Approved tradesmen scheme

[dunscombe]

Hi, as I’m trying to grow my little business I keep coming across many obstacles namely trying to join a competent trade scheme. NAPIT seem to be the only one that suit my current situation.. has anyone any experience with these people as I’m finding it difficult to say the least! Or can anyone recommend an alternative. I don’t have my testing and inspecting ticket which rules my out of NICEIC!! I need something in place to get my work notified to council

 

[littlespark]

Councils can’t keep track of which buildings have RAAC in them, never mind keeping records of electrical work.


Current affairs…. Satire….. whooop!

 

[LukeD]

Currently dealing with local council about dodgy electricians and EICR's . You wont meet a more stupid bunch ever in most cases... no one cares . No wonder many of the dodgy ones seem to make a great living

 

[davesparks]

We used to regularly have threads on here complaining about how joining the NICEIC etc is too easy and they are letting anyone in.
Many posts would be calling for the NICEIC to toughen up their membership requirements and only allow fully qualified electricians to join.


And now here we have a thread complaining that they've done what we were asking for!

 

[HappyHippyDad]

That was my understanding, thanks.
The irony of course is that you only actually need them for domestic installation work.

(Unless you do PV, or want to spend your life arguing with landlords regarding PRS testing )

If I had a pound for every time I've wondered about not bothering....my issue is that if I leave I won't get back in as I only have 16th, 18th, 2391 and their own 7232 which at a particular moment in time was enough to be welcomed into the club.

I 'think' you have 2 years grace Tim. I.e if you did leave Napit, then as long as you reapply within 2 years they will take you back on, assuming the following...

"It is acceptable to permit new applications from an existing or previously recognised Qualified Supervisor, provided that they have been a Qualified Supervisor within two years of the application; and can provide a letter or similar evidence from the previous scheme provider confirming their Qualified Supervisor status and the scope of work previously assessed, which must be equal to the scope of work being applied for."

The above paragraph is taken from page 28 of the EAS Minimum requirements (attached).

You could try it for a year and see if you lose much work and then rejoin. Probably not worth the hassle though. I'd keep paying the painfully high £500+ and just grin and bear it. My plan is to stop being registered when I start slowing down (around age 55-60) and just do non notifiable work. Or, you could just 'do a Tel' and say balls to it.

 

[rewireIT]

To be fair, the more stringent entry requirements seem to have cut down on the total cowboys operating under a scheme name near me.

They just don't operate under the scheme anymore. All the cowboys who were allowed on before 2021 have lifetime access.

 

[Mike Johnson]

He needs to be able to notify work. Yes, he could do it himself, but then he would be paying big fees to the LA building control.

Surely the big fees are just passed onto the client?

 

[DPG]

Surely the big fees are just passed onto the client?

Well possibly so, but then his prices will be considerably higher than someone who is registered with a scheme. Depending on the council there could be over £300 to add to the customer's bill.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Hi, as I’m trying to grow my little business I keep coming across many obstacles namely trying to join a competent trade scheme. NAPIT seem to be the only one that suit my current situation.. has anyone any experience with these people as I’m finding it difficult to say the least! Or can anyone recommend an alternative. I don’t have my testing and inspecting ticket which rules my out of NICEIC!! I need something in place to get my work notified to council

What is the obstacle just the joining of a scheme? or are you loosing work because you are not part of a scheme? two totally different scenarios.

You can notify your work to the LA without being in a scheme, just pay the fee and as I said on the post above, pass the cost onto the client.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Well possibly so, but then his prices will be considerably higher than someone who is registered with a scheme. Depending on the council there could be over £300 to add to the customer's bill.

They can always operate like an Estate Agent and submit a price plus fees.

 

[rewireIT]

You can notify your work to the LA without being in a scheme, just pay the fee and as I said on the post above, pass the cost onto the client.

But that leaves you having to charge 700 quid to run in a cooker feed.

 

[oscar21]

We used to regularly have threads on here complaining about how joining the NICEIC etc is too easy and they are letting anyone in.
Many posts would be calling for the NICEIC to toughen up their membership requirements and only allow fully qualified electricians to join.


And now here we have a thread complaining that they've done what we were asking for!

Its not that we are complaining about them being too stringent, its more to do with the fact that to wire a socket in a bedroom for someone you need to jump though numerous expensive hoops but to wire a full factory with three phase and many killing machines you don't need anything, its just madness.

In my opinion every spark should be assessed just once or maybe every 10 years or so to see if they can actually do the job, if they can then they can operate as an electrician whether they have qualifications or not, they could then get a licence to operate as an electrician in any field, payable to the government, just like a driving licence. You wouldn't be able to employ anyone who didn't have a licence and use yours instead, just like a driver cant use your driving licence to drive a truck.

But where is the money in that, imagine the NICEIC faced with that scenario, they would run out of brown envelopes trying to stop it.

 

[pirate]

£700 for a cooker feed sounds about right to me! I'll run them in all day and night for that!
Anyway, just to put a different slant on paying £500 a year for joining a scheme, in a previous life my "scheme" charged £1200/year and there was no way of avoiding that. Plus, you had to show evidence of PI cover (no choice of provider, you had to use the schemes provider) and at the last count the premium was around £50k, on top of which you had to pay an excess of £9k on each and every claim, and you also had to show at least 20 hours CPD each year.
So glad I retired and just do smokes, ISITEE, minor domestic electrics and LRA for some private landlords. As I've said before, the paperwork now is minimal, thank goodness!

 

[oscar21]

Its no even the £500 a year thats the problem, I don't mind paying that if it keeps the cowboys out. Its the never ending changes to everything, all because they want to maximise their revenue stream, not to make things any safer. remember when an amendment to the regs meant printing out a bit of paper and sticking it into your book, nowadays an amendment means you have to buy an new £80 book and do a £400 update course, all so you can carry on doing exactly the same as you did before.

 

[DPG]

Its no even the £500 a year thats the problem, I don't mind paying that if it keeps the cowboys out. Its the never ending changes to everything, all because they want to maximise their revenue stream, not to make things any safer. remember when an amendment to the regs meant printing out a bit of paper and sticking it into your book, nowadays an amendment means you have to buy an new £80 book and do a £400 update course, all so you can carry on doing exactly the same as you did before.

But it's the same in a lot of other professions don't forget.

And you don't carry on exactly as you did before - you adapt to changes. Otherwise nobody would be fitting RCBOs, SPDs, etc and would still be fitting type AC RCDs.

 

[nicebutdim]

But it's the same in a lot of other professions don't forget.

And you don't carry on exactly as you did before - you adapt to changes. Otherwise nobody would be fitting RCBOs, SPDs, etc and would still be fitting type AC RCDs.

It's 100 times worse in many professions. Life in this day and age is about regulation and arse covering - we can accept this and live with it or ignore it and deal with the potential consequences.