MSE News: Thousands could miss out on Warm Front energy scheme

Dkh

Warm front are helping my mother with her boiler repairs but they are very slow. Her boiler went wrong at the begging of Dec , survey done 18
th jan, surveyor said the work would be done within the next six months.
With all this cold weather we are struggling to keep the house warm.

rotoguys

copa_feela wrote: »

Do you have memory problems rotoguys? In one post you claim to have had "experience" of the Warmfront scheme, but in a post two days earlier you had only just found out about them?

Just noticed this reply - sorry.

Yes I had just found out about the scheme.
Then yes I telephoned them and reported here what they said to me.

They want to help (as per the British gas poster) - no they don't they say that the scheme will run until the end of March but are refusing to take my application because it won't be inspected before the 31sy March.
And that is supposed to be helping. It's just the same as if I don't buy a train ticket on a Monday I can't travel on the Friday - because there is no guarantee that the train will turn up on Friday!!

rotoguys

enlightened wrote: »

No surprise this. As previously reported the system is so inefficient. A relative who qualified for help had a 12 year old boiler that was locking out randomly (could not be traced/fixed) so she applied for a replacement boiler. First question the survey engineer asked was "is it working?". Tried it and it worked. "Sorry cannot help you as it is working"! Nothing on the online application forms to say that, so everyone wasted their time. Be warned also that if it had not been working, it could have taken up to 6 MONTHS to get replaced!! Great having no heating or hot water for 6 months. Suggest the government scrap the whole scheme and put the money towards the national debt.

Now that I can believe!!
You should have pulled a few wires out of the back an hour before he arrived. Working?? Nah - it hasn't worked for 2 years, no idea what is wrong with it.

bored_at_home

I realy wish the government would realise what a waste of time this scheme is to the folk who need it most purely due to the wait when something isnt working.
i was lucly in that i got my insulation done within a couple of weeks from what i can remember as it was 3 years ago, but iv heard so many be quoted ridiculous waits for busted or faulty boilers theyv had to go elsewhere.
WHY does it take 6mths to get a boiler organised? so it arrives after the winter...

mickey_g_2

My neighbour has had her Warm Front boiler for a couple of years now (after a very long initial wait and lots of hassle). She wishes she had never heard of them, she has had so many problems, and their customer service is terrible.
This is the 3rd winter that she has had it and every time we have a prolonged cold snap the external pipe freezes and the boiler cuts out. One of her radiators needs bleeding every couple of days and two of the others never get properly hot. She has had people out to look at it several times but the problems persist.

Mr_Benn

We qualified for this at one point , but having read all the bad reports on them I decided not to go with them. Such a shame , as the chance to save £2,500 on a new boiler was a fantastic offer.
How about the government help people replace any boiler that is over , say , 15 years old. And they pay for either the boiler or /and a corgi registered guy to do it.
Good for the environment - but maybe bad for the governement (who'd rather spend the money throwing it at 3rd world countries)

rotoguys

mickey_g wrote: »

My neighbour has had her Warm Front boiler for a couple of years now (after a very long initial wait and lots of hassle). She wishes she had never heard of them, she has had so many problems, and their customer service is terrible.
This is the 3rd winter that she has had it and every time we have a prolonged cold snap the external pipe freezes and the boiler cuts out. One of her radiators needs bleeding every couple of days and two of the others never get properly hot. She has had people out to look at it several times but the problems persist.

A central heating system is a very simple thing to understand.

The freezing pipe - is just a poor instalation problem. Normally the pipe is routed within the house and generally connected to the drain outlet under the sink. To put it outside is asking for trouble!

As for bleeding and cold rads. Again just a simple thing of bleeding the system in the correct way, knowing which radiator to do first, then next and so on. Then each rad has to be balanced depending where it is in the house.

All of this is something that a good plumber should be able to do in a couple of hours.

Just done both of my daughters' new houses. The systems are never set up properly when they are installed.

All in all just a poor installation and awful after sales attention!

rotoguys

Mr_Benn wrote: »

We qualified for this at one point , but having read all the bad reports on them I decided not to go with them. Such a shame , as the chance to save £2,500 on a new boiler was a fantastic offer.
How about the government help people replace any boiler that is over , say , 15 years old. And they pay for either the boiler or /and a corgi registered guy to do it.
Good for the environment - but maybe bad for the governement (who'd rather spend the money throwing it at 3rd world countries)

What really gets me is that normally only the boiler needs replacing. You only need to serach on the internet for some cracking wholesale deals. Combis are about £800 and Conden £1000 for a top class boiler.

To have it fitted would normally take a plumber/gas fitter say 8 hours - a days work - £300 'ish

The extras piping, fittings say another £100

All in a proper job completed for about £1200/£1400.
That's about £1000 less than what British Gas charge.


In all of the houses that I have renovated, I have installed the central heating by just bringing in the contractor when required and have never spent more than £3000 for a complete system - central heating & hot water.

rogerjg

About 3 yrs ago I was granted the full warm front grant. This equated to having two full size storage heaters, to replace my old style inefficient heaters, plus a small heater for my toilet/shower room. because I am in rented property my landlord had to approve this before it could go ahead. When I asked them about it they said that they would not be approving ti to go ahead because in the small print of the contract it said that if the work was done they would not be able to increase my rent for 2 years. So I still have inefficient storage heaters and have just paid out £80 + for a heated towel radiator in my toilet, which my landlord paid for it to be fitted.

nelliekins

I was hoping someone can give me a hand. My mum applied for a grant from warm front and we had to wait for 8 weeks to get a survey done. She's unwell and has hand no central heating or hot water in her house since last year. The first appointment for the initial survey came and went with no reason as to why the surveyor did not turn up.

I complained to Warm Front who, give them their dues, after a lot of persistence from my end, gave us a complaint manager who has dealt with the account since, got a reason for the missed appointment and rescheduled one for today. (The original appointment was set up for the 4th April and we applied on the 28th January).

So today, the guy turns up at the house and starts the survey. My mum said to them that she needs to have a combi boiler fitted as she has an old tank system which obviously is broken and does not heat the house sufficiently (not to mention the cost of running it in comparison to the new boilers). She showed them a quote she has had for all the radiators that have burst (7) to be replaced and for a combi boiler to be fitted at £3250 which would fall below the amount of £3500 being offered. In removing the enourmous water tank, she would also be able to have a shower fitted. After several hip operations she is unable to get in and out of her bath and the plumber we saw showed us how easy it would be to fit a shower into the leftover space rather than change the whole bathroom.

She was told that they would only replace like for like and that she would have to have the same, outdated system put in place. In adition, the guy told her that she might think radiators were that cheap but that they would pay something like £250 per radiator through contractors (this is ludicrous) so there was no point in continuing the survey as she would have to pay thousands over the top.

The guy left leaving my mum devestated that we've waited all this time to be told that there was no point in even doign the survey as she couldn't have a combi boiler. She called the account manager at Warmfrton who confirmed this was the case unless there were exceptional circumstances. Both my mum and I believe that not being able to wash is a pretty exceptional circumstance along with not being able to fix or continue to run a boiler.

I really don't know where to go from here. The direct.gov website doesn't seem to state anywhere that the will only replace like for like goods; realistically, this would cost considerably more to the scheme than to fit an energy efficient combi boiler. It continually states that the grant is avialble for imporvements, again making a combi boiler something of an improvement in the home. And, we have a trusted and recommened plumber who has previsouly done work through warm front offering to do the work at cost.

What next? Is it really the case that she's now going to be left in a freezing cold house??? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I don't know who to complain to next!!!