New amendment to the Building Fire Safety Legal Regime (Regime Jurídico da Segurança Contra Incêndio em Edifícios -SCIE) published

On the 18th of October Law no. 123/2019 was published in Diário da República, corresponding to the third amendment of Law decree no. 220/2008 of 12 November, which establishes the legal regime of fire safety in buildings (Regime Jurídico da Segurança Contra Incêndio em Edifícios - SCIE).

In accordance with Article 2 of the new Law 123/2019, the amendments concern the modification of the wording of Articles 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 14a, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32 and 34 of Decree-Law No. 220/2008 of 12 November and a new article is added.

It is noteworthy that the new article 15-A of Law no. 123/2019, concerning SCIE projects and self protection measures, mentions that “the responsibility for the preparation of SCIE projects and self protection measures concerning buildings and enclosures classified in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th risk categories, arising from the application of this decree law and complementary ordinances, must be assumed exclusively by an architect, recognized by the Order of architects (OA) or by an engineer, recognized by the Order of Engineers (OE), or by a technical engineer, recognized by the Order of Technical Engineers (OET), with specialization certification declared for this purpose in accordance with the requirements that have been the object of protocol between ANEPC and each of those professional associations.” In addition “ANEPC shall keep up to date registration of the project authors and self-protection measures referred to in the preceding paragraph and publicize their listing on the ANEPC website”.

For its part, article 5 - transitional rule states that “no later than 180 days after the entry into force of this Law, the associated professionals of the OA, OE and OET covered by article 15a, who, on that date, do not meet the requirements for the preparation of SCIE projects relating to buildings and enclosures, or self-protection measures, continue to assume responsibility for their design, provided that with the delivery of SCIE projects or self-protection measures, prove that they are members of their respective professional associations. ”
Already in point 2 of that article is mentioned that “the full implementation of the competences attributed to the municipalities by this Decree-Law, according to the stipulated in article 26 of Law no. 50/2018, of 16 August, in conjunction with Article 4 (3) of the same Law, is dependent on ANEPC's accreditation of the respective technicians. ”

Be sure to consult the new legislation.