Living City Initiative (LCI)

Before you begin work on a residential property

If you are refurbishing or converting the property for residential use, you should apply for a Letter of Certification. You should ensure that you do this before you begin work on the property. The Letter of Certification will not be sent to you until after the work has been completed. A Letter of Certification is not required for commercial property.

The application process

You can find the application form for the Letter of Certification on your local authority website. You must make a separate application for each residential unit you wish to claim for. You must provide:

• your name and address
• the address of the property
• the property ID for Local Property Tax (LPT) purposes (if it is available)
• the reference number of the planning permission (if it is required)
• and
• a description of the refurbishment or conversion work to be carried out. This should be detailed enough to allow the local authority to decide if the cost of the work is reasonable.

The local authority will give you an acknowledgement confirming that you have received planning permission, if it is needed. This acknowledgement will also contain a Unique Reference Number (URN) for your application.

Statutory or legal requirements

There are no exemptions or special procedures for the work you do on properties located in a Special Regeneration Area (SRA). You must ensure that your refurbishment or conversion complies with all statutory requirements.

It is important that you find out whether any part of the site or structure is protected by legislation. If so, you also need to know what types of notifications, permissions and consents you need to have before starting work on the property.

Your building may be a protected structure or the area may be an architectural conservation area under the Planning and Development Act 2000. If so, you should seek the advice of the architectural conservation officer in your local authority before you start working on the property.

If there are requirements under the National Monuments Acts (1930-2004), you should seek the advice of the National Monuments Service. 

Next: After you finish work on a residential property