As my boiler has packed up, I have no hot water and heating. This morning I applied for a grant from Defra, but was told i could wait up to 6 months while the application went through red tape, however, in the meantime they couldnt sanction me applying for a new boiler now and paying later and that i was in queue of the more vulnerable which I sympathised with. However, being as I dont have the money, do i feel  the cold less than the people in front. This government gives nothing but broken promises, yes you can have a grant, if prepared to go through the winter without hot water or heat. What a belly laugh. Thanks Gordon for nothing. Im 69 live on my own and a widow.

 

I think it's disgusting that people of your age are expected to survive with no hot water or heating for up to 6mths.  I was under the impression that at it's still more of less Summer that Warm Front weren't that busy.  I know when my partner and I applied for a grant back in July it took about 6/8wks from applying to getting a new boiler installed.  When the lady from Warm Front came round to look around our house she did say it could take 6wks to just get a surveyor round, but he actually came within a couple of weeks. 

I do actually think that the whole Warm Front scheme has got it's priorities wrong and that the elderly and very young should be their priority, rather than giving out grants to anyone who fits their criteria.  I say that as someone who is not a pensioner but as someone in receipt of a benefit that maked me eligible for a Warm Front grant.  However as our boiler was in working order when it was replaced I would have been quite content to wait longer so that someone in more need had their problems sorted out before mine.

My boiler, which is about 5 years old, started to play up. A surveyor from warm front came and said that the boiler needed to be replaced, before he even looked at it! I have no objection to having a new free boiler but today a letter arrived from warm front. I have been asked to pay £87.99 towards the costs, pretty cheap for a new boiler. The cost breakdown at the bottom of the letter shows that the boiler will cost £712.94... and the labour charge is £1936.16 !!!!!

This is absolutely ridiculous. I have written to Warm Front requesting an explanation. There are only two possibilities as far as I can see... either there has been a typo mistake or... someone here is operating a global rip-off! I await their response and will report back later.

my mother in law has had a quote from warm front and as per all your complaints i totaly agree my job requires that i price and specify comercial boiler instalations and i see a lot of coments with regards £75-90 an hr to cost for the labour as a comercial company we on charge our clients out at around £30 an hr  and the price that homefront have given would mean the engineers would need to be at my mother in laws for over 1 week. they also specified that they would replace the normal boiler with a condensing system boiler and replace the cylinder this would not be to most cost effective solution as a modificaton to a combi boiler would save the most energy.

i have been in contact with the contractor and warm front and have not had a satasfactory explanation from either  i have the contact deails for defra and am planning to contact them to raise this complaint there no is 02072386000.

well were to start? People dont realise where the pennys go! If you have had a grant for loft instaltion it comes off the £2700 grant :( but if you need your boiler fitted in the middle of your house you need a con lift pump and vertical flue ...all costs money and can push the costs to excess especialy if you need scafolding to do this! What happens if your old boiler or house has asbestos? Warm front installers check all installs and remove it or arrange holes to be drilled by a registered asbestos company for your saftey! When you have the boiler fitted ALL your heating componats are covered for two years so if a radiator breaks or blows you are entitled under the scheme  to a new one free of charge! You get two years free boiler servicing as well! If you decided to go with the warm front scheme you should always at the end, get the area managers phone number of the company who installs for you and if any problems phone them to resolve it! The scheme isnt full of cowboys but vetted installers trying to give value for money to the client! If the excess is unobtainable ask Iguana to install, and ask them to wave the excess as you cant afford it! In genuine cases they will as they are part of the Eaga (Warm front) group!

Warm front will help people if its used right :)

My partner installs for warm front and has went out to clients in the evenings and week ends to make sure they understand how the new system works and some times to repair things not effected by the install to complete the customers exspectations of the grant they recieved.

 

we have been awarded a warmfront grant for a new boiler since early march this year ,but still not sure when or even if it will be installed,the problem is that our interier walls contain asbestos,,the asbestos removal man called a few weeks ago and said that the asbestos was low grade and posed no problems and informed our installers of this.but we have not had any contact with the installers at all..the answer would seem to be having a electric boiler to replace the old gas one,,,this could be installed on a kitchen wall where there is no asbestos....but warm front say that the boiler must be LIKE FOR LIKE so they do not think that we can replace the gas one with electric,,,does anyone know if that is correct,,,,thank you ,2 very cold o.a.ps

Unfortunately, the Warm Front grant is government funded, therefore it does have to operate under certain restrictions.its up to the government to decide how much people get and who get it. if they cover the cost for EVERYONEs work, then less people overall will be able to apply for the grant. The number of people applying is huge, and it is NOT an emergency service, so while i can understand people's frustrations that they have had to wait a while for work to be done, i cant understand why you blame the company that runs it. they surely dont get to decide who gets it and who doesnt? its all subcontracted to other companies, so its THEIR queues people have to join. its not a perfect service but i know plenty of people who have had it done and are thrilled to bits with it. dont forget this is a free/heavily subsidised service. people on here complain about people "sponging off the state" but it seems they cant accept having to wait their turn.

Hello bexter

I am one of the people who is 'thrilled to bits' with our new boiler, the way it was done, the way the gas bills absolutely tumbled, we're having our second annual service in December (it was done in January 2007) and we really have no complaints at all.  We had the boiler situated exactly where we wanted, it's not taking up space in the kitchen or anywhere because it's on the outside wall in the loft.

Hi Boro Boy-  Wish I had seen this forum before I let Iguana in the door!  I'm just a private customer replacing an old boiler. New Baxi boiler fitted in September, unsightly installation. The quality inspector came to pass on the work a month later and said there was a problem with the installation that needed sorting. Nothing was forthcoming and 3 weeks later the brand new boiler packed up. Now waiting for a engineer from the boiler manufactuer to come out next week and not looking forward to the temperatures forecast this weekend. Any advice? Cheers