Becoming Gas Safe Registered for the first time

[richylamb]

Hi

Im considering leaving the company I work full time for and starting off by myself, what happens after I apply to Gas Safe to become registered? Do they send out an inspector to my property to go through everything and do some tests on my appliances to check im competent? If so what kind of test? Can I prepare for anything in particular? Any help or info greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Richy

 

[AWheating]

yhi mate, if you go to the gas safe webiste all the information is there.

basically you give them your money, you get a card and then they will come and inspect some of your work and if the are happy they leave you alone. Simple really.

one thing i would say is make sure you have got work, do not leave a good paided job unless you have got guaranteed work or you can handle having no work for long periods.

 

[Destroyer2813]

As appeling as working for yourself might seem do you have a lot of cash to put into it to start up van,gas safe registration,public liabilty to name a few there are a lot of us who are relativly quiet so as AW says if you have the money to go without a regular income for a while give it a go. But personaly if i had a full time job at the minute i think id stay put

 

[Toned.f]

make sure you have got work, do not leave a good paided job unless you have got guaranteed work or you can handle having no work for long periods.

which means no money.

 

[baronwills]

As long as you have a current acs certificate you can register with gas safe. You pay them £400, get your card, inspector comes to see you after a couple of months, looks at some jobs you've done. If he's happy you are doing things right, signs you off your probationary period. I suppose it depends what your local inspector is like. I got the impression mine was just counting the days until he retired.

 

[sparra1100]

i would stay were you are and do work at the weekends till you get the work coming in or regular customers or go part time cos its dead at the moment ,everyone is outdoing each other and prices are low

 

[Toned.f]

i would stay were you are and do work at the weekends till you get the work coming in or regular customers or go part time cos its dead at the moment ,everyone is outdoing each other and prices are low

Agreed...and of course be mindful of the fact that there is a fair amount of illegal stuff going on who can undercut you on price ( which is what is no 1 prioroty for most customers).

 

[Barry98]

a customer of mine just said "a self employed person , works 16 hours where a employed person works 8" enough said really

 

[gasmarc]

Hi Bod I dont agree with that saying ,I like to think i work 4 hours and the employed guy works 8 hours or am i doing it wrong,
Regarding leaving a permanent job and going self employed unless you are guaranteed work 100% I would forget it. This year has to be the worst ever and i have been in business for over 20 years ,So i think i know what i am talking about

 

[richylamb]

yhi mate, if you go to the gas safe webiste all the information is there.

basically you give them your money, you get a card and then they will come and inspect some of your work and if the are happy they leave you alone. Simple really.

one thing i would say is make sure you have got work, do not leave a good paided job unless you have got guaranteed work or you can handle having no work for long periods.

OK so im thinking of staying with my full time employment but getting my own gas safe registration, but on the Gas Safe website it says I need a business name, does this mean I need to register as a self employed sole trader aswell, for VAT and tax purposes?? Or can I just register a business name get gas safe regsitered and be done with it???

 

[AWheating]

just use whatever you want, your name or something like Explosive Gas Installations

the tax man will come looking if you do not pay your taxes on your own work as they use the gas safe register to look for tax non payers. So it would look abit off if your on the gas safe register but do not even complete a self assessment tax return. Speak to the IR and they will advise you on what to do.

 

[gasmarc]

you wont need to get vat registered either until your earning bundles

 

[mikimac]

...and then you can find it even harder to get the work with the added 20% on top :yesnod:

 

[princegoose]

Everyone on here, last year, told me not to become self employed, they weren't wrong. It's hard, there's just too many plumbers out there. The local paper is full of plumbers adverts, yellow pages is 99.9% plumber, and they all want your money.

Don't take out any debt.

Get work before you do it

 

[princegoose]

OK so im thinking of staying with my full time employment but getting my own gas safe registration, but on the Gas Safe website it says I need a business name, does this mean I need to register as a self employed sole trader aswell, for VAT and tax purposes?? Or can I just register a business name get gas safe regsitered and be done with it???

You don't need to register a name, or be VAT registered, or have a business account.

Keep receipts
Keep a copy of all invoices
keep bank statements
tell HMR C&R what you're doing, they'll set you up on a direct debit for NI if you have to.

Call your business whatever you like.