Building (Prescribed Fees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Exemption in relation to work for disabled people

7.—(1) A district council shall not charge any fee where it is satisfied that the whole of the work in question consists of an alteration and —

(a) is solely for the purpose of providing means of access to enable disabled people to get into an existing building and to any part of it, or of providing facilities designed to secure the greater health, safety, welfare or convenience of such people; and

(b) is to be, or has been, carried out in relation to—

(i) an existing building to which members of the public are admitted (whether on payment or otherwise); or

(ii) an existing dwelling which is, or is to be, occupied by a disabled person.

(2) A district council shall not charge any fee for work to a dwelling, which consists solely of the provision or extension of a room, where it is satisfied that —

(a) the sole use of the room is or will be —

(i) for the carrying out of medical treatment to a disabled person which cannot reasonably be carried out in any other room in the dwelling; or

(ii) for the storage of medical equipment for the use of a disabled person; or

(b) the work is to provide or adapt a necessary facility already existing within the dwelling which is incapable of being used, or used without assistance, by a disabled person.

(3) In this regulation a “disabled person” means a person who has a physical impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day to day activities.