Self Employed and looking for help.

[CHSpark]

Hello all, I am recently self employed after working on the books for a company for many years.
 

Now I am self employed subcontracting but also building up my work.  Whenever work was tested signed off before it was through the company and then the customer was issued with a NIC cert. however now I am working for myself, I am unsure of the process about signing off my own work (which I am qualified to do for the record ) and getting test certs to give to customers.

I’ve read about the CPS and potentially becoming NIC registered. However don’t want to commit to anything without some advice from someone with experience in this area! 
 

thanks, in advice 

 

[Andy™]

you can sign off any work to 7671 simply by being competent.write out whatever EIC, MWC, EICR's you want (just dont use any that make you appears to be a member of someone when youre not, just use a blank and even if you are registered, dont give them free advertising)

for domestic and part P work then to sign it off / notify for building regs then youll need to either register and pay a scam for the pleasure or pay LABC and go through planning permission and get them to notify it

if you do decide to register with someone purely for notifying part p work then you dont need the 'optional extras', like paying more to be able to write EICR's. despite what they may say, there isnt any requirement for you to register with them other than to use their name on your reports

 

[Sharpend]

As you have read up on CPS I’ll take it that you are familiar with the Part P requirements and the scope of work that is covered by it? 
if you are planning to avoid works that are Part P related then you only need to get a book of test certs from your wholesaler or wherever and complete accordingly. 
if however you are doing scopes of work covered by Part P then you’ll need a CPS registration or building control affiliation/fees.

Which CPS is entirely personal preference, Stroma I believe was the cheapest not sure if that has been impacted by the Napit but out? Some guys on here are registered with them so may offer clarification. As most will tell you, most general public customers know little about Part P and or the CPS system so unless you have some commercial clients that specify NICEIC registration then there is no loyalty/benefit to one over the other. 
From what I am aware of it would seem that it’s generally a two horse race now with Napit buying Stroma and Certsure disbanding ECA in favour of Niceic. Not sure if BSI are still going? 

 

[Murdoch]

There are now really only 2 CPSs 

NICEIC

Napit

there is another called Blueflame but don’t know much about them

theres nothing really between them and if you live in England or Wales then membership of either of these is a no brainier really if you plan to do Part P work.

My advice to you is to NOT use their software and use a 3rd party version

if you join Napit, treat their code breakers book with care - it has incorrect coding in the 2nd edition, and the 1st edition was even worse

As for EICR’s , you do not need any membership to do these, so don’t let anybody tell you otherwise

have you done a budget and tried to work out your rates ?

where in the UK are you? Rates vary a lot

hope this helps

 

[boltonsparky]

Napit were the cheapest I found, not much in it on the first year but a bigger difference on the subsequent years. They offer monthly payments which may help with the cashflow if you"re starting out on your own. Can't comment on NIC but Napit let you do a job for the assessment and then notify it once you're enrolled with them.

Very few people have heard of either in the domestic world but NICEIC is generally the better known of the 2.

Going down the council building control route you'll be looking at 300 quid to notify per job (this does depend on the area/council policy) so well worth joining one of the scams.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Traditional hard copy non-logoed certificates are available for anyone to purchase from various sources..

e.g.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/tcl/search?query=ELECTRICAL+CERTIFICATES&Submit=Search

Numerous places offer electronic certificates..

Or you could just produce your own on any suitable Spread-sheet / word processor..

Just base it on the model forms in the current edition of BS7671..

  Guinness