Local Government (Multi-Storey Buildings) Act, 1988

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Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“building” includes its curtilage;

“the Companies Acts” means the Companies Act, 1963, and any enactment which is to be construed together with it;

“competent person” means—

(a) in relation to the structure of a building, a chartered engineer who has experience in the structural design or appraisal of multi-storey buildings by reference to appropriate codes of practice and standards including the codes of practice and standards specified in the First Schedule to this Act or by reference to equivalent codes of practice and standards recognised in another Member State of the European Communities, and

(b) in relation to the installation of gas in a multi-storey building, a chartered engineer who has experience in the design or appraisal of gas installations for buildings by reference to appropriate codes of practice and standards including, where applicable, the codes of practice and standards specified in the Second Schedule to this Act or by reference to equivalent codes of practice and standards recognised in another Member State of the European Communities, and

(c) in relation to the distribution of gas in the vicinity of, or the provision of gas services into, a multi-storey building, a chartered engineer who has experience in the design or appraisal of gas distribution systems and gas services by reference to appropriate codes of practice and standards including, where applicable, the codes of practice and standards specified in the Second Schedule to this Act or by reference to equivalent codes of practice and standards recognised in another Member State of the European Communities;

“gas” means piped gas or gas in containers exceeding 500 millilitres in capacity;

“local authority” means—

(a) in the case of a county exclusive of any borough or urban district therein, the council of the county,

(b) in the case of a county or other borough, the corporation of the borough, and

(c) in the case of an urban district, the council of the district,

and a reference to the functional area of a local authority shall be construed accordingly;

“multi-storey building” means a building comprising or including five or more storeys, a basement being regarded as a storey, not being a building the construction of which was completed on or before the 1st day of January, 1950;

“owner”, in relation to a multi-storey building, includes a lessee of the building or any part thereof under a lease whereby he is wholly responsible for repairs and maintenance and a person who, alone or with others, manages the building or, if there is no such person, a person who, alone or with others, manages any part of the building;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations;

“robustness”, in relation to a multi-storey building, means the characteristic of a building which ensures that any accidental disturbance of the building does not cause a collapse of the structure which is disproportionate to the magnitude of the disturbance;

“specified building” means a multi-storey building which is constructed wholly or in part using precast concrete floors whose structural performance is not dependant on interaction with in situ concrete which is mechanically attached to the precast constituent by bonding to protruding reinforcement or shear connectors and supported on precast concrete frames or precast concrete panels or masonry walls.

(2) Where a building is situate partly in the functional area of one local authority and partly in that of another it shall, for the purposes of this Act, be regarded as being in the functional areas of each of them unless the said local authorities by agreement between them designate one of them to be the local authority in respect of the building. The local authority so designated shall, so long as the agreement remains in force, be the local authority in respect of the building for the purposes of this Act.