Approaching Councils direct for Boiler installs

[lambchop]

I heard on the grapevine that you can approach councils direct and get a slice of there of Boiler installs as they are trying to save money by not dealing with large companies and subbing it out to sole traders. Im based on the coast in hampshire and thinking of doing it this year.

Any advice, experiences please post

 

[jtsplumbing]

OK if you want to get bogged down with paper work ! and waite 6Mths for payment, and put up with with some jump'd up office boy telling you how to do your job. :90:

 

[AWheating]

you will need a lot of things inplace to be able to work for them. 24hr call out, full health and safety paperwork, good insurance etc.... but its worth asking the question.

 

[grahamgas]

Lambchop
Wherabout on south coast are you.
Looked at subbing to potrsmouth last year , but the hoops they wanted me to jump through were too nig

 

[kirkgas]

the scottish councils i have dealt with tend to work only with bigger contractors, its easier for them to have one point of contact, access to 24hr call out that will get answered, if you are a sole trader it is impractical for you to be available every night and every weekend, during the warrenty of the the install as per their contract with you, also the paperwork trail will do your nut in, copies of this copies of that, hot works permits signed off for every job etc etc wetc, far better chance of success by you approaching the contractors already in place to get work from them, the council dont care who does the job under the main contractor as the contractor takes full responsibility for their people, good luck though

 

[ambrosia]

one of my tutors at college used to be a subby for a london council, he gave me a list of prices the council paid for pretty much any conceivable gas or plumbing job, if youre interested Lambchop i'll dig it out

as i recall they didnt pay well, I think it was stuff like £20 for a landlord safety inspection. I remember him saying the only way to make money was to constantly keep adding things on, for instance if you had to change a tap he'd deliberately break some tiles taking it off so he had to change them as well

 

[mountainman]

Ah! Schedule of rates, I remember it well.
Looks good at first glance but never seems to pan out in reality.
Add to this the delayed payment terms and it rapidld becomes a big mistake. IME

 

[JAH HEATING]

I'd give council work a miss, from past experience it's a bloody nightmare with paperwork and payment

 

[REDSAW]

i was down in portsmouth yesterday...

i do some council work what i charge/quote is what i get paid within 2 weeks of invoice its brill.lol.

 

[Phoenix Heating]

I worked 10 years at my local council, paid per job was better for me use to earn well then it changed to sallery and n matter how much work I did they never paid any more, and was disheartening really.

As for contracts they had in house gas engineers and subed out the installs they dident have time or man power for to any company that could do each block of 6months for a set price for so many despite where boiler went or type of roperty, we/they had 24hr cover of there own then sent contractors out in day time.


Unfortunatly can't apply till 2 years after quitting myself.