Warm Front Grant saved me a fortune!

jen111

I had a grant awarded to me and had loft insualtion and draught proofing down. Their adviser said there was still money there if I my boiler packed up.

It hasn't packed up completely but is faulty, when the hot water comes on the heat runs and vice versa - I am either completely sweltering or freezing!

I had a heating engineer come round to have a look at the boiler and he said there isn't much he can do with it as the boilers over 15 years old and is not at all efficient
.
I phoned warm front and they said theres nothing they can do as it has to be condemned for me to claim for grant money.

I did read The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (England) Regulations 2005, and it says that a grant can be awarded 'to improve the energy efficiency of, or replace any part of, or repair any space or water heating system installed in the dwelling'

I am claiming benefits, so surely my situation qualifies under this?

Could anyone advise me on this please.

Elhall_2

jen111 wrote:

I had a grant awarded to me and had loft insualtion and draught proofing down. Their adviser said there was still money there if I my boiler packed up.

True, but because you have already used part of the grant that money will be taken off the total. It means that you are more likely to have to contribute to the new boiler.

jen111 wrote:

I phoned warm front and they said theres nothing they can do as it has to be condemned for me to claim for grant money.

When did you call? Give ait a couple of weeks and then phone up telling them that it's packed in completely. To be honest if it has an intermitant fault you should qualify anyway, but that could have been a test scheme that they were doing at the time. When the installers survey comes out tell them how back it is, at that point they will want to help you. You just need to get them out in the first place.

Hope that helps

HugoSP

When we had a warmfront grant in 2003 we were told that the max was £1500. Still this paid for all the stuff we needed. Insulation and a new boiler.

The boiler we had as a Potterton Netaheat. It was tempremental to say the least. When we were due to have it inspected by the engineer a fault with the fan happened. The engineer couldn't find the house so didn't turn up. He did try to phone us to ask directions but someone was on the phone, and he left a message.

When we phoned him up he aske us what type of boiler it was. when we told him he simply said that he would tell Warmfront he'd seen it and advised them that a replacement was needed.

We then had a wait for several weeks approaching the winter with no heating or HW. I eventually phoned up Warmfront and explained politely that winter wouldn't wait for them to get their act together. Within a couple of weeks we were in contact with the firm that were to fit it.

Elhall_2

Back then the Grant was run by Powergen. £1500 grant was for boiler change and repair only. It was difficult to get radiators sorted. Additionally there are new rules for both the grant and the legal installation. It makes them cost more.

Back in those days it was only if you qualified for Full Central Heating that you got the maximum of £2500.

Elhall_2

Back then the Grant was run by Powergen. £1500 grant was for boiler change and repair only. It was difficult to get radiators sorted. Additionally there are new rules for both the grant and the legal installation. It makes them cost more.

Back in those days it was only if you qualified for Full Central Heating that you got the maximum of £2500.

pookienoodle

Hi
Do not know if this is any use to anyone.
Here in Wales there is a scheme under the eaga umberella.
it is called HEALTH THROUGH WARMTH you need to be reccommended by a healthcare professional ie an occupatonal therapist or disrict nurse.
if you heating situation aggravates your health condition you can get the maximum hees grant and the work is done much more quickly.
by the way if your boiler is switched off at the wall when the surveyor comes( our boiler was due to an electrical fault) the surveyor is not insured to switch it back on and must take your word for it that it is not working.
hope this helps.

margaretclare

Hi all

Another update. I phoned WarmFront this morning asking about the state of play of our application - originally applied end of June, surveyors came round 2 months ago on 9th October, assured us it would be all done before Christmas (Optimistic or what!!)

It appears that the appointed installer - Interglow of Royston, Herts - has not yet sent their quotation to WarmFront. WarmFront say that this delay is unacceptable and have advised me to phone again at the end of this week to check that the quote has arrived (is supposed to be sent today) and if not, they will chase it up.

Whatever, we know nothing will happen now until into the New Year. At the same time we have a statement from Npower saying that our gas consumption of the next 12 months is expected to be £720 and therefore our monthly direct debit payment needs to go up from £58 to £64 a month from January. We expect that with the new installation we should be using a lot less gas so you can imagine, we'd prefer to have the new installation sooner rather than later!

I am afraid that a lot of the older people who think they're going to benefit from this scheme are not going to find any benefit from it this winter, and in the meantime, they'll end up paying more for gas. If we were like many of them who're on lower incomes than we are we'd be in a total panic about this.

Margaret

Lady_K

Crikey thats terrible theres been some mess up there, you've been waiting a long time... For them not to send the quote in after all that time is really bad no wonder warmfront are not happy. Hope it gets things moving fast now for you.

I rang them this morning too to ask if they had any idea of when the installation would be taking place as they have all the parts in stock. They rang the installers who just said the engineers will get in touch with me when there is an available date... Warmfront just passed this on to me and I said ok thankou but its a little vague it could mean weeks or months do you have any time schedual in which they have to complete the work in order to give me a better idea and the girl just said no sorry all I know is it can take 6 months

Elhall_2

Really it should only take a couple of weeks.

I know you don't like it, but phoning them every other will be in your best interest. Infact, going through Warmfront in all of these is best. First, it's a free phone number (no cost!) second, they will notice if you are getting bad treatment. Timelines MUST be taken into account, the installers and Warmfront know this.

margaretclare

Elhall wrote:

Really it should only take a couple of weeks.

I know you don't like it, but phoning them every other will be in your best interest. Infact, going through Warmfront in all of these is best. First, it's a free phone number (no cost!) second, they will notice if you are getting bad treatment. Timelines MUST be taken into account, the installers and Warmfront know this.

Yes, this is what Liam at WarmFront said when I spoke to him on Monday, that it was 'unacceptable', the 2 months since the surveyors' visit and the quotation not yet in. He asked me to phone WarmFront again on Friday to enquire the state of play.

The next stage is that WarmFront look at the installer's quotation and see whether it's reasonable etc. Then they contact us again to state a price, whether £2,700 will cover it or whether there'll be more for us to pay. Legally they must do this in writing. Liam explained this (had to be done in writing) when I said 'cut down delay, use modern technology, you have our phone number, just pick up the phone!' So they'll send a letter because they have to but, however, we'll hopefully make some arrangement by phone as well.

I've assured Liam at WarmFront that whatever the cost, provided WarmFront think it's reasonable, it's not a problem. After all, we are gonna be saving £2,700 which we'd have had to pay otherwise, so another few hundreds on top of that is not gonna be a problem at all, given that when the new installation is in place the gas usage will tumble! From January gas will be costing us £64 a month as opposed to £28 a year ago, so a few hundreds to upgrade the boiler will save us money in the long-term.

Margaret