What qualifications do CIGA inspectors have?

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The short answer is 'none of signficance'

The long answer:

When a home owner makes a claim (or a 'concern') against their CIGA guarantee. It may result in a site inspection by one of CIGA's technical inspectors.
The report they produce is the basis of CIGA's decision fix the problem or not. Many home owners suffering from damp are quite shocked to find that their report blames the home owner for 'occupancy issues' causing damp or most commonly 'lack of maintenance'.

This report is really important as it forms the basis of CIGA's submission to the Alternative Dispute Process and elements of the install that are not investigated as part of the report or are left out will have no meaningful discussion at ADR. ADR doesn't lead to an independent inspection of the property. For a home owner to stand any chance at ADR they must commission an surveyor to produce their own report at great expense.

Now it's possible that when CIGA inspectors drill a few holes, do a few readings and produces a paper report, that the theatrics of an inspection may lead to home owners to believe flawed conclusions and move on, never progressing their claim. This is the optimum outcome for CIGA.

So what qualifications do these key decision makers have?

We had two inspectors visit the property. The later was the most senior member of the technical department at CIGA.

I asked CIGA if they could provide the qualifications to the inspector and fair play to them,  they did share it after I appealed under their mission statement of 'transparency and openness'.

This was the response:

As far as our inspectors are concerned and in terms of their qualifications to comment on matters of this nature, xxx xxx has over 40 years’ experience working in the insulation industry with the necessary qualifications to inspect and assess cavity wall insulation related issues.

These include:
  • RICS investigation and forensics
  • Level 1 thermography trained.
  • Intrusive investigation equipment and moisture testing.
  • Relevant H & S courses with annual reviews and re-sits.
  • Ladder training (Tetra)
  • IOSH
  • NEBS Supervisory Management

Most of that is just workplace training/ health and safety.  Thermography Level 1 is a 4 day course but no thermography was done on our house.
But RICS investigation and forensics. That's quite significant because if this inspector is covered by RICS then it means there may be some more independent oversight of these 'inspections' or at least a ground to complain about a flawed or incomplete survey.
['forensics' is a bit odd suggesting a crime has taken place , although for CWI this seems quite apt!]

I wrote to RICS to check what the actual qualification was:

Dear xxx,

Thank you for your email.

After reviewing our database, it does appear that the firm The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency is not a regulated firm of the RICS and Mr xxx xxxx is not a member of the RICS.

Therefore, unfortunately, you would not be able to raise this complaint with ourselves as they are not regulated by the RICS.

However, it may be possible for you to review the information that we have listed online as this may help you to determine which course of action is best to take: https://www.rics.org/uk/footer/contact-us/complaints/

Should you require any further assistance regarding the above matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,
xxxx xxxxx
Engagement & Retention Specialist
RICS

CIGA then backtracked from this blatant misrepresentation and said that the inspector had previously attended events arranged by RICS.

So apart from the thermography. The only real qualification of the most senior inspector is a life time of service in the cavity wall industry.  Bear in mind that Ofgem considers Cavity wall installers cheap unskilled labor.

So again. No independent oversight. ADR is confidential so when the CIGA reports get panned by a professional surveyors, this information is not made public.


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