warmfront

debby

our boiler is 20 years old and parts are obsolete to fix it, we are on JSA, my husband was made redundant in november. So we contacted warmfront about grant for new boiler. the grant is for £3500...they've been and measured up etc for new boiler and radiators, but then we get a letter to say we have to pay £1500 on top of the £3500, cos the cost has gone over the grant amount.
Anyone else had this?
We obviously cannot afford the £1500 extra so if our boiler breaks we hv had it, we couldn't afford repair if it could be repaired or to replace it. As it is its not economic, our gas bill is high as we have 4 bedroom house. We don't run the heating thro the day we just wrap up, thankfully our son stays warm at school thro week.
I have long term chronic arthritis condition, if I get cold my joints ache.
looks like we will be going on key metres next.
thank you

rogerblack

As I understand it, you are not eligible for a grant at all with a working heating system, even if it may break down. (clearly, if they know this, this may be wrong).
How did you come to the conclusion that parts will not be available?

Heating bill is extremely unlikely to significantly reduce with a new boiler.
Even an inefficient 1990s boiler isn't that inefficient.
You are likely to perhaps save 10-15%, at best.

macman

Plenty of 20 year old boilers still have parts available, who told you that?
Make and model?

debby

the guy who came out to lookat our system and to see if we qualified. he said boiler wad beyond repair and probs woildnt be able to get the parts.
Even if boiler broke we couldn't afford to get it repaired.

debby

also we have letter to confirm we are eligible and the cost and parts are ordered but we have to pay the excess, sign the form and it will go ahead. letter says boiler beyond repair

southcoastrgi

why are they replacing the rads is it a one pipe system ? why can they not just replace the boiler ?

fishybusiness

We had the same issue, although our system will be an oil based system so the grant covers up to £6000.

We have paid the extra, although it was a more manageable £230.

I have a feeling the grant limits were set a few years ago, costs have gone up, but the grant limits have stayed the same unfortunately.

southcoastrgi

it's more to do with greed & IMO some backhanders along the way, if the OP does what they say & pays the £1500 the job has cost £5k, the installation co will get around £2k the materials costs to warmfront are less than £1k, so where has the other £2k gone i wonder ?

macman

You still haven't stated the make and model...
And what is supposedly wrong with it? 'Beyond repair' doesn't really tell us much.

Richie-from-the-Boro

You should not have to pay any money at all towards the improvements, unless the replacement / and / or / upgrades cost more than the grant available to you. You appear to have asked for or agreed to £1500 worth of extras. This should have been established early in the application process by the person carrying out the survey.

If for any reason your needs could not have been met within the limit of the grant ceiling you should have been told at stage two. At which point you know you need to find extra money and can make a decision.

southcoastrgi

it doesn't quite work like this Richie it's not till quite late on that the customer normally gets a letter stating they need to pay more money & even if they agree & pay the money it's at least 6 weeks before the work will start