Members (and the general public) are reminded that there is a facility on the ECSSA website whereby the progress of a Completion Cert sent to ECSSA for transmission to ESB can be checked by anybody who has either the MPRN or the Cert Number.
ECSSA does not hold Certs in the office as all Certs received each day are either transmitted to ESB (if everything is in order with the Cert) or else returned to the Contractor on the same day with a covering letter giving the reason for the rejection of the Cert.
Apart from lack of proof of insurance cover, the most common reason why Certs are rejected is that the MPRN shown on the Cert comes up as ‘Invalid’ when entered on the CIS System.
This invalidity generally arises because of the fact that even though ESBN issue an MPRN once the customer makes application for supply, that MPRN does not become valid for the purpose of a connection until the customer has paid the Capital Contribution amount
which is invoiced to the customer along with the MPRN.
Apart from ensuring that their own house is in order in respect of membership and insurance, contractors should check with their customers that the Capital Contribution has been paid to ESBN well in advance of submitting a Cert as there is generally about a week’s delay between payment of the Capital Contribution and validation of the MPRN.