Warm Front advice

sebastianj

An assessor has been round to see a friend. At the end he said that there was £2700 grant available. He printed the recommendations and asked my friend to sign it so that they can proceed.

The contents were Loft Insulation, Draft prevention, Jacket for Cylinder.

I told my friend not to sign it as his main issue is with the boiler, which is 40+years old and keeps breaking down. If the heating company was to spend all money on insulating the house then there will be nothing left for replacing the boiler. The assessor said that as the boiler is working today, he cannot put that on the list, only when it breaks down then it will be possible.
Having told the assessor to add the boiler to the list and given priority before any other work, the assessor retreated very quickly and took away his recommendations with him.
Can any one please suggest what needs to be done, I have no experience in this but the process smells Fishy.
rgd,
seb

Savvy_Sue

There was a long thread not so long ago about Warm Front, you might find your answers there.

Although it is possible that it can only be used on a boiler once it's broken beyond repair.

Charis

Without sufficient insulation, he will not be able to keep in the heat, even from a new boiler. I have had both insulation and a new boiler from the scheme, in that order, a year or two apart. Anything saved after the insulation (the majority of the grant) was left towards the installation of the boiler.
At the time you could only get a new boiler if the old one was irreparable. I did have to contribute towards the cost of the boiler but can't complain, having had £2700 towards the cost of a nice warm home. If your friend doesn't sign the paperwork, he will get nothing.

far

My parents applied and received Pension Credit and Council Tax Benefit this year and my mother is also in Disabiility Living Allowance and soon after they got the Council Tax Benefit, the council sent a letter asking them if they wanted to apply for the Warm Front grant.

They applied but were rejected on the grounds that if they've had work done in the past then they'd need to apply direct to the scheme. I helped them get around to this late last week and an assessor is coming round on Tuesday (he seemed quite rude on the phone really). My questions are basically this:

They already have gas heaters - Wall heaters in each of the bedrooms and a gas fire in the lounge. However the panel heater in the bathroom is only working intermittently, 2 of the 3 bedrooms have wall heaters that are not working properly and the heater in the dining room has been condemned and cut off since 1995. Additonally, there is no heating in the hallway upstairs or downstairs and this in particular is freezing in winter! They do have a hot water supply via a gas water heater though. Would they be likely to qualify for the central heating grant or is it more likely to be wall heaters that will be fitted?

Now here's an interesting twist - they have had their wall insulation topped up in 1998 to 12" I believe plus draught proofing but Warm Front have no record of this - only of a visit in 2001 where a wall heater was proposed for a ground floor room that my Dad rejected as there was a risk of the flue being blocked since it would be at ground level. For this visit, they only charged £7 from the available grant for 2 energy efficient lightbulbs. If they can find no record of the first visit, does that mean someone else must have provided the insulation or could it come to light and mean they have to contribute a larger amount?

Also what pitfalls are there - I spent last night reading the long Warm Front thread and saw quite a few people had problems, especially from one company in particular. Are there any installers in the York area who do Warm Front who are very good or bad? And finally, is it likely a contribution will have to be made if £2,693 of the grant is left?

mum2one

We had warm front grant - Im in Shropshire, it was the best thing that we had, usually they go for whats best for the house, so you could ask for central heating, we went from a back boiler heating to a combi bolier.

There is a possibility that the draught proofing and wall insulation was done by another company, we had the loft done through the council ( even thou we are houseowners), the cavity wall by another company and finally the heating done.

Is there any chance you could be there at the meeting, so your parents are bombardedinto something they dont want?x

far

mum2one wrote: »

Is there any chance you could be there at the meeting, so your parents are bombardedinto something they dont want?

I fully intend to be there - that will not be a problem!

sebastianj

Hello All,
I tried starting a new thread, but I suppose so many things will be repeated. When you say take some other quotes locally, can local engineers install the system, boiler etc? If yes, How do they get paid? Who does one tell about these quotes, Warm Front?
Secondly, I would like to have a condensing Combi boiler, but officially no advice was available. I have a copper cylinder taking space and wasting energy, the assessor only recommended to put a jacket on it rather than chucking it out. What does one do under these circumstances??

Appreciate all help.
seb

mum2one

sebastianj wrote: »

Hello All,
I tried starting a new thread, but I suppose so many things will be repeated. When you say take some other quotes locally, can local engineers install the system, boiler etc? If yes, How do they get paid? Who does one tell about these quotes, Warm Front?
Secondly, I would like to have a condensing Combi boiler, but officially no advice was available. I have a copper cylinder taking space and wasting energy, the assessor only recommended to put a jacket on it rather than chucking it out. What does one do under these circumstances??

Appreciate all help.
seb

If you have any work done through warm front - they will only use their contraters.

Your system sounds same as us, this was ours copper cylinder in airing cupboard, cold water tank in loft, back boiler (backof fire) for hot water, we had ours all changed as the gas board had condemmed the gas fire, and although the central heating was working, it was old, based on that and as we met the criteria for grant, warm front sorted it all out, from the initail enquiry to the heating being fitted was apr 6 months.

it was bout 18mths ago- from what I recall, they do not do the old style back boilers now its the combi boiler, I work on the basis ask, assometimes they assume you have the info,(you dont ask you dont get.)

Hope that helps x

jellymid

Hi Seb,
Warmfront will only replace the boiler if it is fully broken. If it was working on the day the assessor came around then they couldn't sign off the replacement. However if they came again on a day when it had broken , you would be more likely to get approval for replacement. They usually only replace with combi boilers - taking the copper tank away. As to what you get for your £2700 - it varies dramatically. It should cover 5 radiators and the boiler. It probably won't cover supply of gas meter or extra radiators. I don't know if there will be any left for insulation. You can ask for an assessor to come again, and if approved a firm of installers will come around and tell you what you can have and how much extra , if any, you will have to pay. If you are very unhappy with this quote or are not happy with the company allocated to you (bad reviews etc) you can ask to change installers. The whole system is open to abuse, but you have to play the game. Always have support there for eldery relatives who might be pressurised in any way. Ask lots of questions and be as informed as you can be. It always pays to smile and have a positive but firm attitude. As you will have seen from other posts - it willprobably be lots of hassle, but worth it in the long run. Good luck.

jellymid

Hi Far,
I believe Warmfront aim to put five radiators in a house - lounge, kitchen, main bedroom, bathroom and hall. You can pay for extra radiators in the other bedrooms ( £300 each we were charged). When the assessor came to visit my Mum she had 3 working storage heaters and one erratic one. He told her to get the erratic one disconnected - then he could approve the new central heating. He didn't go around testing anything - just took Mum's word for it. He carried on with the approval and my brother only disconnected the storage heaters just before the installation.
I'm sure they wouldn't replace the wall heaters - it seems to be just combi boiler central heating systems.
As to pitfalls, there are many. It was quite a long drawn out process, very stressful, you need to be very much on the ball throughout. I wouldn't use Warmfront if you were looking to add value to the house - pipes surface mounted, drops down the corners of rooms and the like. We had an awful lot of remedial work to do after they had gone. But you do get a warm house at the end of it. With hindsight I would have requested all correspondence and phonecalls to come direct to me, not to my Mum as the stress was too much for her. Be prepared to assert yourself ( in a polite way;) ) . Hope that helps,
Al