The Law Society published a practice note in the August/September 1997 issue of the Gazette to advise that, where a purchaser’s solicitor is furnished with the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) Form 1 Architects’ Opinion on Compliance with Building Regulations, this form (and indeed the other RIAI forms dealing with this topic) envisages the architect giving a certification of his/her opinion on compliance, in which the architect relies on a visual inspection and on confirmations from other professionals such as structural engineers, fire engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, and so on, and that the solicitor should get copies of these confirmations in order to advise the client properly.

A number of solicitors have asked the committee to reconsider its guidance in that practice note for a number of reasons, short details of which are set out below:

1)    Some architects refuse to give copies of the confirmations and say that it is a matter for them to assess the confirmations and they are not prepared to have them reviewed by solicitors who have no training in this area.

2)    Increasingly, the confirmations have become more technical and would require a good understanding of building technology to assess and review them, which solicitors are not trained to do.

3)    Some of the specified confirmations are missing from the suites of confirmations in relation to individual sales of second-hand properties, and purchasers’ solicitors feel bound by the Law Society guidance that they must be furnished.

4)    The architect is the professional person competent to exercise a professional judgement and assess the confirmations given and if, having carried out such assessment, the architect is prepared to confirm his/her opinion on compliance, this should be acceptable for title purposes.

5)    There is the comfort of a statutory obligation on all parties involved in the construction of a building to carry out the work in accordance with the Building Regulations.

Having considered these submissions carefully, the committee is persuaded that its original guideline is no longer appropriate and that, where an architect’s certificate of opinion on compliance confirms compliance with the Building Regulations and confirms that, in coming to this opinion on compliance, reliance has been placed by the architect on confirmations received from other professionals, it is not necessary for a purchaser’s solicitor to see such confirmations and the solicitor may rely on the architect’s certificate of compliance itself.

One of the RIAI forms refers to copies of the confirmations being attached and the committee has requested the RIAI to remove these words, and solicitors acting for purchasers being furnished with certificates of opinion on compliance should seek to have these words deleted where confirmations are not being produced.

This is not to suggest that solicitors should object to being furnished with copies of the confirmations, but solicitors should not review the confirmations and, if appropriate, should make it clear that they are relying on the architect’s expertise in that regard.

It continues to be very important for solicitors to carefully read any and all certificates of opinion on compliance furnished.