Free External Insulation. Is is a scam?

chickens123

I have had a representative from the Green Deal out who says I can have external insulation to my house completely free of charge (together with new fascias, soffits and guttering). He says the charge will not be added to my fuel bills as it is a 100% grant from the government. All I need to do is get an assessor out and pay £147 up front which would be refunded. Call my cynical but this seems far too good to be true. Do you think it is a scam?

SailorSam

I'm with you Chickens i'm always hesitant when these sort of people ask for cash up-front.
The proper Green Deal people do fit external insulation but i thought the idea was it's added to your bill and you pay back over years.
Green Deal have an advice line, i think if i were you i'd check it out with them,
0300-123-1234.

Furts

Hi Chickens and welcome;

Let us look at this in a different light.

Do you really think the tax payer, or utility bill payers, (that is, you and I) are giving out money to fund new soffits, guttering, fascias... Money to fund work that has no benefit to society? And you pay nothing towards it?

I suggest you look closer at what is being offered. If it really is this good put me down to be next!

shegar

!!!!!! Why have to pay £147 up front, then it be refunded?, tell him to stuff it up his arris........

SailorSam

Here's a full list of what they do, just like Furts says there's no mention of gutters.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/65572/6715-the-green-deal-cashback-for-energy-saving.pdf

Biggles

Nor is there any mention of 'external insulation', whatever that is. How could that work? If your loft is insulated properly, doing anything to your soffits & guttering wouldn't make the slightest difference.

diable

Furts wrote: »

Hi Chickens and welcome;

Let us look at this in a different light.

Do you really think the tax payer, or utility bill payers, (that is, you and I) are giving out money to fund work that has no benefit to society?

I suggest you look closer at what is being offered. If it really is this good put me down to be next!

MP's ?

vaio

Biggles wrote: »

Nor is there any mention of 'external insulation', whatever that is. How could that work? If your loft is insulated properly, doing anything to your soffits & guttering wouldn't make the slightest difference.

external insulation is used on houses with solid external walls, it is, I'm pretty sure, available on the new scheme.

Obviously if you apply a 100mm layer of external insulation to a wall it's a fair bet that the gutters etc will need to be adjusted/replaced

System

there were previously government grants available for "hard to heat" homes - generally meaning solid walled. If you get external insulation it would include works to gutters facias etc - I didn't think the grants were still there but if they are it would be worth investigating.
I don't think it falls under the remit of green deal however if you had an assessor saying that it was possible to use external insulation then maybe it would guarantee getting it - from what I have seen of the deal it is normal to pay for an assessor which you then can get a voucher toward from the scheme...

Ken68

I looked into it several years ago....it was going to take 75 years to pay back from the energy savings.

anotherbaldrick

Knowing this Government you can bet that it sounds great until you get into the nitty gritties and then you will find it's not worth a light.