Step 1
Discuss your household’s suitability for funding
Whether you call, make a website enquiry or are referred to us, you’ll speak to a friendly member of the Warm Homes team over the phone to talk about your household’s suitability for funding.
We’ll ask you questions about your home and who is living in it, such as:
- How many adults are living in the home?
- How many bedrooms does your home have?
- How is your home currently heated?
If you have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), we will check it for you during our call. Please remember, only homes with a rating of D-G will meet our funder’s requirements. If you don’t have a valid EPC, or have one but changes have been made to your property since it was lodged, we’ll arrange for a new assessment to be carried out. This assessment will be fully funded as part of our eligibility checking process.
Once we’ve discussed the suitability of your household for funding, we will send you an application form for you to complete.
If you privately rent your property, please ask your Landlord to contact our team.
Step 2
Processing your application
Once you have returned your completed application and given us the required evidence such as bank statements, benefit letters and proof of address, we’ll confirm you’re eligibile for the funding because either:
You’ve been advised that your household has a postcode that’s been nominated as automatically eligible.
Your gross (before tax) annual household income is £36,000 or less. This includes all income except from a disability benefit.
Your income after paying their housing costs (mortgage or rent) would be below £20,000.
The owner-occupier (named on the deeds or in the land registry) gets a means tested benefit.
We will also check your property’s ownership using HM Land Registry (if listed) and will arrange for a new energy performance certificate assessment if necessary.
Once all these checks are complete, your application will move to the next stage of the process.
Step 3
Declared eligible and ready for home assessments
Once you have been declared eligible by our team, we will refer you to one of our vetted contractors for an initial property assessment. This assessment will highlight all the improvements that could be made to the property. This is then checked against the list of improvements that are suitable for funding. Please be aware that not all work identified in this initial assessment can be funded, and all works are subject to property cost caps and the approval of our funders.
There will then be more technical surveys to assess the practical requirements of the planned work. For example, a contractor will measure your loft so they know how much insulation is needed. There may be multiple visits needed from different contractors depending on the specific work required. At this stage, you’ll be able to ask the contractor any questions you may have about the proposed works.
Once all the necessary technical surveys are carried out, we’ll let you know the improvements we recommend to help improve the energy efficiency of your home.
The contractors will then send us quotations for the proposed home improvements, and we’ll send you the quote(s) alongside our quote acceptance form for your review and agreement.
Step 4
Obtaining funder’s approval
Once you’ve returned your signed and completed form, we will submit your application as part of a batch to our government funders, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Please be aware your application may be held at this point until it’s suitable to submit your application in a batch to our funders.
Once the work has been approved by DESNZ we will send an official notice of approval to the contractor and yourself, committing the funding for the work.
Step 5
Booking the installation
Once you have received your official notice of approval, we will ask the nominated contractor(s) to contact you directly, so they can arrange a suitable time and date to do the installation.
We understand you may have work, childcare or holiday commitments, so our contractors will be as flexible as possible. However, we ask that you are as helpful as possible in providing access to your home, as long periods of delays may impede the ability to complete the work, due to the time restrictions of the funding.
Once booked in, all the work will be completed as outlined within the quotation(s) that were agreed.
Step 6
Completion
Once the work is finished, the contractor will give you the necessary warranties and certificates for the work that’s been done.
As well as visits from the contractors to check the quality of the work, a member of the Warm Homes Team may also visit to make sure the high standard of the work is independently reviewed.
Once all the paperwork is completed, we will pay the contractor in full on your behalf.
Finally, a new EPC assessment will be arranged to reflect the new energy efficient improvements that have been completed in your home.