Warm Home Discount and EPC

carlos1973

Apologies if this is in the wrong place or belongs on a different thread. Feel free to move if needs be.

I'm a council tenant, single parent of two children, 6 & 7 and on Universal Credit with LWC and the housing element.  Everything that I've found on the qualifying criteria suggests I should get the WHD but I've had no letter and the online checker shows me as ineligible.  I have had the WHD for the past 3 years, 2 of which was in this property and my budget for the winter includes the WHD.

I've checked my EPC and it shows as as a C. My landlord, The Council, has never provided me with one and up until now I did not know they had an obligation to do so. The certificate is out of date and, in my opinion, is incorrect.  My home is a mid terrace and all of the other properties are shown as a D and crucially the criteria for these other houses have descriptions such as Roof: pitched 100mm insulation good,  Windows: partially double glazed, Poor and Walls: Cavity wall as built, insulation (assumed) Average.  My certificate simply says Walls, walls good, Windows, windows average, and Roof, roof good.  So the descriptors do not accurately reflect the house or the insulation and energy savings measures therein.  I only have partially double glazed windows and the walls and roof are poorly, if at all, insulated.

I phoned the Helpline today and I have been told that with an EPC or C or higher I will not get the WHD and all I can do ask the council for a new certificate and to call them back.  I have emailed the council asking to provide my certificate but I have no idea how long they will take or even if they will do this.  Regrettably my council is very slow and unreliable.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions or even had a similar experience?

[Deleted User]

EPCs do seem to vary between essentially identical properties depending on which inspector wrote them.

carlos1973

Which is what annoys me most as I now lose out.  I just hope the council will pay a new, accurate one or make up the missing WHD from their discretionary fund or the HSF.  Fingers crossed.

Spoonie_Turtle

The WHD computations were based on age, type, and floor area of properties.  Nothing to do with EPC, except in some cases where one or more characteristic was missing in the data held and EPC *may* have been accepted as an indicator.  (I say *may* because I have heard of one - just one - person phoning up and being told they are eligible once they told them their EPC rating of D.  But I do not know whether that person will actually get the WHD or if the call handler was making it up, as barely-trained DWP workers are wont to do.)

If you know the age, type, and floor area of your property you might be able to find whether you probably should have been entitled or not in this document (or if you post those characteristics, I'll look through and find it for you) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1115362/whd-eligibility-statement-2022-england-wales-annex-1.xlsx