Calling All BER assessors - this is a joke

DOSullivan

Is it me or do I feel that we have been cheated and are still been cheated today??

An announcement was made yesterday that funding was made available to carry out assessments on existing dwellings on houses in North Tipp, Limerick, Clare and Dundalk. They forgot to mention that there are no trained assessors available to complete these assessments because the course still hasn’t been developed!!!

Let’s start from the beginning. I have paid €1800 to complete a course in the DEAP software, €1000 to register with SEI, over €2000 paid on company and web site set- up costs and more on promo material. I have found out that only 500 certs have been issued to date.. most of these certs have been completed by the building developer and architects themselves !! It clearly states in the European Directive that assessments should be completed by independent people, something over looked by the SEI .. building developers completing the own certs.. conflict of interest maybe

Oh by the way, if you taught you would be assessing commercial buildings.. you can forget about that unless your involved in one of the “contracted” Engineering consultant companies

Oh but next year the cash train is coming..the large amount of existing houses just waiting for an assessment, well maybe not..apart from the course not even been developed yet, it has been outlined that assessment on existing houses will not be done by the DEAP method.. Why? Because the DEAP cannot account for houses build over 150 years ago !! So we will have to complete a new course to train us how to do a ‘survey’ on these houses.. don’t even ask the SEI on how to determine wall construction without drawing.. I wonder how householders would feel if we had to tell them that cores will have to be drilled in their walls !!

So, we will have one set of certs for new houses using one measurement method (DEAP) and another set of certs for existing houses using a different method (Survey).. should make interesting reading comparing one house to another in a few years time….

We have to start making demands.. too much money has been given to the training companies and to SEI.. Their pockets are well lined;

All I ask initially is that the people who have forked out so much time and money to complete the first course be the only ones allowed to complete the new course for existing houses at a subsidized rate.

Over 500 people have registered as assessors on the SEI site to date and probably the same amount if not more waiting on Fetac awards to be issued or for next year to registers..

smashey

And next year, we'll ban all graduates from taking our jobs.

sydthebeat

firstly, if a developer has carried out the rating him/herself, they are in breach of the law. you cannot gain financially from a rating, thus those certs can be considered invalid and the developer / assessor struck off. it should be your responsibility to report this to SEI if you are sure of the facts.
secondly, why do you consider architects not to be independant?? how can they gain financially from a good rating?

you are correct regarding everything else....

my company paid €2000 for me to do the course, €1000 to register. To date i have not been engaged to publish any certs, even though im only one of 3 assessor in my county, and one of 5 counting my county and an adjacent one. I have used the DEAP as a design tool and for compiling prov BERs but none published.

if they turn around an quote another 1800-2000 for completing the 'existing stock' top up course... im going to find it very hard to justify this to my company. local auctioneers have noted dramatic fall in sales of dwellings, (doh!) so a pay back period may be over stretched.....

SEI have suggested the existing stock BERs require a site visit, thus costs of 'existing' vrs 'new' are going to be probably double at least.

all i can do is stay in with my local auctioneers, butter up my boss, and hope the SEI or other trainers dont take the piss with costs of the new course.

DOSullivan

This article will feature on a Tipperary newspaper this week;

Energy efficiency grant remains untouched as assessors unqualified to survey homes

The €5m granted by the government last week, to improve energy efficiency in some of the countries older homes, is sitting untouched and will be for the foreseeable future, as nobody has been trained to assess these homes.
In his statement last week announcing the pilot for the Home Energy Savings Scheme, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan, said up to one million houses in the country require some investment to improve their energy efficiency.
What he failed to mention is that under present circumstances, these homes will remain energy inefficient, as no programme has been devised by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) for assessors to deal with existing buildings.

The 500 registered assessors who spent at least €4,000 to become assessors, between classes, registration and setting up a company, cannot at the moment get at any of the €5m set aside for the pilot- scheme.

Through no fault of their own, they are not qualified to examine existing buildings and can only examine buildings that have been completed this year. At present there is no programme or course to train people to assess existing homes.

Yet the department has released €5m to retrofit up to 2,000 houses in the mid-west and North East and confirmed there are no qualified people to survey the homes.

A spokesperson for the department said they acknowledge the situation and are putting together a process, so existing home can be assessed soon. They cannot confirm when this will be ready.

Therefore the 1.7 million houses in Ireland that have €100m in funding set aside to bring energy ratings in Irish houses up to the 2002 European directive in the energy performance of buildings, cannot benefit from the scheme as things stand.

And some people who took on the courses at a cost of up to €2,000 and invested vast sums in setting up their companies to assess the houses energy standards, have not seen any money coming in.

The assessors have also found out recently that their certificates do not cover them to survey commercial buildings; only contracted engineering consultant companies can assess these buildings.

The qualified assessors now may have to pay even more money to SEI Ireland and the educational bodies to get licensed to survey the existing homes in the country.
SEI wants to see a situation where each house-buyer or tenant will receive a building energy rating (BER) certificate when they buy or lease a house. At the moment assessors have only been trained with the Dwellings Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) programme.

This programme had been deemed unsuitable for houses over a certain age. Because of this, no existing dwellings can be assessed until the SEI devises an acceptable programme for them.

The initial €5m investment is to refit up to 2,000 existing homes in North Tipperary, Clare, Limerick and Dundalk. More money will be made available soon to allow clusters of housing around the country benefit from the programme.
When up and running, the department will pay for two-thirds of the assessment costs and 30pc of the cost of works up to a limit of €2,500. It is hoped that houses can save up to €500 a year on energy bills and save 6,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions combined.

galwaytt

Typical of any govt dept involved effort.........on any subject. Except this time they not only didn't deliver, they actually took money from would-be assessors for it too - a new low.........

Was anyone at the Energy Show in the RDS last week ? - I believe they had to close off a seminar due to the hiatus coming from the audience of qualified assessors who want answers............seminar was shut off from public over the furore.....

topcatcbr

galwaytt wrote: »

Was anyone at the Energy Show in the RDS last week ? - I believe they had to close off a seminar due to the hiatus coming from the audience of qualified assessors who want answers............seminar was shut off from public over the furore.....

I was at the one on wed morn i didnt notice anything