Orla Hegarty

speaker

79 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 8 Sep

Orla Hegarty’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.

Appearances

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Today with David McCullagh · Beds in sheds - who will regulate building compliance? · 24 Jul 2026 podcast

Well, my concern is there are now dozens of people who seem to be advertising this.

Some of them are advertising two different standards, one being mortgageable and the other being budget.

And I would have questions over what that means.

Does it mean it's not compliant because you can't get a mortgage on it?

I don't know what they mean by that.

Also, they're selling it as a one-stop shop.

People might assume that it's like buying a new washing machine, that you have some consumer protections.

In the construction industry, you don't have that.

So I'd say buyer beware, get some proper advice.

And there's very simple things that people might fall into traps over in relation to distance to boundaries.

Or if you're in a protected structure or in architectural conservation area, you don't have any exempted development.

So people could be signing on the dotted line with suppliers without realising that they are going to have the financial impact of something that can't work.

That's another important change I think that people haven't picked up as well.

It no longer says you have to have 25 square metre garden left at the rear of your property.

It just says 25 square metre of outside space.

So by my reading, people can now count their front garden, which, you know, 25 square metres... Which is on the other side of the building.

Yeah, 25 square metres is about the size of two parking spaces.

So people can now count that as a space and fill the garden with either their new extension or their chalet.

Well, we don't build 60 centimetres off boundaries because it's just too narrow to maintain.

And I would encourage people to be very careful.

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