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Important notice - program changes

On 19 February 2010, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts announced changes to the popular Green Loans Program. These changes ensure the program can meet the strong demand for free home sustainability assessments and aims to help improve the quality of assessments being delivered under the program.

New applications to become contracted assessors are no longer being received by the department. Please do not send any applications to the department. If they are sent they will be returned to sender. Contracts delivered by hand will not be accepted.

NOTICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders are still able to book assessments by calling 1800 895 076 Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm.

The Minister announced on 19 February 2010 that the less popular loans component of the program will be discontinued from 22 March 2010. Note that eligibility for loans under the Green Loans program is determined by financial institutions subject to the lending criteria of the financial institution being satisfied.

Assessments will continue to allow you to make informed decisions about how to improve the energy and water efficiency of your home.

NOTICE TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE SUBMITTED CONTRACTS TO BECOME ASSESSORS AND HAVE NOT BEEN CONTRACTED TO THE DEPARTMENT

The department is currently reviewing contract applications to ensure that appropriate training was undertaken. The department will contact successful and unsuccessful applicants individually. The department can not provide an update on the status of individual applications. Please do not contact the department or the call centres requesting an update as this will slow the processing of applications.

NOTICE TO ASSESSORS

These new Program changes will assist in improving the quality of assessments and ensure a fair spread of assessments between assessors.

Assessments currently booked in the system will still be able to be undertaken. They can be rescheduled however they cannot be transferred or sold on to other assessors. All valid assessments undertaken will be paid.

Immediate changes to the Program include:

• On top of the 360,000 free home sustainability assessments already committed under the program, further funding provides an additional 600,000 free assessments.
• A limit of no more than 3 assessments per assessor can be undertaken in one day. The purpose of this change is to improve the quality of home assessments.
• A limit of no more than 5 assessments per assessor per week and a cap of 15,000 bookings per week. This will ensure that there is equity between assessors and that the Program provides longer term certainty to assessors.
• No more than 5,000 assessors will be accredited under the Program.
• The changes also mean that bookings cannot be transferred or on-sold between assessors. When you ring up to make a booking you will have to state your HO number, this number will be verified against your invoice. Invoices with different HO numbers for assessments will not be paid.

These changes apply to all contracted assessors. Fieldforce has been notified that they are no longer able to make a limited number of bookings via email. This is effective immediately.

• New Program Guidelines and Assessor Contract Terms and Conditions will be introduced over the next few weeks to improve the quality of assessments. In the next few weeks you will be given notification and asked to agree to the changes before continuing in the Program. In the interim the current Program Guidelines and Assessor Contract Terms and Conditions apply.

Booking centre pressures

• In order to relieve pressure on the booking centre the 15,000 bookings per week will be spread over Monday to Friday, with 3000 each day.
• When you or your representative phones to make a booking, you will need to supply your HO number. You will be allowed to make 10 bookings in one phone call, up to two weeks in advance. This means you will only need to make one phone call per fortnight to make your bookings.
• These changes should significantly reduce pressure on the booking centre.
• The booking centre will only receive bookings for assessments or change current bookings. To make a booking call 1800 895 076

If you already have 5 or more assessments booked for this week and the next, there is no point ringing the booking centre as you will not be able to make any more bookings until you have less than 5 bookings in any one week.

The parameters will be closely monitored and adjusted if required to ensure assessors can effectively access the call centre to make bookings.

Enquiries

The department has established a new line to handle enquiries. The phone number is 1300 778 451. If you wish to make an enquiry please phone this number.

If you wish to follow up on the status of invoices or reports please use our online enquiries form, or send a letter to:

Green Loans
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO BOX 787