Further Information on Green Loans Program Changes

The following information was sourced from the Green Loans website outlining more details about the Green Loan Program changes.

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 that the less popular loans component of the
program will be discontinued next month. Loans 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.
  

• 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.

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

Canberra ACT 2601

The major points in addition to the terms and conditions announced on Friday 19th February that are of particular note to Green Professionals are:

• The stipulation that only 3000 assessments can be booked per day
• New contracts and program guidelines to be issued to contracted assessors - will there be further changes outlined in this email? 
• 10
  bookings can be made in one phone call, up to two weeks in advance

As more information cames to hand we will let you know, in the meantime please leave your comments below.