber said in a statement that “while it recognises that there are indeed cases where properties built within the development scheme having parts of their site boundaries located within ODZ have thus far been ineligible for regularisation, it is essential to avoid creating regulations that are open to abuse. Once again, the need arises for specific parameters to be set within which regularisation of such properties can and cannot be sought.”

The Chamber therefore proposed that “no part of the illegal building should be located within ODZ, and that the site boundary that extends into the ODZ should be entirely undeveloped and free from hard landscaping.”

The Chamber said that five years have passed since the regularisation regulations were brought into force, making it possible to provide an assessment of their impact and utility in their current format.

It noted that the regularisation scheme served the purpose of placing properties that could not be put on the market due to unsanctionable and irreversible illegalities, and thus had no effective value, back into the real estate market.

Such unsanctionable and irreversible illegalities can only be regularised if they meet both of the following criteria:

1.They were effected prior to 2016

2.They do not cause injury to amenity

Since the original regulations were published for consultation in 2016, the Chamber said it has insisted that the PA should provide an adequate definition of the term “injury to amenity”, however such calls “fell on deaf ears.”

It went on to say that “a recent decision of the Environment & Planning Review Tribunal, concerning ownership of airspaces, indicates that many, if not most, regularisation permits issued since 2016 on the grounds that they do not cause injury to amenity, may actually be null and void, potentially placing a ticking time bomb under the industry and exposing the PA to significant financial liability. This could have been altogether avoided, had the Chamber’s expert opinions been seriously considered, rather than summarily dismissed.”

The Chamber also stated that “it is also incomprehensible how those whose amenity could potentially be injured are not entitled to register their objection and appeal any decision the PA may take. Indeed, unlike in other types of planning applications, no site notices are affixed on buildings subject to regularisation applications reducing the opportunity for public participation in decision-making in breach of European Directives on the matter.”

“It is also pertinent to note that regularisation applications are exempt from consultations from other relevant public authorities, including the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH). This is particularly problematic given that properties located within UCA are currently included in the regularisation scheme,” it said.

The Chamber pointed out that “the illegalities being regularised may very well be in conflict with heritage policies. The expansion of the scheme to partially include the ODZ without the possibility to receive feedback from other regulatory authorities, such as the Environment & Resources Authority (ERA) and the Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC), may further undermine the protection of the environment and the agricultural industry.”

The Chamber said that the number of regularisation applications under the current scheme have been gradually declining, as the stock of eligible buildings requiring such regularisations diminishes, with the few that are left being owned by those who cannot afford the regularisation fees or those that are still unaware that their property is illegal.

“The current regularisation scheme is morally dubious, as it rewards those who break the law at the environmental and social expense of all those who follow it. This scheme encourages a mentality that paying money and asking for forgiveness while still profiting from misdeeds is an acceptable substitute for behaving correctly and complying with statutory requirements,” the Chamber said.

The Chamber went on to say that “social justice and equity seem to have been side-lined altogether in the design of the original regularisation scheme. Moreover, whilst the scheme has allowed several properties to be placed on the market, the end result is still a significant number of properties that are substandard, poorly fabricated, or which fail to comply with building regulations, including the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations.”

The full response can be read by clicking here.

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