Floorplan changes in 2-bed Dublin apt. Before and after images.

It's interesting that the management company gave you the go ahead but then again the "management company" consists of other apt owners in the building who usually know sfa about construction work 😂, been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

Also the fire consultant and man Co "asked" you to get the 2 noted items.... What exactly did they say? "asked you" is a bit vague, btw did they directly tell you to get an actual "cert" for the completed work etc and/or instruct/ask you to give or show them a copy of this "cert/certify" etc?

Cos this work in the apt is solely for your benefit and its straight forward to block up the original doorways.... using standard plasterboard and then skimmed.

You should ask the man Co what's the status of the condition of the existing walls throughout the building and the apts.... and ask are the any fire safety issues in the building? Purely curious as an apt owner and shareholder in the man Co. 🤣

I bet there's a few skeletons hiding in the cupboard of the building and they don't want it known, or they're fixing things on an ongoing basis without letting anyone find out etc.... which is beneficial to every apt owner.

So in conclusion you don't need a "reputable (what a word!) insured builder" to do the job. Jaysus, the word reputable would be replaced by competent which in general most/I'd say all tradesmen are able to do this work properly.

I doubt youd get a builder to do this in this present environment but carpenters /handyman would easily do this job. In general a standard sheet of plasterboard on either side of the original doorways with few planks wood to bridge the space and then skimmed will be sufficient.

And getting an architect /engineer to oversee the job and "certify" it is bit overkill. As if they give a toss about it in your apt.

So if they Ask you to see an actual cert for the completed work - you tell them - yes you got it.... But legally you are not required to show them anything. If they get narky about it then you should ask them to prove to you that there's no fire issues in the building as a whole including common areas etc! I wouldn't hold my breath on them giving you a positive response!

Before the busy body brigade on here get on their high horses and start moaning about rules and regulations etc re your title deeds when you come to sell the apt etc, then yes for your own sake it's beneficial to put in an updated cert re this work in your title deeds is a good idea in relation to selling the apartment in the future and the buyer's solicitor spotting the altered layout compared to the original plans etc tbh I doubt it will have any problems if you didn't get a "cert for the works" , but any architect /engineer/surveyor will easily write out a cert for this work and not necessarily need them to "oversee" the work.

Before anyone has a hissy fit over what I said in the above paragraph, I've personal experience of similar work in apts and including solicitors questions relating to buying and selling property. Most solicitors once they've been explained the altered work don't care-its usually a contrary one.

Also more importantly mainly solicitors are only interested in the location of the external walls of the apartment! The internal layout is not a problem including the layout of the rooms and including whether the rooms were altered from the original layout. I've spoken to several solicitors over the years and they say the internal layout is no big deal.

I highly recommend that you go and ask a solicitor what if any issues there are to altering the layout of the proposed instead of getting numerous opinions on this site!

I know for a fact that the main thing solicitors will ask ("should" instead of "will/would" - if they're any use!) is what's the Height of the ceilings in the apartment?! This is way more important than the internal layout.

So in conclusion: lots of apartments internal layout are altered by successive owners over the years but I will say that it's mostly slightly adjustment to the layout, especially given your example and definitely not big changes cos its a big problem to alter the floor area of the bedrooms and living room - to do that is landing the apartment owner in trouble with the original floor plans and /or /including issues re the mortgage on the property. However that being said doing "slight" alterations to the layout including your work is no big deal and any issues in regards original floor plan of the title deeds would not be a problem.

I have seen several jobs over the years to apartment layout alterations and most changes are to the living room /kitchen area and there's no legal issues for the apartment owner and includes later selling on the property. This includes personal experience with family members doing same works and later selling the apartment with no problems with buyers solicitors - though in these cases sometimes no certs of works were provided.

BTW the particular cert that would be provided in relation to this work is a "certificate of compliance".

(I'm surprised that the Man Co didn't explicitly tell you the actual cert that's "suggested" by them-makes their position in this matter a big laughable to say the least! I'm surprised that they didn't give you a letter written by their solicitor outlining what they suggest you do to carry out the work sufficiently etc in regards to the building regulations! 😂 They sound like amateurs).

In general these building regulations certs are literally an A4 sheet of paper, (usually of thicker paper than normal) with the certifier's business name at top, titled "cert of compliance" or similar wording and a brief description of the work with wording included that the work has been done to the building regulations etc. Signed by the certifier and on a clear part of the page a rubber stamp of the certifier's business name.

Simples! As that meerkat used to say.

BTW in closing there's thousands of apartments in mainly Dublin that were built since the 1990s by a particular well known builder of the so called "shoe box" apartment buildings....... and in the title deeds on the compliance certificate which states that the apartment was built to the building regulations, on the dotted line where the architect /engineer is supposed to sign..... instead the builder himself signed his name! Yet he had No valid construction qualifications! 🤣 So where's the enforcement of what should have been done? Clearly none. Yet there's no issue with these deeds as now after the fact there's literally nothing else to do/can be done.

What were the original apartment buyers solicitors doing that they didn't say anything publicly at the time? Nada. Que sera, sera...... you can all sing along 😂

Following on from the above, presently to install fire doors and fire frames the fire regulations require that the space between the door frames and the surrounding walls are to be filled with appropriate fire sealing materials which only Fire Sealing companies are allowed to install. These companies will then issue a compliance cert that they filled the space between the walls and door frames with the required materials.

But to fit the fire frame and doors any tradesmen can do this.

In general carpenters do these jobs all the time and work with the fire sealing companies all the time.

You could have saved yourself all this hassle and kept your mouth shut and not said anything to the building Man Co and got a tradesman to remove and reposition the original doors and frames into the new location and blocked up the original door positions and nobody any the wiser.

But now after telling the Man Co you now have to get new fire doors, fire frames and fire sealing between walls and frames as well as blocking off the old doors opens and have to get a cert for it all from architect/engineer.

I'd be of the opinion that you may not need architect /engineer to certify the work as long as the tradesman do the job properly. I have experience of this work and as long as the door fitters did the job properly to the regulations I don't see why you have to get any cert. But you obviously don't know anything about this work so you'd be better off getting said property professional to supervise /project manage it etc.

After all this I highly recommend that you speak to a solicitor on this matter before you do anything further including employ architect /engineer /surveyor etc.

Also find out for yourself what exactly the Man Co told you re architect /engineer to certify the work.

Their last post was about a year ago so they could have moved on with the project by now.