19th April 2010, 09:57 AM
I've never really understood the purpose of the county lists, in fact they seem counter-productive. They are not allowed to be 'recommendations' but in order to get on one you typically have to demonstrate some compentancy, so they in effect become recommendations. Also, I have seen lists for two counties that clients have helpfully sent and to be honest if I were a developer, who had never dealt with such a thing, I would find them more unhelpful than helpful for three reason - firstly they include every organisation that has expressed an interest in working in the area and is based within a certain distance ('based' does in some cases mean that there is just an 'office', by which I mean a PO Box number or an employees house), and secondly because they are presumably only occassionally updated there are organisations listed that are, as far as I am aware, no longer operating, and thirdly, the vast majority of the organisations have done virtually no work in the area and are never likely to.
What's wrong with expecting the developer to find someone themselves (e.g. via the Yellow Pages) and then get assurances that it is someone reputable when they submit their project design? Perhaps IfA accrediation could be used in such circumstances, the way such schemes exist with say electricians, which means that their work doesn't have to be checked in as much detail by Building Regs? I assume that would come down to funding. Perhaps the IfA could help with that and it might encourage membership, I'm not sure how similar schemes in other areas work.
The worst thing is that some, frankly very poor contractors are on these lists and they don't therefore even need to bother to advertise elsewhere. They must, initially at least, be winning work off the back of being the list. As someone else pointed out, you don't even need to be on the list to work in an area anyway.
Are there any counties that don't have lists?
What's wrong with expecting the developer to find someone themselves (e.g. via the Yellow Pages) and then get assurances that it is someone reputable when they submit their project design? Perhaps IfA accrediation could be used in such circumstances, the way such schemes exist with say electricians, which means that their work doesn't have to be checked in as much detail by Building Regs? I assume that would come down to funding. Perhaps the IfA could help with that and it might encourage membership, I'm not sure how similar schemes in other areas work.
The worst thing is that some, frankly very poor contractors are on these lists and they don't therefore even need to bother to advertise elsewhere. They must, initially at least, be winning work off the back of being the list. As someone else pointed out, you don't even need to be on the list to work in an area anyway.
Are there any counties that don't have lists?