Domestic Fire Safety (Wales) Measure 2011

COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS

Schedule 1 – Enforcement

14.Save as provided by Schedule 2, the Measure is to be enforced by local authorities.

15.A person carrying out building work which fails to comply with the requirements of section 1 is guilty of an offence triable summarily and liable to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

16.Without prejudice to its right to take proceedings in respect of offending building work, a local authority may serve notice – known as a “paragraph 3 notice” - requiring the owner to effect such alterations as may be specified in the notice. Where the notice is not complied with a local authority may effect works to ensure compliance with the notice and recover from the person on whom the notice had been served the expenses incurred by the local authority in so doing. A paragraph 3 notice must set out the grounds upon which the notice may be appealed against. Appeal is to the Magistrates’ Court by way of complaint.

17.Where work has been undertaken in accordance with information provided to a local authority in accordance with the provisions of section 3, a local authority may not issue a paragraph 3 notice unless it had given notice under section 3 that in its opinion the information does not demonstrate that the work will comply with the requirements of section 1.

18.Where a paragraph 3 notice has been issued, the recipient of the notice may notify the local authority that he or she intends to obtain from a suitably qualified person a report concerning the work to which the paragraph 3 notice relates and, where the report results in the local authority withdrawing the paragraph 3 notice, the local authority may pay to the recipient of the paragraph 3 notice the expenses incurred in obtaining the report.

19.Authorised officers of the local authority have a right of entry to any premises for the purposes of enforcing the provisions of the Measure.

20.A local authority has the power to require or itself undertake testing to ascertain whether or not building work complies with any requirement of the Measure.