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This is a copy of an email that I sent today to Elecsa regarding their involvement with the now online Electrical Safety Register. Please have a read and then I implore you to send something similar!
To those of you who want to debate the wider argument surrounding Part P, however useless we think Part P currently is, no matter how much of a con we think it is, this is not the thread to do it, so I beg of you, please don't.
We are all being scammed by the scam that we joined so as to prevent ourselves being scammed by the other scam!!!!
To whomever it may concern,
I am writing today because I feel I must take a stand against the absolute shambles that is the new 'Electrical Safety Register'.
When I joined Elecsa back in early 2011, one of the main reasons I joined was because you didn't seem to be operating in a way that made it appear to the end customer as if you were the 'be all and end all' of regulation in this country. I was sick to death of the NICEIC essentially creating their own rules, for example; failing electricians on annual assesments for not complying with NIC codes of practice even though their work complied 100% with BS7671; promoting the idea that to get a 'proper' electrician, they have to be NIC registered, and my personal favourite; classing every electrician under their umbrella as a 'Domestic Installer' regardless or their level of competence or qualification, then classing them as 'Approved Contractors' if they were prepared to hand over some more cash!
I joined Elecsa because of the helpful nature of your staff, the professionalism of your assessors and the knowledge of your technical team. Most of all, I joined because Elecsa seemed to be there for the electrician too, and not just the customer.
Upon reading through the new Electrical Saftey Register today I am not so sure whether the reasons I joined Elecsa apply anymore. On the face of it I think it is a great idea however now I have seen the list of APPROVED ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS UNDER PART P OF THE BUILDING REGULATIONS I've noticed that there is a clear distinction between the NICs made up 'Domestic Installer' and 'Approved Contractor' schemes. This is their perogative, however what I detest is how I am now classifed as a 'Domestic Installer' under the Elecsa logo despite my extensive qualifications and experience. Most of all I detest that a made up NIC 'phrase' is what is being used to describe my business without regard to the fact that when I joined Elecsa, I was notified that I had become "Approved by Elecsa to operate under Part P of the Building Regulations".
The reason I am so disgusted by this is because a large portion of my work is within the commercial and industrial sectors, now my business is classified as a 'Domestic Installer' there is every likelyhood of future prospective commercial and industrial customers viewing this and not considering me as competent to carry out work other than in a domestic set up.
My suspicion is that you have handed over the reigns to either the ESC or the NIC with regards to setting up this register with absolutely no regard to how they may portray YOUR customers, ie. Elecsa registered contractors! Either way, this decision will more than likely affect my business.
Now the way I see it, you have two options available to resolve this issue. Option one is to have whoever created the Electrical Safety Register website reclassify every Elecsa contractor as 'Approved' as they should be. Option two is to create your own scheme, at no extra cost to the contractor, to classify them as either 'Domestic Installers' or 'Approved Contractors' based on their level of experience and qualifications. Obviously this would not be my first choice as quite simply, your are either approved to operate under Part P of the Building Regulations or you are not, it is that straight forward! There is no such thing as a 'Domestic Installer'.
If neither of these are implemented with a matter of great urgency, the only option I have available to me is to take a 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em' approach. Put clearly, If these changes are not made, I will be leaving Elecsa for good and re-joining the NIC.
I look forward to your response.
To those of you who want to debate the wider argument surrounding Part P, however useless we think Part P currently is, no matter how much of a con we think it is, this is not the thread to do it, so I beg of you, please don't.
We are all being scammed by the scam that we joined so as to prevent ourselves being scammed by the other scam!!!!
To whomever it may concern,
I am writing today because I feel I must take a stand against the absolute shambles that is the new 'Electrical Safety Register'.
When I joined Elecsa back in early 2011, one of the main reasons I joined was because you didn't seem to be operating in a way that made it appear to the end customer as if you were the 'be all and end all' of regulation in this country. I was sick to death of the NICEIC essentially creating their own rules, for example; failing electricians on annual assesments for not complying with NIC codes of practice even though their work complied 100% with BS7671; promoting the idea that to get a 'proper' electrician, they have to be NIC registered, and my personal favourite; classing every electrician under their umbrella as a 'Domestic Installer' regardless or their level of competence or qualification, then classing them as 'Approved Contractors' if they were prepared to hand over some more cash!
I joined Elecsa because of the helpful nature of your staff, the professionalism of your assessors and the knowledge of your technical team. Most of all, I joined because Elecsa seemed to be there for the electrician too, and not just the customer.
Upon reading through the new Electrical Saftey Register today I am not so sure whether the reasons I joined Elecsa apply anymore. On the face of it I think it is a great idea however now I have seen the list of APPROVED ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS UNDER PART P OF THE BUILDING REGULATIONS I've noticed that there is a clear distinction between the NICs made up 'Domestic Installer' and 'Approved Contractor' schemes. This is their perogative, however what I detest is how I am now classifed as a 'Domestic Installer' under the Elecsa logo despite my extensive qualifications and experience. Most of all I detest that a made up NIC 'phrase' is what is being used to describe my business without regard to the fact that when I joined Elecsa, I was notified that I had become "Approved by Elecsa to operate under Part P of the Building Regulations".
The reason I am so disgusted by this is because a large portion of my work is within the commercial and industrial sectors, now my business is classified as a 'Domestic Installer' there is every likelyhood of future prospective commercial and industrial customers viewing this and not considering me as competent to carry out work other than in a domestic set up.
My suspicion is that you have handed over the reigns to either the ESC or the NIC with regards to setting up this register with absolutely no regard to how they may portray YOUR customers, ie. Elecsa registered contractors! Either way, this decision will more than likely affect my business.
Now the way I see it, you have two options available to resolve this issue. Option one is to have whoever created the Electrical Safety Register website reclassify every Elecsa contractor as 'Approved' as they should be. Option two is to create your own scheme, at no extra cost to the contractor, to classify them as either 'Domestic Installers' or 'Approved Contractors' based on their level of experience and qualifications. Obviously this would not be my first choice as quite simply, your are either approved to operate under Part P of the Building Regulations or you are not, it is that straight forward! There is no such thing as a 'Domestic Installer'.
If neither of these are implemented with a matter of great urgency, the only option I have available to me is to take a 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em' approach. Put clearly, If these changes are not made, I will be leaving Elecsa for good and re-joining the NIC.
I look forward to your response.
