Property Professionals Administration – what should I do?
The training provider Property Professionals which was also known as Home Inspector Training (HIT) is understood to have gone into administration yesterday.
NHER have been in touch with us this morning and there is a meeting planned on Monday between, NHER, ABBE and other related parties to discuss what can be done to help those that are affected.
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything specific that can be said at this point in time though it is unlikely that the options which maybe presented will match what affected candidates will be looking and hoping for.
NHER are happy to take calls on 01908 672787 regarding this situation from affected candidates. We are informed that NHER will in the first instance take some details and as soon as possible thereafter contact with some guidance on options.
As more information becomes available we will endeavour to update you.
Related posts:
- Property Professionals in Administration – Next Steps
- Online estate agency – cure or virus for property professionals?
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February 5th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Regrettably we have seen this in the past, when a company called HES left 300 or so DEA candidates out to dry. Quidos picked up the pieces, and got the majority qualified.
The most important thing for any trainee with Property Professionals is to get hold of your assessment portfolio. It is your property, and has no value to PP.
Once you have this you can then transfer your ABBE registration to any other ABBE training centre (e.g. Quidos, but there are many others). The cost of completing your qualification will depend on what stage you are at:
1. registered with ABBE, failed exam, and not completed portfolio
2. registered with ABBE, passed exam, and completed portfolio
3. passed exam, and had portfolio successfully assessed by an approved assessor.
Obviously any training centre will be pleased to help affected students. Just shop around for the best price.
February 5th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
A discussing about this on the money saving forum
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1950821
The ASA should be brought to account about this outfit.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Hi out there I would suggest we wait until abbe and nher have had there meeting before jumping into bed with another trainer.Financially, speak to the people you have any loans with giving them as much info as possible. Hang on in there until we have any solid info from either the administrators abbe or nher I don`t think it will be long before there is something positive
February 6th, 2010 at 2:20 am
I fully endorse the comments made by Philip above. We too stand ready to assist not only candidates who have already trained but are seeking to finish their qualification, but also those who were waiting to train for their next chosen level. We offer NDEA Levels 3 & 4 plus DEC and DEA on request. Our website will be updated on Monday to provide details.
In addition those who have paid by credit card should contact their card issuer as they may be able to recalim their cash! Those who have booked most recently should also seek legal advice!
February 6th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I would like to clarify that this site and article is not designed for training providers to sell their ’services’. Future repsonses which are viewed as sales pitches may be deleted.
However, if you want to send us or post details of how you intend to genuinely help people in certain scernarios we will be generally happy to publish.
February 7th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
ABBE are not the innocent broker in all this. The ABBE CEO Mr Roger Bishop was made aware of PP’s dodgy dealings at least by June 2009 bymyelf and probably by others much before that. PP has has 8 criminal cases against it and you are telling me ABBE didn’t know about that? If you want more info contact me on (email address removed)
February 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Propery professionals administrators are :
HJS Recovery
Business Recovery Specialists
Telephone: 02380 234222
Further info can be found here
http://www.abbeqa.co.uk/news.aspx?newsid=47
February 9th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I have been sent the following email
Dear Mr @@@@@
Thank you for your recent e mail. I would confirm that I was appointed Joint Administrator to the company on 3 February.
As you aware, the company operated four training centres – Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and London. It had approximated 800 trainees enrolled in its training courses. Each trainee would have paid between £5,000 and £10,000 each to undertake the training course. Many of the trainees have obtained personal finance in the way of bank loans to fund the costs of the course.
The company was placed into Administration as it effectively ran out of money in January. Staff wages were not paid together with the rent on the company’s four premises.
Myself and my staff attended each premises on the morning of Thursday 4 February and met with the staff and all trainees that were present. As Administrator, I do not have any funds with which to pay wages or indeed cover the costs of continuing to trade. Therefore I had no option other than to make all staff redundant and suspend the training courses.
We explained to the staff and trainees that our intention is to find a purchaser of the business as a going concern or if that is not achievable, identify a replacement training provider. In this regard, I remain optimistic and am currently in discussion with four interested parties.
In addition to the uncertainty about the continuation of their training and the potential loss of their money, the trainees are also concerned that their portfolios, which contain their course records, could be lost in the Administration process. I would confirm that the portfolios are secured at the company’s premises and will either be passed to the purchaser, the new training provider, or be returned to the trainees in due course.
