Legit HIP training?

frivolous_fay

My sister has just been for what she thought was an interview - only after having driven to Bristol was she told what the course fees were (£6k, I believe)

She's just had a really strange phone conversation with them and is now wondering if they're above board. She notes that there is no mention of fees on the website and shouldn't they display a VAT no. somewhere?

http://www.beahomeinspector.co.uk/opportunities.htm

Anyone have any knowledge of them?

wecanhelpu

About 4-5k seems to be the going rate.

On a recent thread on http://homeinspectorforum.co.uk/ to find the best training provider, the company with the best reputation appear to be this lot

http://www.sava.org.uk/

hartleyn

I've had the same sort of experience with that company. Something just isn't quite right about them. Got to my Bristol interview and was told the fees were £8900 (or £12800 if they didn't subsidise me) PLUS all additional costs!!

Passed the test and interview, was offered a place but had to enrol and hand over the money within 5 days. And they refused to send any written information (terms and conditions etc) prior to the enrolment.

Very odd I thought, so declined.

bugly_2

contact 0845 6430810

this is the official gov. hot line for Energy inspectors or HIP's.
I looked at doing it and the prices were around 3500 no more.

coal9011

I very recently answered a local newspaper advert to apply to train to become a Home Inspector to compile Home Inspection Packs (HIPs) required for seller's of property with 4 bedrooms or more.

The advert was from a company called HIPHIPhooray.com who claim to be a main provider of HIPs. They wanted people to train to become Home Inspectors to work for them when qualified (or work for yourself) earning between £130 & £250 per inspection with an average of 8 per week. The advert stated earnings of £48,000 a year which seemed reasonable and a very good income. It said their sister company - Home Inspector Training Ltd.(HIT Ltd.) - would train you, but ther was no mention of "training fees" in the advert? - just ring for an interview.

Anyway, I've just turned 50, am self-employed, looking for a career change with good earnings potential so I rang them.

3 days later HIT Ltd. returned my call offering me an interview together with an "aptitude test" at Bristol (100 miles away) on the 9th August 2007. I and another applicant were interviewed at the same time? and during it we were told that if we did not pass the aptitude test (75%) then we could go no further. Then we were told that if we agreed to work for/with the sister company (HIPHIP hooray.com) then our training would be subsidised.Then - for the first time - the nice lady interviewer revealed the training fees, £12,800 for the 7 week course! :eek: but, if we agreed to do work for HHH.com then the fee would only be £8,800 plus several hundred £s for course equipment.

So, I had not really replied to an advert to train and work for a HIP provider, but in reality it was just a advert from a Training Company! :rolleyes:
2 days later I got a call saying that my test score was "90%" (no way I scored that high) and that I qualified for the course but that my place was only open for 5 days in which time I must pay my £8,800 fee or they could not accept me! I felt and indeed was very pressurised to sign-up.

Anyway, I returned home and checked a few things. Firstly I found online a copy of the HHH.com work agreement. There was nothing in it saying that they would or could guarantee you any work doing reports. The only specific was what they would pay you IF they supply work. That was £130 for a Domestic Energy Assessment (DEA) or £200 for a Home Condition Report (HCR). But MOST WORRYING OF ALL are the "official figures" relating to the number of actual Home Inspectors that will be needed!

The government's own website (www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk) figures show that 2,969 assessors are already fully trained and accredited with a further 4,434 on courses at different levels of training. Thats 7,403 people already in the system. YET TRAINING COMPANIES ARE STILL AGGRESSIVELY RECRUITING TRAINEES? :mad:

I now have found at least 5 other companies that are still offering these expensive courses. HIPs Direct (another HIP provider) have released a Press Release stateing: " If and when the government introduces the scheme to the whole of the residential property market, then about 3,000 assessors will be necessary." I was going to borrow up to £13,000 to train for a new career which already has to many people then will be needed in training! I am sure that many others on these courses have also taken on debt for an occupation that is already oversubscribed.

