Warm Front Grant Not Covering Oil Central Heating Help 16 June 2007 at 4:14PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in LPG, Heating Oil, Solid & Other Fuels 27 replies 12.1K views

bildanto

Hello

I wondered if anyone else has had this problem with the Warm Front Grant. We qualify for the Warm Front Grant of £4000 to cover the cost of oil fired central heating (no mains gas in this area). Today I have had a letter from EAGA stating that we need to find another £3300 to pay on top of the £4000 grant before they will do the work. At the moment we only have a coal fire heating all the radiators so I was shocked to be asked to pay this extra on top. Do others think this is ridiculous, we have radiators already so only need an oil tank, oil boiler and pipework and labour surely we shouldn't be expected to pay £3300 on top of the grant. If anyone knows how we can appeal against this I would be grateful and if anyone knows how much we could expect to pay if we installed oil outside of this scheme (of course we can't afford to but I want to know how much it costs normally as £7300 seems an awful lot without needing radiators). Thanks for your help, Mandy

spearish

Sorry Mandy.
Not good news .We have just had three seperate quotes for our small 3-bed semi with small rooms and the cheapest oil package ,including boiler,fitting ect was £7,300 .We have the radiators from an old solid fuel back burner too.It seems since the change in regulations in May that the installation costs have shot up.:(

DanceInThe_Dark

Try getting a few quotes Mandy and see how much you save if you go with Warmfront.
I had to pay an extra £800 to warmfront for just gas central heating and I thought the grant would have covered all the work but on asking a few heating installers it seemed they were quoting about right price for the work involved.
We paid the extra money and are very happy, so far, with the work they did.

NorfolkBroad

I just posted about this on another thread ! I have the same problem. Where I live in rural Norfolk we have no mains gas so we have oil-fired central heating.
Our boiler blew up in March and as I am disabled we applied for a Warm Front grant to replace it. The surveyor said we also needed a new oil tank. We just got the quote and it is £6200, so we have to pay £2200 upfront before Warm Front's contractors will start the work. We were amazed at the labour costs as all the pipes/radiators/controls are fine so it's just a straight replacement of the boiler and oil tank themselves.

Parts are £1450 and labour is £4750 which we thought was a bit excessive for what can only be a couple of days work surely ?

Our oil supplier quoted us just over £700 to replace the tank last year as it is leaking but as we live on benefits at the moment since my husband lost his job last year we can't afford it hence the grant application.

Is it possible to get the grant and employ our own contractors to do the work?

My only other hope is to try the local council who have a Safe and Warm grant scheme to help people on benefits/low incomes to replace faulty heating systems to see if they will pay the excess for us. I'm ringing them on Monday to see if they can be used in conjunction with a Warm Front grant.

I'll report back if it's possible as it may be a solution for others with this problem.

sparkygotalot

warmfront team
warm front :
been there done that and basically we approached warmfront for insulation they decided to put us forward for the oil grant. We were told we had got the full £4,000.00 grant but would have to pay an extra £3,800.00 on top, its a rip off, we had a private quote previously for same system but with more rads and it was £4,300.00 in total seems to me someone is skimming the grant money of the top probably putting it down to admin! Just to top this off a friend close by has just had same system with 9 rads and there bill came to £4,800.00 Bearing in mind warm front only allow 5 rads!
Have spoken to the warm front team and there response was "well it may be cheaper for you to go else where in some circumstances but thats our price and take it or leave it" I am going to do get 3 seperate quotations on paper and forward them to trading standards and local mp to show how basically they are just adding the total grant money (there abouts) on top of the quote. What would be really good is if you could get away with getting the contracter to quote you privately .Have also spoken to people i know including contracters to the warmfront team in the north of england and they could not believe how they can be so overpriced. I used to work for Warmflow Engineering in
N Ireland (NO CONNECTION WITH WARMFRONT) and i know how much consumables cost they really are takin the micky question is, is it the contracter or warmfront? I think its probably a comination of both but mainly Warmfront and there admin charges. I have also seen somewhere age concern involved with all of this as you can imagine someone being told how they can have £4,000.00 off of the cost of a heating instillation and how enticing it would be to someone in a vulnerable possition they would probably just write a cheque thinking they are saving money, when the truth is in reality they could get it privertly for the same price without the grant or even cheaper.
Oh and just to add the private job for my friend above and the private quotation we had before included chiselling in all the pipe work unlike the warmfront contracters who were going to leave them exposed.
I am going to see what my mp has to say and trading standards and then take it from there as i have good connections within the BBC ,ITV and also the Observer and Evening News In Norwich.This grant money is our money tax payers money and i dont think its fair for it to be miss used.

david29dpo

I to have concerns with warm front. My parents have no heating or gas. They have got the grant up to £2700. There is mains gas in the road so i told them this. A week later warm front rang to say yes you can have mains gas for £8000! This quote was from British gas. I say only national grid can fit the gas and they will charge £467! After being on hold for 10 mins they say that is the price, take it or leave it. Warm front should know only national grid can fit the gas. What going on there? I have now ordered the gas from national grid which will be done in less than 4 weeks but warm front will not pay. Fine i said. Anyway, last Friday one there fitters came round to do the quote to fit the heating, still waiting to hear what the cost will be. I know for a fact it should cost no more than about £2200. Whats the betting it will be double? I have been told i cannot use my own fitter, i wonder why! There is something odd going on hear. If i had-not rang national grid warm front would have deprived my parents of this grant.

catford

This thread is worrying me because I was told months ago that my grant was £4000 and when the heating engineer came and assessed the job he said it could be done for that price.:D
Recently,i've been chasing Kershaws and warmfront for a start date but they both pass the buck.
I need to order my winter coal now, in order to get a better price.
What regulation changes have made the job so expensive??
If they want more money from me then I won't /can't have the work done because I really have no money!!:eek:
I agree with the observation that the jobs are being skimmed somewhere;)
Could this be a good one for the next BBC series of Watchdog??:rolleyes:

david29dpo

Still waiting for my parents quote. any guesses what it will be? think i will wait for that before ringing watchdog.

motherhubbard

Lol.....grants !!! Yes I was eligible for EAGA grant as our oil tank was using to much and boiler was stuffed....after 6 weeks of abuse \ rudeness and BULL **it from the firm employed by them we finally have a fantastic heating system (new boiler and new pipeline) also on our third new pump as they stuffed up with installing it and debris got in the pump\s. BUT we did not have to pay anything towards the cost.
Sounds as though we were the lucky ones.....in the long run

catford

:mad: The letter from warm front finally arrived and we were awarded the full 4k grant:j--BUT we have to pay£2469 extra- up front-- £6215.47!! to have an oil boiler,storage tank,trv,s and 2 replacement rads???:eek: I don't think so!!

I'm getting some quotes from local tradesmen and if we're being stitched up

I'm declaring war on the conmen-D C is my local MP so I'll start at his local

surgery.

Any advice from you warm front fans??;)

david29dpo

Still waiting for my parents quote, 3 weeks now.