To qualify for the central heating grants for landlords scheme, the new central heating system to be installed must include a central heating boiler connected to radiators which heat the home.
Central Heating Grants for Landlords Qualifying Criteria requires that the new central heating system is installed in domestic premises which do not currently and has never had a central heating system fitted before.
There are two ways in which your tenant will qualify for the Central Heating Grants for Landlords scheme. Either they receive one of the qualifying State Benefits, Tax Credits or Other Allowances OR they qualify under ECO Flex Rules, please see below.
1.To qualify for the Central Heating Grants For Landlords scheme the tenant must rent the property from a private landlord. The tenant is the applicant, not the landlord.
For private tenants, only homes with an EPC rating of E, F or G are eligible for Central Heating Grants. You can see the EPC rating of your home by clicking HERE for England and Wales or HERE for Scotland.
This part of the ECO Scheme DOES NOT provide central heating grants for homes owned by the local authority or by housing associations, or for shared ownership homes.
2. The property MUST NEVER have had a central heating systems fitted before. If it has had a central heating system which has been removed, IT WILL NOT QUALIFY.
To qualify for the Central Heating Grants For Landlords scheme, your rental property must have either no heating at all or one of the following:
- Electric room heaters
- Electric storage heaters
- Gas room heaters
- Gas fire with back boiler but no radiators
- Mains gas warm air systems
- Solid fossil fuel fire with back boiler but no radiators
- Electric underfloor but no electric boiler
- Bottled LPG room heating
- Solid fossil fuel room heaters
- Wood or biomass room heating
- Oil room heaters
The relevant heating system used to assess your eligibility for the Central Heating Grants for Landlords scheme is that which appears as the ‘Main Heating’ system on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for your home.
You can see the EPC for your rental property (if one has been prepared) HERE if you live in England or Wales and HERE if you live in Scotland.
IMPORTANT
One of the main changes from ECO3 (which ended on 31/03/2022) and ECO4 (which started on 01/04/2022) is that homes must have had an existing mains gas supply prior to 31st March 2022 to qualify for a First Time Central Heating grant to install a new mains gas central heating system.
If your rental property did not have a mains gas supply prior to 31st March 2022 you may qualify for a First Time Central Heating grant to install an air source heat pump.