Since April 1st, members throughout the country have been returning their Completion Certs to ECSSA rather than submitting them to their local ESB offices.
Approximately 250 Certs per day are being received. In the early days of the operation up to 30% of Certs had to be sent back to contractors because of shortfalls in one area or another. Thankfully, that proportion has since reduced dramatically but, on average, 15 Certs per day are still incapable of being processed. Many of these Certs have to be returned for such basic reasons as lack of an MPRN number, or because the contractor concerned has not renewed his membership or has failed to provide ECSSA with a copy of his up to date public liability insurance.
While the situation in regard to Surcharge Stamps has improved dramatically, there are still contractors who do not seem to realise that a Surcharge Stamp must be fixed on the top right hand corner of the Cert. To date we have seen Stamps stuck on the top left hand corner, in the comments box, on the back of the Cert, across the MPRN number, across the Cert number, obsuring the contractor’s name, and even on the envelope containing the Cert. A small number of contractors are so ill-informed about the whole operation that postage stamps have been stuck on Certs in the hope that this will enable the Cert to be
processed.
Once again, we repeat the simple Rules which will make life easier for everybody:
- A valid MPRN number is essential - see separate article
- A Surcharge Stamp should be stuck on the top right hand corner of the Cert. Our scanning systems are designed to pick up the stamp in this location and putting the stamp anywhere else on the Cert leads to delay and rejection of the Cert.
- The system will not accept a Cert from a contractor who membership has expired and there is nothing we can do to circumvent this built in blocking system.
- Neither will the system allow a Cert to be processed unless there is proof on our database of current insurance cover.
NOTE: While AON inform ECSSA, on a daily basis, of policies renewed or new policies issued, no other Insurer does so. The onus therefore remains with the
contractor to ensure that proof of ongoing cover is forwarded to ECSSA immediately on expiry of the existing policy. - Test values, within the acceptable parameters, must be included on the Completion Cert for all jobs.
- ESB will not accept a Cert when more than six months have elapsed since the date of the test of the installation.
- Contractors should ensure that their membership number is correctly inserted, that the Cert is signed and that the type of installation, ie. new, alteration, etc., is ticked.
Finally, it is important that the White copy be returned to ECSSA; that all entries on the Cert are clearly legible, and that the Cert used was originally purchased by the contractor who is using it. The system will reject any Cert which it detects as having been allocated to a different membership number from that shown on the Cert. The overall compliance by members has improved greatly, but there is still room for further improvement. Paying attention to the above points will ensure that a contractor’s Cert gets logged to ESB without delay and avoids frustration for both himself and his customer.