Home Inspector Training Advert Upheld by ASA

No case to answer on 3 counts

Submitted by: MikeC (Admin) on 05-Mar-08 04:46:46 PM

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed complaints from members of the public objecting to what they claimed was a misleading advert placed by Home Inspector Training Ltd (HIT), a sister company of HipHipHooray that sells training courses to prospective Domestic Energy Assessors and Home Inspectors.

The ASA received eleven complaints centred around three issues:

1. ...exaggerated earnings potential for Home Inspectors (several complaints).
2. ...that the subsidy would mean lower course fees (several complaints).
3. ...that being available to work for Home Inspector Training's in-house company, and therefore qualify for a subsidy, entailed a four-year commitment (one complaint).

Exaggerated earnings potential for Home Inspectors

According to the ASA, HIT successfully defended the advertised earnings potential of Energy Assessors, arguing: "...they had quoted conservative figures below what their own Home Information Pack (HIP) Providing Company had been paying since the inception of the HIP legislation in August 2007. Home Inspector said the figure of "£80 to £120 for Energy Assessments" quoted in the ad was below the £100 to £160 their HIP Provider had paid their Energy Assessors since August and that they had no plans to reduce that fee."

On Home Inspector fees, Home Inspector Training Ltd said the figure of "£200 to £300 for optional Home Condition Reports" was the amount HipHipHooray had been paying since August and is expected to increase.

Training course subsidy

In defending complaints surrounding course subsidies if trainees agreed to accept work from HipHipHooray for a period of four years: HIT produced copies of invoices showing that some of its trainees had paid the full price for that course; others, the subsidised price.

Four year "handcuff" contract

On point 3, HIT retorted: "... everything was explained to potential trainees in a 45-minute, one-to-one interview and that no one was offered training on the spot. They said potential trainees were also required to sit an aptitude test and would be informed whether they had been offered a training place some time after the interview process. They said that, if interviewees were offered a training place, they would be required to visit Home Inspector Training Ltd's offices a second time in order to go through the details of the training on a one-to-one basis again before finally signing up for the course."

The ASA accepted the evidence from Home Inspector Training Ltd and dismissed all the complaints on all three counts.

Read full report at the ASA website: Home Information Training Ltd ruling.

Posts: 4

home inspector training.
Reply #1 on : Fri September 12, 2008, 17:46:25

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Its easy to produce figures to prove a point, the fact should be that the price they offer afer subsidy is the same as other training providers within the industry so therefore it is equal to the full price, so all they are doing is adding the training susidy on to the full amount first so they are giving you nothing. As for the amount of earnings when you attend the interview they state figures as the minimum amounts per year that you WILL be earning which is not the same as the amount per inspection and lead you to beleave this amount is garenteed which it is NOT.

Posts: 4

Home inspector training
Reply #2 on : Tue November 11, 2008, 08:08:26

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I suggest this is referred back to the ASA as in mod one we discussed earnings for the business plan. Our trainee didnt even know what hip hip hooray were paying. He told us tio make the figures up.
As for the subsidy I started in Jan 08 and have never been contacted to see how Im getting on. A bit suspicious I think. Was it a gift? or a fake transaction. Report it to the Inland revenue as a con or a tax fiddle.

Posts: 4

Also very unhappy
Reply #3 on : Fri December 05, 2008, 08:54:38

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I totally agree with the previous coments!! These guys are GREAT salesman!!! This is a company that has one goal - To make as much money from ME as it can.

Posts: 4

Hip Hip Hooray
Reply #4 on : Thu February 18, 2010, 17:34:45

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I passed all the exams, paid out thousands of pounds and have nothing to show for it. On the initial interview I was pressurised into signing on the dotted line as the interviewer said that if I didn't I'd loose £1000 as the course was going up by that amount the next day. I am still, 2 years later, trying to pay off my debts incurred by this scam! I know of at least 50 others who were similarly conned - the Government are also to blame as they have shelved HIP's but where is our compensation???