Week 49: What’s the deal with Green Deal?
Hi everybody, apologies as I am a couple of days late in writing my weekly blog. I usually write on a Sunday failing that on a Monday evening if I had something major going on during that weekend. If you remember my recent blog where I announced my new purchase of a house which I bought three hours North of my hometown. I had a site visit for Monday for which I had to do some prep work resulting in me writing my blog on a Tuesday night. Oh well better late than never! To give you a heads up on what I intend to do with this purchase/house is to flip it for a profit. Depending on the end value I could refinance to keep it but the GDV has to be very high to achieve this. Right now I am very happy to flip.
Over the years I have had the liberty of living in houses where damp has been a real issue and honestly it can wreak havoc in one's life and health. As I have personal experience of this I have decided on making sure this property is insulated and damp proofed as a matter of priority. Not because it will make it more profitable but more so the fact that people will be living here raising their family and I can’t have this on my conscience. For this reason I would like to make the house as energy efficient as possible and insulate the entire house from top to toe. But, this requires top dollar and a budget that sadly I just can’t cater for. For those of you who are thinking of doing something similar I will suggest you go on the GOV.UK website and make an application for a green deal grant.
So What is Green Deal?
The Green Deal scheme is an energy saving scheme where the government injects £££ to erase/reduce fuel poverty in the UK. I am not going to go into details with facts and figures but this social problem has been around for a long time. Government is injecting millions to help tackle this by taking out certain measures or home improvements to bring up the EPC rating (Energy Performance Certificate) of your home. To do this you must first check for eligibility. The form is pretty straight forward. You will be asked some personal data such as name, contact number etc and then a bit more about your position and what it is you want. You have to be either an owner occupier, a landlord or a tenant on low income. Obviously you will have to demonstrate this. The scheme is set out in two distinct groups of which you have to have at least one primary measure before you can apply for the secondary one. Examples of each:
Primary
Cavity/Solid wall insulation (both internal or external)
Loft Insulation
Floor insulation
Secondary
Double Glazing
New doors and windows
Upgrading of heating systems to; name a few
The above is just an example. You first decide on what measures you need and enter your postcode to reveal which Trustmark Registered Company deals with that area. It can't be any trades person but one which is endorsed by the government. You give them a call and they will give you a quote which you then forward onto the green deal application. Once you press submit they will issue a reference number which you keep safe as it's your number in the que. After they do all their checks they will advise you via email on the outcome of your application. Upon successful completion of the form you will be provided with a voucher to cover two third of the cost of work. You are then liable for the remainder. Example, if the quote comes up to say £6k they will give you £4k and you only pay £2k towards the total cost. Maximum being £5k and £10k if you are on benefit. You can only redeem the voucher once the work has been carried out and they pay the operative direct. You can't claim for any previous works.
Tip; DO NOT start any work until they have issued you with the voucher otherwise it will be revoked. They have mentioned this several times.
I am currently on their waiting list and anxiously await their response. I am hopeful I should get this but like all things in life there's no guarantee. If they do that's great if not, I am already looking into getting some quotes from private companies but damp is not something I will allow into the equation.