[woodman]

Are many posters on here involved in restoration work for Insurance companies etc.

You might want to know that by the end of this year most Loss Adjusters will only use BDMA certified technicians to carry out this type of work.

You can easily obtain this by taking one of their exams which they hold at various locations around the country.

[Forum Admin]

Hi Woodman
Can you provide contact details for the BDMA for other members?
Have you done the course? Is it any good and was it expensive?

[woodman]

Hi Forum Admin, info as follows:

The British Damage Management Association
Can be contacted on: 07000 843 2362.

Accredited Membership is open to all who work in this field.
Associate Membership is open to all who have an interest but are not or who do not qualify for accreditation.

Associate Entry Level is £55.00 per annum
No experience or qualifications are required

Technician is £160.00 per annum as is Senior Technician
Must have at least 1 years experience on fire/flood,hold
Health & Safety Certificate .
Senior Technician Minimum 3 years,Certified BDMA Tech.
level H& S certificate with wide range of fire/flood knowledge.

You can attend courses run by companies such as  the National Flood School on fire and smoke damage, price
£520 + VAT these are 5 day courses.
0800 316 6706.

These courses set you up for the BDMA exam.which costs £150 plus vat to sit and like I said are held around the country at various locations.

Once you are accredited all types of job opportunities will open up to members with companies that specialise in this type of work.You will be sent the BDMA magazine in which these companies advertise for technicians.

It is very important to become an accredited member if want to carry out this work.Very few Loss Adjusters will risk using companies who are not accredited.

Hope this is of help.

[Forum Admin]

Thanks for that - I'm sure that will be of interest to other members!

[Derek]

Hi Woodman

I am led to believe that the franchises and larger conglomerate Companys have this business tied up with the Insurance companys and that their is very little business for the small independant operator.

The Insurance Company's like to deal with a Company that has Nationwide coverage and one telephone number only

Is this still the case?

Derek

[woodman]

Hi Derek

In the main it is still the case but this does not stop anyone else becoming members of the BDMA.

Any one of us can make contact with our local Loss Adjusters, insurance brokers etc and let them know we are ready ,able and accredited to carry out restoration work.

Quite a few loss adjusters like to use local guys and when you have established contact and they know you are reliable they will use you especially in busy times,floods etc. You have to remember that although they have national contracts with Franchises, when it hits the fan, even they can't cope and they look elswhere if they don't know about you then they won't contact you .
Also alot of these franchise guys are simply not up to the job and they fall out with loss adjusters on a daily basis over the quality of their work and their charges.

It good to add BDMA membership to your armoury you never know when that lucrative fire job will come your way.

Happy Cleaning

[Derek]

Hi Woodman

Your comments reflect some of the noises I am hearing. You are correct some of the individual franchise operators are not just up to it whilst others are superb.

A colleague who is an independant and still does a fair bit of Fire and Flood work was only saying to me the other day that 'the day of the independant will return'

The BDMA is certainly the way to go as the information they have access to is second to none.

Regards
Derek

[eclipse]

as a employed fire and flood restoration technician (not an employer) i have moved companys several times in the last 6 months due to the way the industry is going
i have found it quite easy to get new employment because i am a BDMA. Technician however at £160 pounds a year i feel this is a little steep.
particulaly when i also have IICRC qualifacations which only cost me $40 dollars a year. After 1 year as a BDMA Technician i have finaly taken my level 2 senior technician and am still waiting for my results from september. However £160 is not too bad when you think of the hassle i would have looking for a job without it, There wouldnt be many takers
My opinion is join the BDMA take the exams and reap the rewards (and self satisfaction)

[CATMAN]

I work in this industry and with there being so many operators you will always get a degree of difference. There are the big players, Munters, Belfor, Chem-Dry, Rainbow & Servicemaster and in each one there will be some excellant people, but there will also be crap, the law of averages dictates this. Even the some small independants the same will be true.

This industry is going through major changes with new laws coming into effect concerning asbestos. in future you will have to presume or strongly presume that a property contains this material and act accordingly. Due to other factors that have taken place the HSE are looking very carefully at how it operates and before long they will be coming down hard.

One of the major problems for this industry is the insurance companies dictate, who they use and they can also dictate the cost of this work. They are all looking to cut costs, and yet get an even better service. The big ones now want everything done at one fixed price, believe me the prices are rock bottom and some of you on this site are making good money cleaning carpets, stick with it you get paid for the work you do, we are still waiting for invoives to be paid six months after the work has been completed, some other go back further.

