Can The Green Deal Help You?

The Green Deal is a Government initiative aiming to reduce energy consumption by encouraging property owners to install energy saving measures. It will relate, in the main, to older properties.

The Green Deal can apply to both residential and commercial properties. It can also apply to those owners who rent their properties to tenants.

The Scheme works by private sector suppliers carrying out installation works (such as cavity wall installation, installation of energy efficient boilers) the upfront costs of the works being borne by the private sector suppliers who carry out the installation works and put a charge on the property for the costs. This is then repaid by the home owner/tenant through their electricity bills.

The works should reduce the energy cost every month, so by keeping payments the same as they were before the installation works, homeowners/tenants will be paying their energy supplier for the energy they have used,  as well as paying off some of the Green Deal loan.

What is important to note is that the charge is attached to the property rather than being personal to the person who arranged the works. As such, on any sale of the property, the homeowner/Landlord would need to disclose the existence of the Green Deal Scheme on the property to the buyer. The buyer would then need to agree to take over the responsibility of the payments, or they could request this is paid off upfront. As this is a new scheme, there are currently no precedents for how a buyer will want to deal with this.

Further information on the Green Deal can be found with DECC.