But don't believe me, contact the relevant government department - I did! I phoned them and was told that no more then between 4,000 and 5,000 fully trained Inspectors will be required when and if all homes come under the scheme. Something needs to be done about these training companies still recruiting and taking large sums of money off genuine and unsuspecting people who are in search of a more rewarding job. There will be too many out there chaseing not enough work.

MORE BAD NEWS Today the Government announced 3 bedroomed properties come under the scheme - a licence for more UNSCRUPULOUS TRAINING RECRUITMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lynzpower

I agree, I too looked into it and what bothered me is that there seemed to be no accreditation for "training providers" and that for me was enough not to spend my money on.

however, i cant see 4000 being enough inspectors at all. I work for a hips provider now, and I think 4000 is a bit on the optimistic side to be frank.

but IMOP its better to be slightly under supplied with inspectors ( eg using overtime for the few inspectors , extra travel, etc) than having way too many and needing to drum up one or two inspections a week which wont pay the bills

lynzpower

Rightmove currently states that it is advertising 835000 properties for sale or rent on with them right now.

halve that for ease's sake, then that leaves at a guess 417500 properties for sale at the mo ( not including private sales, not on RM sales, just as a rough estimate)

Divide that by 52, to get an idea of how many come on a week, 8028 per week - divide that by 4000 -oops that works out at 2.8 hips per week .

Do my rough (very rough) calcs make sense?

So that means the 4000 could be tremendously underworked....

silvercar

Any multiple agency sale will be advertised more than once on rightmove, as each agent will promote the house.

Your calculations assume that half the houses are new each week; a lot of agents will list houses until exchange. So each house could be listed for a few months!

lynzpower

Exactly, thats a good point too Silvercar, so do we presume that the 4000 that have been recruited will be grossly underworked????

It would be interesting to know exactly how many properties come on the market each week, adn i dont know if theres anyone that would monitor this anyone?

coal9011

I'm pleased you agree lynzpower.

But do the calculation from the stats that Home Inspector Training Ltd. supply online. If all training recruitment stopped TODAY then 7,403 inspectors will eventually become qualified. (Don't forget there are many other companies taking on new trainees every day!)

So that's 7,403 each doing 8 inspections per week = 59,224
Multiplied by 52 weeks = 3,079,648 being the annual number of properties that are required to sell to reach their inspector's income forecast!

Yet from their own property sales stats between 2001 & 2005 the best yearly sales total was 2.5 Million & the worst 1.9 Million with an average of 2.0 Million. I am sure that in future house sales will be even further reduced just by the introduction of the HIPs. to perhaps 1.8 Million. when 3,079,648 house sales each year are needed. This just will not happen! The way that there is no "check" on inspector training recuitment at the moment means that we could end up with up to 10,000 inspectors in the system within perhaps the next 6 months! I feel very sorry for these good people as there will just not be enough report work to go around to allow them to earn a living, plus many will be in debt through having to borrow their course fees.

I regard myself as having a lucky escape - it all seemed so plausable - and I was very tempted. However, these companies need to be stopped NOW!

:money: One for you to get your teeth into MARTIN???????????????

Counter55

It can only be a short time before people realise how ridiculous the energy certificate is. To have to pay someone to come round your house for a report stating that if you had double glazing instead of single glazing, more insulation and low energy light bulbs you could save energy will drive homeowners mad.

Do you really want to train in an ‘industry’ that will be seen as a sick joke, being resented by house-sellers, providing a ‘service’ that no-one wants - only needs because this government doesn’t want to admit to a mistake?

I’m not disputing climate change or that some houses could be more energy efficient, but this is an EC inspired government make-work scheme adding very little value.

It will provide opportunities for people to be scammed by the training companies and then the assessors. The cost of the training appears far too much. Remember RICS still may bring a legal challenge to the whole thing and the Tories are against it and so may scrap it if they get in.

RICS gives some information and links to what appear to be cheaper training courses (see the external links).
http://www.rics.org/Careerseducationandtraining/RICSaccreditationandcertificationschemes/Homeconditioninspector/Domestic+Energy+Assessment.htm