Non Approved Alarm Installers

[Baracus]

Are there many members on here that are non approved and work for themselves (not as subbies)?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and one day would like to go out on my own. OK I'm an electrician, but have been working with intruder and CCTV from I started serving my time and TBH it interests me more than electrical now.

For those non approved what route do you take when a client wants Police response?

[arfur mo]

Are there many members on here that are non approved and work for themselves (not as subbies)?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and one day would like to go out on my own. OK I'm an electrician, but have been working with intruder and CCTV from I started serving my time and TBH it interests me more than electrical now.

For those non approved what route do you take when a client wants Police response?

hi baracus,

i'm possibly the most (in)famous of the non-approved (grrrr! - not a good start) registered alarm installers in here.

1st off imo the alarm trade is virtually a dead duck in todays state if you want to make a decent living, you would be far better getting into telecoms and/or networking, as the renumeration is far better and you don't need to be available full time 24/7.

the next bit is going to come over as terrible, but is said in all honesty -:

tbh with todays kit any clot can instal an alarm system (working standards apart), they flog kits in the sheds i'm sure youahve seen them. most clots can even remmember to get the money afterwards .

the problems come about if the system plays up, trust me this is not a 'grace and favour' trade, people may well wait several days even weeks for a faulty toilet light to be fixed, but they will rarely be happy to wait even a few hours for a faulty alarm to be fixed, and the faults you can get are not always that simple to suss out, so unless you have some service experience this can be a real hot potato for you as the chief buck catcher.

as for getting started there are many facets to concider, 1st off and most importantly ask yourself where your custom is going to be comming from? just happens over a period i got to be well known for fixing problems 1st time, especially on systems that had been long term trouble, so i found i was being recommended on by these clients to their freinds, relations or offspring and associates.

point blank i did not and would not take on any of my company clients - even when i had left the company, it would have been real easy to poach, you just don't bite the hand that has fed you imo - perhaps that integraty or charecter odity served me well and earned respect, who knows for sure but i'd like to think so.

the above is to demonstrate it takes a long time to build a good reputation, and a very short time to bust it, so concider it as 'work in progress', never ever relax you efforts in this area.

i have traded since 1985, no CCJ's no name changes, no web site, no signs on van, absolutely no advertising - ever, and no registration to quangos either. so it can be done, just its very tough initially to get rolling, especially if not comming from within this trade.

try to avoisd bargain basement work, it only generates more of thee same, you need to work up marked for the better profit margins.

perversly pehaps, i'd strongly recommend you concider to go registered when you can, for the repeat income available, but also look into it very closely regarding timing. you have to turn over the work with no arguments just to survive, or you will simply be strangled by the extensive paperwork and other requirements.

to that end both recognised bodies will advise you and offer seminars, and i'm very sure the other 'mob from the dark side' will to

anyway, best of luck.

regs

alan

[Baracus]

Alan I had gathered you were non-approved and TBH was hoping you were one of the ones to reply to this.

Where will the work come from? I wouldnt really intend advertising as such, a lot of friends are in various trades and we always keep our ears to the ground where each other are concerned. Other sparks, plumbers, boiler men, plasterers, builders....Scratch my back ill scratch yours sort of thing.

Servicing/ Fault finding? I'm certainly not as experienced as some on this site, but I plan to use a single manufacturer and although I have learnt quite a bit already, I intend learning the panels inside out, what faults can be expected and how to rectify.

At the start I intend working part time self employed, and have a few Public Liability quotes to ensure I am covered. Would I be right in saying I dont need efficacy cover unless im approved?

I know the part time thing will ring alarm bells (excuse the pun) with some of you, but I am able top leave my work at any time and am never more than an hour from home.

Im trying to decide on a catchment area, as in to what radius from my home I should stick to. ATM im thinking a 20mile radius.

Alan what do you do to provide Police Response for a client?

[A-G]

I thought in Northern Ireland you had to be approved to install intruder alarms .... or is that in the Republic?

[Baracus]

I thought in Northern Ireland you had to be approved to install intruder alarms .... or is that in the Republic?

It must be ROI mate

[james.wilson]

yeah that ROI

behind the times here

[davetherave69]

yeah that ROI

behind the times here

We are an electrical company that are not approved I went on a 1 day course with the nsi about becoming a mmber we have been trading for 9years and we have done about 100 alarms we get all are work from recamendation electrics and alarms we tell are customers that the alarms are not insurance approved and all they says is as long as it rings thats all we want our work is carried out to a very high standard and we will go out 24hours a day to any problem we have with are systems I think if you want more commerial work then you will need to be approved we wont do any alarm that needs police linking we will tell them to call an approved company we also go back and service some of the alarms but a lot of people dont want to pay to have a service

[arfur mo]

Alan I had gathered you were non-approved and TBH was hoping you were one of the ones to reply to this.

Where will the work come from? I wouldnt really intend advertising as such, a lot of friends are in various trades and we always keep our ears to the ground where each other are concerned. Other sparks, plumbers, boiler men, plasterers, builders....Scratch my back ill scratch yours sort of thing.

Servicing/ Fault finding? I'm certainly not as experienced as some on this site, but I plan to use a single manufacturer and although I have learnt quite a bit already, I intend learning the panels inside out, what faults can be expected and how to rectify.

At the start I intend working part time self employed, and have a few Public Liability quotes to ensure I am covered. Would I be right in saying I dont need efficacy cover unless im approved?

I know the part time thing will ring alarm bells (excuse the pun) with some of you, but I am able top leave my work at any time and am never more than an hour from home.

Im trying to decide on a catchment area, as in to what radius from my home I should stick to. ATM im thinking a 20mile radius.

Alan what do you do to provide Police Response for a client?

hi baracus

in order of importane -:

you have to carry public liability by law (in England& Wales), unless a real one man band then also employers liability, even if you only use sub - contractors occasionally.

effacy insurrance is not mandatory like above, and not only for the registered companies. it defends you against bad advice or product failure claims. i've no idea if the premiums would be available or even affordable for a new starter company who is not able to show some reasonable experienced and competance in this trade, given the posible risks of loss that they would be exposed to.

put it this way, if your kit don't work on an intrussion and they suffer a loss, then you are very very expossed, so i'd say it would be extremely bad news not to have it, and simply suicidle if your not very experienced in the design, choice and installation let alone the repairsod alarm systems.

as for Police Response i have 3 NSI Golds who are more than happy to take over my systems, tbh you will find it hard to have that ability as an 'unknown quantity.' these guys all know me and my work over many years past, so fully trust me to be upto scratch, or they would just not take them on.

imo excellent plan to go with aparticular make of kit, it reduces spares carried and the learning curves. I use gardtec, many vaunt texecom and galaxie so you have a wide choice of quality equioment to choose from.

so look at the web sits for promo's, if you can, source a mid range panel from each maker, tinker on the workbench, fit it at home as trust me as it will be goldern time well spent. i do this on any new before i sell it as my rep is beyond price. decide on which suits you best then really learn it through.

one option is to offer relatives an instal as a 'taster', definately not worse than looking a total dick with a confusing new panel at 8pm for a paying client.

regs

alan

[A-G]

My advise Baracus:

Until you are completely conversant with alarms, regulations, legal requirements, insurance liabilities and everything else involved ....... don't even think about getting involved with monitored alarms.

.... even fitting audible alarms correctly may be beyond your range of competence. You gotta make sure you don't put your customers in a bad position with regards to their security & insurance cover.

[Chorlton]

advice is not covered by your efficacy arfur you need professional indemnity cover for that which is seperate.

hows this for a google ranking on the topic - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q...rance&meta=

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