I appreciate that this is a very difficult time for the trainees, who face not having the training and qualifications that they have paid for and also the prospect that they have lost their money. I would like to assure the trainees and reiterate that my current priority is locating a purchaser of the business and assets or facilitating the transfer to a new training provider. At this stage, it is early days of the administration and we have not yet investigated the causes of failure or the conduct of the directors. Both of these points are part of my statutory duties and will be undertaken, however, as stated, I am currently concentrating on ensuring that any loss to the trainees is mitigated.
I will provide an update over the course of the next week.
Shane Biddlecombe MABRP
Director
t: 023 8023 4222
e:shane.biddlecombe@hjsrecovery.co.uk
http://www.hjsrecovery.co.uk
February 10th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Dear Shane
I am a trainee of property professional and I submitted my portfolio last Tuesday 2nd Feb and was told they could not take payment for assessing it. This is the last step to qualifying as a DEA.
How do I get my portfolio back? can I rely on your company to find a buyer for the company? How do I prevent the portfolio being lost or thrown out in the rubbish?
Regards
Edmund Black
February 11th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
I do not really understand. We have been told that unless we get the appropriate liability insurance we would not be able to trade legally. Is not it the same with a company like PP?
February 16th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Can anyone advise me on what to do next? I passed my ABBE level 4 Home Inspectors Exam with HIT/PP a while back and have recently been working on putting together my portfolio. Can i now get this assessed elsewhere?
Thanks
February 16th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Hi everyone. For latest info please join my mailing list (of over 200 now)
February 17th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
What is the position of ABBE in all of this.I only found out Monday (15/2/10) by accident when emails I sent kept being returned, and the phone line was dead. I contacted the administrator who informed me to collect my finalised DEA portfolio from the London Office Thurs/Fri. I don’t know how far it has been processed. Apparently PP+ informed some people certificates had been applied for, when ABBE say they haven’t. Also I’m discovering from other sites that the “Profession” (sic) is awash with DEAs and not enough work to cover those already qualified. If that is the case why are ABBE continuing to approve all of these Training Providers which will dilute the “Profession” even further.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Below is a copy of the letter I submitted to the administrator and copied to ABBE.
PORTFOLIOS
My finalised Portfolio was submitted for verification, amended as instructed, but I do not know how far along the Certification process. If I collect it from the Tolworth office, am I then back to square one regarding resubmitting it and the cost involved. If I leave it on PP+ premises, how long will it be before another buyer (if any) takes over and continues the verification. Will I incur additional costs anyway? One would hope that the Professional Body that oversees and approves these Assessment Centres (ABBE) will adopt the professional approach and send verifiers round, at no cost to students, to complete these verifications. According to their website, quote,”ABBE’s role as an Awarding Body includes approving assessment centres and send external verifiers, who make sure all the centres assess candidates fairly and consistently”..Which they have failed to do
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Is there any one can Help advice me please!!!!!
I was due to start four weeks course starting in March I paid £500 deposit. I called the training dep to book my induction phone is dead and just now I heard they bare in adminstration.
How do I get my money back?
February 24th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Hi
I’m in the same boat as many of you. It’s sickening, especially as due to illness I’m out of time on my contract. I run a Facebook group for trainees, just do a search, there is also a Google group.
Two trainers, one from PP and another from another provider, have stated privately to me that there is no value in continuing with the qualification as there is no market for it. There also appear to be more commercial energy assessors than demand dictates. I believe, and this may not be the view of the publisher, that the inducement many of us were offered in the form of joining the HipHipHooray panel, suggested that there was more work available than has proved to be the case. I also believe that the directors had a duty of care to ensure that work was available before selling the training. As such I believe that the training was missold. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 you have a claim against the credit provider if you can prove that the product was defective or missold. Also if you paid a deposit for the course of over £100 by credit card, I am led to believe that you can claim the entire cost of the course, plus other losses, from the credit card provider. I’m not a lawyer and am just relaying what I have been told, so don’t take this to be legal advice. They are, however, avenues which you might explore and share with your respective mailing lists. I’m not selling anything, am not qualified to advise, but will pass on any links or information I have. There is also a Money Saving Expert thread on this subject which you might find useful.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your feedback. I understand the Money Saving Expert thread has been removed.
