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Home renovation grants in Northern Ireland:
There is a scheme similar to that in England and Wales provided under Part III of the housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992. The grant limit for the Disabled Facilities grant is £20,000 and this applies to a combination of mandatory and discretionary works.
A summary of the arrangements is given in the booklet A guide to Home Improvement Grants published by the Northern Ireland housing Executive. There are also leaflets providing general information about particular kinds of grant: Disabled facilities grants, Housing options for older people, Minor works assistance, renovation grants, and Housing help for people with a disability. These publications, further information and necessary forms can be obtained from 32-36 great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7BA (tel: 02890 317000) or any other local Housing Executive grants office.
Home improvement agencies:
Care & Repair:
England: Castle House, Kirtley Drive, Nottingham NG7 1LD (tel: 0115 979 9091; fax: 0115 985 9457).
Wales: Norbury House, Norbury Road, Cardiff CF5 3AS (tel: 02920 576286; fax 02920 576283).
Scotland: 553 Shields Road, Glasgow G41 2RW (tel: 0141 422 1112; fax: 0141 424 3327)
Northern Ireland: Staying Put, Fold Housing Trust, 3-6 Redburn Square, Holywood, County Down BT18 9HZ (tel: 02890 428314)
Care & Repair is the co-ordinating body for home improvement agencies who assist people who are elderly, disabled and/or living on a low income to repair or adapt their homes. There are around 250 such agencies across the UK. They help clients through the entire process of making decisions, arranging finance, and overseeing the building work.
Care & Repair’s role is to support, train and monitor agencies, to develop new schemes and to advise government on the allocation of funds from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions to home improvement agencies.
These schemes are particularly important. The agencies give sensitive advice to each individual to suit their particular needs. Information is given about repair problems and cost, reliable builders, help available to pay for building work, and other grants and loans. As well as giving advice, agencies will handle applications and paperwork on behalf of disabled clients, and will check that building work is up to standard. Help is available for any job, from replacing a few slates to full renovation and improvement works.
Building repairs and adaptations are carried out where they are needed. Care & Repair schemes normally employ three workers. They liaise with service providers such as local authorities, building societies and trusts, and also develop a list of well tried builders. Sometimes, community programmes or voluntary labour are used for small repairs
Choosing your own contractor: If there is no Care & Repair scheme in your area, or if you prefer to make your own arrangements, it is important to be very careful who you choose to carry out building maintenance and repair work. Given the opportunity, slick salespeople may use high-pressure selling techniques to persuade you to enter into contracts for goods and services which you do not need and cannot afford. Some firms may take a deposit, but neglect to start the work, or may go out of business or simply disappear. Others, notoriously, will take on more work than they can handle, flitting from one job to another, leaving work unfinished and subjecting customers to long delays. Be particularly on your guard against people who come to your home uninvited and who seek to persuade you there and then that certain work needs doing. Above all, do not part with your money by way of a deposit to people who you know nothing about or rely on the word of a doorstep salesman that it is safe to sign documents, when you have not read them or do not fully understand their terms.
Most reputable, professional tradespeople belong to a trade association and work to a code of conduct. If anything does go wrong and you become involved in a dispute with the contractor, you can complain to the relevant association, which should be prepared to intervene and will hopefully put the matter right.
The golden rule is to make sure that you are in control, that you decide what work you want to have done, and that your requirements and a firm commitment to a work programme are put in writing. If the work is extensive, you may need to take the advice of an architect or surveyor, in which case you may find it helpful to consult the Centre for Accessible Environments (address below). When choosing a firm to carry out the work, try to take advice from people you trust and ‘shop around’, getting several estimates.
While it cannot take up individual complaints , the Office of Fair Trading, field House, 15-25 Bream’s Buildings, London EC4A 1PR ( consumer information line: 0345 224499), is an invaluable source of information about all consumer matters. It has published an easy-to-read free booklet, Home Improvements, which describes in greater detail the pitfalls often associated with arranging home improvements. In addition to general advice, it explains the importance of contracts ( and of reading them before you sign!), cancellation rights ( which apply only in limited circumstances), guarantees ( which may be worthless) and your legal rights. There is also a useful list of relevant trade and professional bodies, some of whom have sound guarantee schemes or codes of practice.
Centre for Accessible Environments
Nutmeg House,
60 Gainsford Street,
London SE1 2NY
Tel: 0207 357 8182; fax: 0207 357 8183
E-mail: cae@ globalnet.co.uk
Web: http://www.cae.org.uk
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