ECO boiler refusal

tez150

In June of this year, after seeing the advertisement for free central heating boilers available through the government ECO scheme, I contacted B&Q. This was because my 10 year old back boiler was becoming increasingly unreliable and inefficient. Their advert stated that if you were a low income household and receiving certain benefits, then a brand new combi boiler could be fitted with no charge at all. This was because the government wanted to replace all old, none working or inefficient boilers to lower the carbon footprint of households.
Being in receipt of guaranteed pension credit and, as such, in the lowest income bracket in the country, I duly applied in June of this year. During the phone conversation, I was informed that I did indeed meet the criteria for a free boiler, and a survey was subsequently arranged. This morning I received a letter from B&Q stating that this work would cost £4867, the funding available was £3354, therefore there was a shortfall of £1513 and B&Q could not help me in this instance.
I have read stories in the media about people going through exactly the same sort of process as me to try to get help with their heating replacement, only to be told that, “ sorry you will have to come up with some money for us to go ahead “. Seems as if that has happened to me now. I thought that by going through B&Q I would be assured of a straightforward and simple procedure, certainly as the government seemed so keen to help households get rid of old and irreplaceable heating boilers. There seems any amount of companies wanting to replace these boilers now.

southcoastrgi

you could get a full heating system installed for less than that

macman

I would be asking why it costs nearly 5K to fit a combi?!
But they're still offering you in excess of two thirds of the total cost.

matelodave

Both my daughter have had combis fitted in the last couple of years and it cost then less than £2k and we had a complete central heating system fitted - 5 rads, 1 towel rail and a combi 2 years ago and that was just over £3k so fitting a combi to an existing system, even taking into account the replumbing shouldn't be anywhere close to 5k - try and get another couple of quotes (even British Gas might come out cheaper)

I find that most of these government initiatives are jumped on by the industry to make a few extra bob. Even having insulation installed under the government scheme costs more than doing it yourself.

verydeeppockets

eco is a bit of a con. There are various people taking a cut as well as the actual plumbers. I suspect B&Q will be taking more than most.
That's why most eco funded boilers are cheap rubbish.
Great for homeowners who couldn't afford a boiler, great for the plumbers, suppliers, facilitators, funders. Not great value for the taxpayer though.

I suspect your backboiler made them panic, as it's not a straight one day swap - there'll be a fair bit of replumbing involved, so they've overpriced to put you off.

Find a couple of local heating engineers, one of which is eco registered and see what they can offer, both on and off the eco scheme.