We are of course happy for factual information to be left on all our threads and articles which will help others. There has obviously been some type of issue with regard to what was published on MSE so i would ask that people only leave commments which are factual.
We have had a few responses where people and organisations have promoted their ‘help’ which we are trying to confirm legitamacy of, before we publish the details.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
This is a link to a petition on the No10 website to help everyone affected by this.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Help-PP-trainees/ESo4PcANVPacD5U5uSAmJsa
February 26th, 2010 at 5:06 am
I cannot believe this is happening…it is just a bombshell to me. I should have known there was something not kosher about the whole thing when the course tuition fee increased by over£1000 the day before I signed up to take the training. I first started my course to become a DEA and Home Inspector over two years ago when the company was known as HIT. I had to request an extension of training due to a family emergency and finish the classroom training at a later date only to be forced to take an extended break from revision for the final exam due to family commitments. I started revising again just last week to take the Module 6 exam (which I already paid for in advance)and when I phoned to confirm a date to sit the last module exam there was no answer….so I checked the PP website but it was simply not there. I only discovered that PP went under today. Oh man, what are we all going to do? My family made sacrifices and did without things so I could attend those classes and get my qualification. I have studied and put in many hours of work building up a portfolio and a potential business on paper. Now…there is more bad news in that the market is flooded with DEAs….I have kept receipts for all expenses incurred while on the course, so will I be able to recoup my losses?
February 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Hello all,
I’m myself a victim of this scam, i,ve first started the course with HIT about 2 years ago and went all the way to complete the abbe exam, did my portfolio that we all know as all knows it is a lengthy task, lost my job and after that i couldn’t afford the growing cost of getting my portfolio approved, each time was an extra £200, now i have a completed portfolio waiting for the final assessment and a massive debt on a bank loan for a course that now is worthless. I have all my receipts and many expenses, any ideias on how to recoup this massive loss.
February 27th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Hello to all,
We understand there are various groups, individuals and businesses trying to help affected trainees.
Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly hard to diferentiate those who are genuinely helping and those who are trying to ‘prey’ on those who have already suffered as part of this situation. We do not want to help facilitate these people causing further pain and abusing people in this awful situation.
So we are no longer going to allow people to request our readers to make email subscriptions, direct them to closed support groups, visit this website, contact this phone number etc etc etc. This is because it appears some people are gathering personal details to sell products, services and as you may of guessed more training.
We rarely delete comments left, but these types of comments will either not be published or be heavily edited.
However, we want to help use our exposure to the benefit of others affected. We are now told there are up to 2500 which have some degree of displeasure with the situation. Our site is publically viewable and there is no need to enter any personal information.
So, if you as a group, business, organisation or individual has some advice, update etc etc feel free to post it here but not to use our site to direct them elsewhere. Thank you for your understanding.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
To Chris Strickland- If you have payed for the ABBE exam then you MUST contact them abbeenquiries@bcu.ac.uk give your details i.e Name Date of birth Postcode and tell them which qualification you have booked. they will be able to let you know if you are registered with them. If so, you will be able to sit the exam at a different centre at no further cost (except travel) Good luck.
To Joao Costa- There are steps you can take re: your bank loan, Barclays current statement is that they are looking for a replacement training provider. If you would prefer to get your loan refunded then you need to educate yourself with the consumer credit act section 75. A good place to start with this is the consumer direct website, and Money saving expert website.
February 28th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
I am also at DEA External Verification Level. If and when we eventually get these certificates are they really worth the paper they’re written on???? Will they get you a job??? The industry already has far more DEAs and CEAs than needed. Other training centres are still advertising these courses (at discounts). The Awarding bodies and Accreditation Schemes are still promoting their organisations with a sort of “head-in-the-sand attitude”. From the outset it always seemed a cash register was going somewhere with the add-ons. You need all these books (ker-ching) you need to pay for your exam (ker-ching) your one-to-one has timed out (ker-ching) you need to register with ABBE for the IV/EV (ker-ching) you need a Basic Disclosure(ker-ching) you need to register with an accreditation scheme (ker-ching) You will now have to pay someone else to continue the training you’ve already paid for once (ker-ching) That’s if you have any spare cash left.If you haven’t, don’t panic, a bank loan can be arranged. Then there’s the months you have already wasted training for a job with no vacancies, and an over-subscribed workforce.