There is work for the small operator but there needs to be away of them all banding together, to show that they all carry liabiltiy insurance, they have all been trained to a minimum standard, all ther equipment has been tested to an end standard, they all guarentee they can be at an urgent job in 2 hours, plus pages of  MI information, believe me the paperwork is bigger than the job.

I've seen the splash and dash operators being given a hard time on this site, because they have no credentials. If you take this one step further, and you are an insurance company, how do they spot the carpet cleaners from fully trained restorers.

[MICHAEL_GAYTON]

I am with Derek on his first post the market is wrapped up at the moment with the big players also they help run the BDMA,NEED I SAY MORE
MICK
PS I did the fire and flood and oder  control with the IICRC a few years age and joined the BDMA only as an
associate for one year, it costs alot of money to get there and little return  for the small guy.You add the corses up /joining fee/ equipment etc etc. :-/

[Steve Knight]

I am involved within the fire & flood restoration industry and find that nearly all the loss adjusters I deal with, have not even heard of the BDMA, let alone actively seek out one of their members to do a job.
As an employee, I would imagine it would be a useful item to have on your CV, but it holds little weight with insurers or loss adjusters.
With regard to costings, most insurers have a panel of between 1-4 contractors to call on to deal with this type of work, usually working within contract rates. The loss adjuster, if they are appointed, will simply choose one off the panel.

Regards

Steve

[woodman]

Sorry Steve

find that very hard to believe.

If all the loss adjusters you are dealing with have not heard of The BDMA then they won't be loss adjusters for very much longer.

The Loss Adjusters will in the most part work within guide lines set down by the Insurance company that employs them on a particular claim and instruct accordingly.They can not instruct as they see fit, although some might like to think that they can but have to use a company contracted to the Insurance Company, unless they are not available or if there is an ongoing problem with a particular company in his given area.

If you are a BDMA member you will have more of a chance of picking up this work by sub contracting to the big boys or directly if they can't cope.

[Steve Knight]

I passed my technicians exam with the BDMA, but my point is that it is fairly worthless at the moment. Hopefully, that will improve, and the industry as a whole will benefit. Unfortunately for the time being, loss adjusting firms are suffering, as well as the insurance companies, and loss adjusters are not going to jepardise a contract by seeking out individual firms that are not on the preferred contractors list for that insurer.

[eclipse]

hi all
        i agree with the author above the BDMA is on one hand a waste of time because regardless if whether a individual has got BDMA acreditayion or not the insurance companys are always gonna go for the big fish ie munters, chem-dry,rainbow etc because they can offer 24 7 national coverage where as jo bloggs with bdma cannot the only thing that having BDMA acreditation has done for me is get me jobs easier because having that acreditation shows that you are capable of doing the job properly
I used to work for a firm in lincoln (Disaster Care) and i was one of 11 technicians who got laid off when the sh!t hit the fan regarding losing insurance tenders and not enough work to pay the wages (we all know the score on that dont we!!) but after working for all the big fish mentioned above and no disrespect intended here but all other 10 of the other technicians at Disaster Care were the most profesional guys who i have ever met and did the job correctly with no errors and no complaints however because we couldnt offer 24 7 national coverage (even with all our servise suppliers) we lost the tenders to companys who offer nationwide 24 7 coverage but some operators dont even know how to set up a drying system no where is the sense in that
All i can say to the insurance companys is go back to the old days (ie 18 months ago) where tenders were done by postcodes that way the customers get the service they deserve and let some of the liitle fish get a peice of the action because there are some bloody good small fire and flood companys out there who have had to diversify because they are too small but could offer a far more superior servise than some of the bigger ones
no tell me if you think i am spouting sh*t but if we get another year like this i am gonna stack shelves in tescos at least tescos will be here in 10 yrs time

[John_Flynn]

Hiya leerob695

What is Stuart doing now???

I was a service supplier for Disastercare and had some damm good jobs from the company !!

32 jobs in 12 days in Janruary 2002.

[eclipse]

hi all
       spoke to stuart last week he is working in a motorbike shop in somewhere like newark (what a waste of all his experience in fire and flood) yes disaster care was a bloody good company with great staff and bosses who treat you with respect what a waste of a bloody good chem dry i could do with getting in with another company like that!!!!!!!!!!!

[eclipse]

sorry for some reason i wrote chem-dry instead of company doh!!