Culling the number of BER assessors

onefinemorning

So two years now SEAI have been persuing BER assessors via a series of site Audits and desk audits to follow the informal policy of severly reducing the number of registered assessors


We have all heard anecodotal evidence of asserros refusing re registrations but is anyone actually tracking the number of current registered assesors?

I wonder how long more the SEAI QA dept will continue to rack up points for very minor infringements against active assesors trying to make a living in a non compliant market?

I wonder have we eached their target number yet?

No6

Did you get some points? don't worry they go away after a while I hope!!:D

Hawk Wing 2

Done the course 3 years ago and worked for a year at it, I must say I think the thing was one big scam, luckily enough I was only doing it as an add on, so I was not depending on it to make a living, remember all the ablonety they came out with about the need for a few thousand assessors? I feel sorry for people who were conned and thought they could make a living out of doing BER certs alone

Maxster

The audits appear to be far too severe. Anything concerned with new housing appears to automatically generate penalty points. Biggest problem is the SEAI are very poor to provide information on why penalty points are awarded.

sydthebeat

Maxster wrote: »

The audits appear to be far too severe. Anything concerned with new housing appears to automatically generate penalty points. Biggest problem is the SEAI are very poor to provide information on why penalty points are awarded.

i find that most people are tripped up on issues dealt with in the technical bulletins....

before submitting any audit.. do a full search through the bulletins to see if youve everything covered.

caesarthechimp

onefinemorning wrote: »

but is anyone actually tracking the number of current registered assesors?
I wonder have we reached their target number yet?

You can track the number of registered assessors here
Click on the "search" facility without entering any specifics, and then check the number of "matches" at the top of the results page; currently it is at 1393 for domestic assessors, down from 2070 last July before mandatory insurance was introduced.

I wouldn't say the audits are a reason for giving up, but they are catching out people who aren't investing the time in keeping abreast of the constant barrage of technical bulletins, changes in Deap procedure etc.

All in all, its a deadly combination; falling prices with ever increasing costs and time commitment.

onefinemorning

Yes - agree with all these points

And the irony of the situation is that the better the rating the higher chance of audit - pretty much every A3 or higher seems to get an audit these days

So the better a job we do to design better houses with better fabric values and non standard technology the more work we bring on ourselves and a higher risk of having to justify it all

Higher charges for better ratings anyone?? :-)

sydthebeat

onefinemorning wrote: »

So the better a job we do to design better houses with better fabric values and non standard technology the more work we bring on ourselves and a higher risk of having to justify it all

that is not a problem unless you cannot make the justification.
I would not complain about being encouraged to work more thoroughly and professionally. I would complain however, if i saw lower standards being accepted.

onefinemorning wrote: »

Higher charges for better ratings anyone?? :-)

The price should match the level of work.

SEVERA

i agree they are trying there best to cut down numbers but not through a fair process, firstly they have tried to squeeze people out by adding an extra cost on assessors in these hard times this as we have seen, has cut numbers by around 20% at least. but what is most frustrating on top of the fact that all registered assessors have passed courses and seai exsams and now taken out insurance to mitigate against any possible inaccuracies, we are still being subjected to constant questioning and audits by seai which to me are totally unjustified because of what Ive already said. these audits are very time consuming and at the end of the day time is money, i wonder what seai s response would be if i sent a bill to them for my time completing their silly questions. i think its time this government department was cut by at least 20%. in my opinion they clearly have too much time on their hands.