Thinking of changing from NIC Domestic to Approved, how?

[Joe S]

Hi all, I have been on my own since 1st Sept '11 after working for other people for years. I am NIC Domestic and have been for years but I have now picked up a couple of builders who are keen to use me more often and most of their work is domestic but they occasionally do commercial. How easy is it to change over and what differences are there regarding testing and certs etc...?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Joe

 

[Welchyboy]

Hi Joe
I am just transferring to approved from domestic at the moment, i have my main assessment on the 28th of this month.
So far changing over has been quite easy, its only £290+vat to upgrade, and you only show 3 jobs, buying all the new books is a bit of a cost tho(especially as i have just bought them all and now they are all in the process of being upgraded and will need to get current ones for next year!)

I had my pre assessment some weeks ago now, they are hot on your certs and paperwork and do give you a bit of a grilling but im sure if you know your stuff and dont do anything stupid you will be fine

If you need any other info just ask me and i will help if i can, if you call the office they never give you a straight answer

 

[Joe S]

Hi Joe
I am just transferring to approved from domestic at the moment, i have my main assessment on the 28th of this month.
So far changing over has been quite easy, its only £290+vat to upgrade, and you only show 3 jobs, buying all the new books is a bit of a cost tho(especially as i have just bought them all and now they are all in the process of being upgraded and will need to get current ones for next year!)

I had my pre assessment some weeks ago now, they are hot on your certs and paperwork and do give you a bit of a grilling but im sure if you know your stuff and dont do anything stupid you will be fine

If you need any other info just ask me and i will help if i can, if you call the office they never give you a straight answer

Thanks for the reply mate. Do they need a pre assessment if you're already Domestic and if so do they require you showing them at least 1 commercial job? I'm pretty good on my paperwork as they never put a black mark against me, just little tips to make things better.

 

[Welchyboy]

Yes you have a pre assessment as standard, lasts around 2hrs, but this is a good thing as it gives you a chance to meet your assessor and have a chat, and he will just go over all your stuff to make sure every thing is lined up and in order for the full assessment, if he finds anything you need then you have time to get it before the day
to dispel a myth you dont need to show him commercial or industrial work if you dont have any, if you do then all the better, but for me he just looked at some of my commercial certs but as they were from a while back he said just domestic will be fine, i have got 2x rewires and a CU change/extension to show him(and another job in reserve in case i get let down)
Do you have any PIRs reports to show him as he will want to see how you
are coding the non-compliances you find.
To be honest if you are DI allready then you know how they work and what they expect its just more thorough