How to apply for an SEAI grant: six steps, and the offer comes first

First, pick your route

Doing it yourself suits one or two upgrades. You hire the contractor, you pay the bill, SEAI pays you back after.

A One Stop Shop suits a whole-house job. One firm runs everything and takes the grant off the bill, so you never carry the full cost.

Either way the golden rule is the same: nothing starts until SEAI say yes.

Doing it yourself, step by step

1. Find a registered contractor. Only contractors on SEAI's own register can be used. Search it by county on SEAI's site. Get more than one written quote, ask for references, and get the work, the price, the timing and the guarantee in writing.
2. Apply to SEAI online. You will need proof you own the home, your electricity meter number from your bill, the contractor's name and registration number, the type of home, the year it was built and lived in, and which grants you want. For a heat pump you also need the technical assessment or a self-declaration.
3. Wait for the offer. Applied online, it is usually approved in minutes. By post, allow about five working days. You then have 30 days to accept it.
4. Get the work done — after the offer, never before.
5. Get a new energy rating. A registered assessor visits when the work is finished. You book it and pay for it.
6. Send in the paperwork. A declaration that the work was done, signed by you, your contractor and the assessor, plus a request for payment. If you have had more than €10,000 of grants in one calendar year you need a tax clearance certificate too.
7. Get paid. SEAI say about four to six weeks after complete paperwork arrives. Some jobs get inspected first, which pauses that.

Through a One Stop Shop

1. Talk to three of them from SEAI's registered list. They cover different counties and quote very differently.
2. Have the home energy assessment done. SEAI pay €350 toward it and you pay the rest. You are not tied to anything afterwards, and you can take the report to a different firm.
3. Agree the plan and the price. The firm applies for every grant in their own name.
4. The work happens, managed by them, with a new rating at the end.
5. You get one invoice, with the grants already taken off.

"Approval before works" — what it actually means

It means the date on your grant offer is a line in the sand. Anything before it, including materials bought early, is outside the grant. SEAI's terms go further on the whole-house route: costs run up before the offer date can lead to the entire grant being withdrawn.

So: no deposits, no orders, no scaffolding, no skip in the drive until the offer is in your hand.