The criteria for recognizing fire safety in order to use living accommodation facilities (living accommodation) legally have been specified.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Fire Service Agency have prepared a public notice proposal for the joint notice of 'fire safety recognition standards for changing the use of living accommodation facilities to officetels' as a follow-up action to the 'support plan for the legal use of living accommodation' in order to define the delegated matters in the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act.
The government announced a support plan for the legal use of living accommodation on Oct. 16 last year. This plan includes provisions allowing for a change of use to officetel, with the hallway width relaxed to 'more than 1.5m' if the living accommodation with an initial construction permit reinforces evacuation and fire protection facilities to achieve fire safety performance equivalent to residential facilities.
This decree specifies the procedures for prior confirmation by local governments required to recognize fire safety, the review and recognition criteria and procedures for fire safety, and the review standards of local building committees.
First, applicants who wish to relax the hallway width when changing the use to officetel must apply for prior confirmation at the living accommodation support center of the relevant local government to verify whether they are eligible for the relaxation. The support center will review compliance with building regulations and issue a prior confirmation result, including whether they qualify for fire safety recognition.
According to the prior confirmation results, buildings that need to receive fire safety recognition must be outsourced to a specialized company to conduct a review that includes fire safety performance, the installation plan for fire-fighting facilities, and simulation tests. Applicants must submit the results of the fire safety performance and simulation test review to the relevant fire department to apply for fire safety recognition. Subsequently, the head of the relevant fire department will notify the applicant of the recognition result after review by the performance-based design evaluation team.
However, considering that it is a small building with no more than six stories and a total floor area of living accommodation facilities on each floor not exceeding 300㎡, the performance evaluation team may omit the submission of simulation test results at its discretion.
If the fire safety recognition is received from the head of the relevant fire department, the applicant can apply for a review by the local building committee of the relevant local government by attaching the review result document. The local building committee that receives the review application will deliberate on the appropriateness of the change of use, including a review of fire safety.
Applicants who receive notification of the results from the local building committee can apply for a change of use by attaching the fire safety evaluation report and the local building committee review report.
Lee Sang-joo, head of the Land and Urban Policy Office at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Hong Young-geun, head of the Fire Prevention Bureau at the Fire Service Agency, noted, "While actively considering the opinions gathered during consultations with related agencies and the public notice process, we plan to promptly support the completion of the institutional framework by providing separate guidance to distribute fire safety guidelines in July and hold information sessions."