Green Deal Express Bill for over £9000

Spartan777

Hi everyone. First time posting, so apologies for any etiquette errors. This issue is on behalf of my parents who are in their seventies and I feel my father has been taken for a ride. Unfortunately my father has gone stone cold over this and refuses to talk about it but my mother is worried sick. But as a result of this I only have limited information.

He has a buy to let mortgage on a currently unrented property. Green Deal Express approached him to do work on the property last year. The letter I'm collecting my information from doesn't actually state what the work was which also worries me as it comes across purely like a loan shark. But we're talking about work making the house heat efficient.

Now the initial bill for this work was apparently £5400 (which I think is steep anyway) plus a set-up charge of £63.24 and a servicing charge of £410. This deal was set up on the 24.06.2015 so it's just past 12 months and now they have slapped an additional £3323.81on top of those fees taking the total my parents now owe to £9197.05 for what I see as some pretty basic work.

Now a little more detail:
- The house is currently for sale and my father is effectively trying to cut his losses and get out of this. If he does sell the house there won't be any profit anyway, let alone enough to cover this bill.
- The letter states that the rate of interest is 6.96% per annum fixed.
-My mother says that a tenant was supposed to be living there and the way the scheme works the money saved would go towards this bill directly. I'm not sure of the exact details on this so be flexible when considering this point. But I figure if I'm being optimistic and we say these works save us £50 a month on the electricity bill then that comes to £600 in a year, nowhere near £5400 so my father was always going to get this massive bill.

I have no idea why he signed up for this but unfortunately my father is brilliant with his hands but not so much with his head.

What I would like to know is is this binding. Is my father trapped into paying this? Any suggestions would be welcome and I can provide more information if required.

I just feel like this is an elaborate scam dressed up in an energy saving dress.

[Deleted User]

Exactly what work was carried out? You don't seem to know much (I understand that) but obviously means we can offer little help, you need to get your dad to pull his head out of the sand.

Spartan777

As far as I'm aware they have put that insulated material on the front of the house which is very popular at the moment. It's a terrace house so only the front would have been done. Nothing else that I'm aware of.

Spartan777

I have a copy of the first page of the letter which I could post, removing all the personal details of course!?

DCFC79

Spartan777 wrote: »

I have a copy of the first page of the letter which I could post, removing all the personal details of course!?

If you can it might help with the help you get.

chanz4

new boiler, windows?

molerat

Who has been paying back the loan whilst the house has been empty ? Has he maybe defaulted on the payments ? The loan usually goes with the property when sold. Anything done through these government schemes always has and always will be overpriced !

http://www.greendealexpress.com/FAQ
http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/home-grants/the-green-deal/

Clive_Woody

What happens to the Green Deal loan if I sell my property?

The Green Deal loan is attached to the property, not you as an individual, so when you sell the property the Green Deal loan remains with the property. You are required to tell your buyer about the Green Deal loan attached to your property though as they will continue making the repayments through the property’s electricity bill.

jonesMUFCforever

I wonder if the interest figure (£3k) has been added to the capital owed figure (£5k) to give you the total outstanding.
This would be repaid by x number of instalments of £y.

I can't comment on any of the work done.

Thrugelmir

Spartan777 wrote: »

But I figure if I'm being optimistic and we say these works save us £50 a month on the electricity bill then that comes to £600 in a year, nowhere near £5400 so my father was always going to get this massive bill.

Not if the property was being let and the loan repaid. Which is how the scheme works.

Spartan777

Thanks for the replies so far.

I'm trying to post the images as links but the site won't let me because I'm a new user.

Any tips? :mad: