Doing Work around the House – Am I entitled to Financial Assistance?

Carrying out refurbishment works around the house can be a stressful and a very costly time for the homeowner. There is help at hand though, with state backed grants and financial assistance available to help ease the burden.

Financial AssistanceWe at DFCE have been involved in many extension and refurbishment projects, and the main financial aid schemes currently available are:

  • The Sustainable Energy Authority (SEAI) of Ireland Better Energy Home (BEH Grant)
  • The Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) Scheme administered by Revenue

When undertaking an extension or refurbishment project and planning to avail of these schemes, homeowners should check their eligibility criteria for these incentives at an early stage. The administrative bodies should be contacted if any queries, and the protocols for securing the financing should be followed in detail at every stage. DFCE can provide guidance on this if we are your selected technical experts for the project.

The SEAI BEH scheme provides grants to homeowners to upgrade their homes with energy efficiency measures, thus reducing energy use, costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The key details for the scheme are available here, with seven clear steps set out for the homeowner to secure grant assistance. These steps are:

  1. Decide on work to be done and grant to be applied for
  2. Pick an SEAI Registered Contractor
  3. Apply for SEAI grant and get approval
  4. Get works done by a registered SEAI contractor
  5. Get BER done and published by registered BER assessor
  6. Submit and complete the correct forms to SEAI
  7. Get payment directly into your Bank Account

The Revenue HRI scheme provides tax relief for you by way of an income tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure on repair, renovation, or improvement works. These works must be carried out on your main home or rental property by HRI qualifying Contractors. The key details for the HRI scheme are available here.

 The amount of your HRI tax credit depends on the amount you spend on qualifying works. You need to spend over €4,405 (before VAT) on the property to qualify for the HRI tax credit. This €4,405 (before VAT) can be the total from any number of jobs on the property, carried out and paid for from 25 October 2013 to 31 December 2015 for Homeowners and from 15 October 2014 to 31 December 2015 for Landlords. You can spend as much as you like on the property but you can only claim the HRI tax credit on amounts up to €30,000 (before VAT). If there are no grants or insurance claims, the lowest HRI tax credit amount is €595 per property (€4,405 at 13.5%) and the highest HRI tax credit is €4,050 per property (€30,000 at 13.5%)