Warm Front advice

cuddles123

Very interested to read this. Is Iguana part of Eaga?
Have always heard good things about them.

charleypink

cuddles123 wrote: »

Very interested to read this. Is Iguana part of Eaga?
Have always heard good things about them.

Yes it's part of the Eaga group.

Gordie1975

My in-laws are both 60 years old, one works part time, and the other is self employed, between them they don't earn much, and their old central heating system is knackered.

I guess they don't qualify for it because they don't claim any benefit?
Can someone verify it for me please?

Thank you.:)

ComputerGuy

I applied for the Warm Front Grant and just recently arranged for Eagre to install the new Boiler. Eagre completed the job in 2 days, and I must say the quality of their work is 5 Star!! (BTW - Iguana has been rebranded as Eagre!!! Same company.....)

Clean - Tidy - Neat and efficient. I was also weary and heard so many Horror stories I delayed the work for as long as possible because my installation was set for December. If anything had gone wrong i just couldnt be without hot water and gas right in the middle of winter.

The Boiler installed is a Baxi Duo Tec 33 HE (Boiler of the Year according to Which Magazine) with a Wireless Programmable Thermostat.

and my process of applying for the Grant to job completion was quite pleasant.

Aug - applied for the Grant
Septemeber - Warm front contacted me to arrange an assessor to visit.
October- Assessor visited and made recommendations for a replacement Boiler.
November - An assessor came over to recommend a boiler.
November - Another assesor came over to check electrics and pipings.
December - Installation scheduled (which i cancelled bcos of the freezing waeather and reaaranged when it is spring)

So over all i am totally satisfied with the process and the work done- cant complain as British Gas quoted £4200 for a new Boiler in August!!

I also have about £1300 of my grant left for additional work.....cavity installation etc.....so i will look into this,:j

azureblue_2

Hi there! Can I just ask you good people - our boiler is 26 years old, serviced annually it works ok. OH is 63, I'm younger (!), we don't have any benefits neither are we employed. Would we, in fact should we try for this boiler grant thing while it's available?
Nervous of outcome as ever! (Our house is 3 storey with 10 rads.)

djohn2002uk

I think the fact that "it works OK" will stop you getting the grant.

cavework

My Mums 84 and has been waiting for warmfront to fit gas central heating for 18 months. At first she wanted replacement storage heaters but the person who came out to survey the job insisted she would be better off with gas central heating. he said he would inform WF about the change.
My parents went through the whole of last years winter with one gas fire and 2 oil filled electric heaters as their storage heaters which were 50 yrs old had packed up.
Phoned them in Jan and they insisted no one had informed them of the change.
Dad had a stroke in April.. phoned them again and told them he could not return home until there was heating in the house.
Bloke named Paul told me that they did not prioritise cases unless people had a terminal illness, said they had loads of 90 year olds calling it made no difference.
Called them in May .. Dad now in nursing home .. Mum 84 has no heating .. what is happening
Reply.. The tender is being renewed in your area but someone will be in touch soon..
Phoned them in June
The job has been allocated
Phoned them in July ..The job hasn,t been allocated but when it is it will take approx 6 months from the date the surveyor visits until installation.. ie another F****** winter where my Mum has no heating!
Phoned again in July .. suddenly the job is allocated to Eager Heating within 2 days ( I had contacted local MP)
Phoned Eager Heating ..they have 28 days to send in a surveyor but still don,t know when the work can start..
In the meantime we have obtained private quotes for Gas Central Heating via the internet..
6 replies and wait for it .. one from Eager heating telling me they can come out to give a quote and could start the work within 2 weeks of our approval !

montage

We had a "inspector" come and see what needed doing.. Loft, Walls, and Boiler and that if we called after end of March British Gas are now doing the inspections.. and that they fix any old boilers where as the current company likes to replace... i wonder why.

Since March 2010 i've called a few times and get the same old "we cant advice on waiting times... it'll be six months after allocation" blah blah.

They said boiler work takes priority and the walls and loft wont be started until this is done.

I've decided to pay for the work myself. The money i will loose over the winter in having a sub standard 20 year old boiler heating a badly insulated property far out weighs these so called [STRIKE]backhanders [/STRIKE] grants.

I wish i could start a business that has the same make-up of this warmfront scheme, but i'm sure some kind of competition watch dog would have a few choice words about it.

GillM

I was warned off Warm Front by a colleague whose mum used them. The boiler they installed was a cheap one, not energy efficient. They wouldn't install it where her old boiler was (although a plumber has since confirmed it was a perfectly suitable place) so it's taking up space in her kitchen and is noisy, and she has had to call them back several times because of problems. I don't know whether she had to pay anything, maybe not as she already had radiators, just needed the boiler. My colleague wasn't able to be with her mum when the assessors/workmen were there and I gather they weren't very nice so the mum was upset. Altogether a very unpleasant experience and now she has a new but far from efficient boiler. I decided not to proceed with my application!

screamer

I'm also pretty annoyed with Warm Front. I applied for the grant quite literally the day before Christmas last year. I didn't hear a peep from them by April so decided to give them a call. They sent someone out at the end of April with what I can only describe as a pair of numpties who didn't have a clue what was happening. They were going to give me a slip of paper just to say they had visited but their internet connection wouldn't work in this house (actually not at all surprised by that, thick stone walls and our mobile phones don't even work in here). They said the work should be done in about 6 months. Fine, I said, just enough time for us to save a bit of cash should it come in over the amount for the grant, although I don't think it will because we need a new boiler but only 5 radiators.

I called them last week to see what was happening as the weather has started getting cold and they say my claim hasn't even been passed onto a contractor yet, and that could be anything up to 6 months between being referred to a contractor and actually having the work done. Initially they said the work would definately be done by this Winter but now it looks like we're going to have a cold house this year too as the only heating we have is a gas fire in the living room.

What is even more annoying is that the people we bought our house from had the work on their new house carried out after only 2 months. It later transpired that they called them every day for 3 weeks so got pushed to the top of the list for being annoying.

Should the quote for the work exceed the cost of the grant, I'll be getting on to our local MP and see what they can do about it. I may add that we do have little gas heaters in the house (1 upstairs, 2 downstairs) but they both broke down last Winter. The hot water heater also leaks badly in cold weather. the first engineer to come round to see it noted this and said they'll sort it ASAP. That's 9 months ago and we're no closer to having the work done than we were when we actually applied!!