The SEAI Declaration of Works form: what it is, who signs it, where to get it

Where the forms come from

SEAI generates the Declaration of Works (DOW) forms for your specific application and posts them to you with the Letter of Offer and a Request for Payment form. Each form is pre-printed with your application ID, its own unique DOW ID, your Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN), your name, the installation address and your contractor's registration details.

Source: SEAI Homeowner Application Guide, p. 15 ("You will receive a letter of offer in the post with a Declaration of Works form and Request for Payment form")

A few downloadable SEAI documents show examples of these forms, but none of them is a personalised claim form:

• The DOW Sign Off Guide for Homeowners reproduces cropped images of the forms and explains the signatures.
• The Roof Insulation Quality Alert contains a full blank roof Declaration of Works as a worked guide. It is not a claimable form.
• The heat pump Designer/Installer Sign Off form is a separate extra document for heat pump claims, not the heat pump Declaration of Works.
• Solar PV declaration forms belong to a different SEAI scheme with its own process. If you found a downloadable "Declaration of Works" for solar, it is not a Better Energy Homes form.
• SEAI also publishes Declaration of Works PDFs for its One Stop Shop and business energy schemes. They belong to those schemes and cannot be used for a homeowner Better Energy Homes claim.

SEAI does not publish a replacement procedure for a lost pack, so if yours is missing, ask SEAI directly rather than substituting anything downloaded.

What is in the posted pack

A real single-measure offer pack from 2025 contained eight personalised pages, in this order: the Letter of Offer (pages 1 and 2), the Request for Payment (pages 3 and 4), the Building Energy Rating (BER) Declaration of Works (pages 5 and 6), and the measure's Declaration of Works (pages 7 and 8). Each measure you claim needs its own two-page Declaration of Works, so a pack with more measures is longer; the exact order and page count of a multi-measure pack has not been documented, so go by the pack you receive.

Source: SEAI DOW Sign Off Guide for Homeowners, pp. 3-4 (the Request for Payment images are marked "Page 3 of 8" and "Page 4 of 8")

The measure Declaration of Works, section by section

Every measure Declaration of Works carries a Date of Offer and Date of Expiry in its header, and a Cancel Measure tick-box in the top right corner. Leave that box alone unless you have decided not to go ahead with the measure; a cancelled measure's form still goes back with the claim.

• Section 1 is your identity block: Application ID, Unique DOW ID, MPRN, your name, the installation address and the contractor's registration details, all pre-printed. Blank rows exist for a changed contractor.
• Section 2 records the work: the total cost of the measure including labour and VAT, and a technical grid specific to the measure. The roof version, for example, asks for before and after insulation depth, before and after calculated U-values, the area insulated and the roof types treated. The contractor must use the Comment box, and attach documents where required, to clarify or demonstrate compliance; on the roof form that includes explaining coverage below 100% and any top-up of existing insulation. Follow the instructions on your issued form for other measures.
• Section 2(c) is the contractor's declaration and signature. The printed label is "Signature of Nominated Person": only a person the contractor has nominated with SEAI, who carried out, supervised or inspected the work, may sign. A separate box records the date the grant work was completed, which is not the same thing as the signature date.
• Section 3 is your declaration: you own the home, the work is done to your satisfaction, the contractor has been paid in full or a written payment schedule is in place, and you accept that SEAI may inspect. You sign and date it last.

Sources: SEAI Roof Insulation Quality Alert (full blank roof form) · BEH Contractor Code of Practice, p. 13

Who completes the BER Declaration of Works

The BER Declaration of Works covers the whole application, not one measure. Three parties touch it and their roles are easy to confuse:

• Each contractor fills in their own part of section 4 (the pre-works data the assessor needs) but does not sign this form anywhere. The Letter of Offer tells you to have this done before each contractor leaves your home. SEAI's BER guidance separately says section 4 is used where no pre-works BER exists, and the two instructions have not been reconciled, so follow what your issued forms ask for.
• Your BER assessor completes section 2: the published BER results, their own declaration, their signature with its date, the Date BER Published and the BER cost. The new BER must be published on SEAI's register before the claim is submitted.
• You complete section 3: the extension question and your own signed, dated declaration.

Sources: SEAI BER Guidance for Individual Energy Upgrades, pp. 10-15 · SEAI DOW Sign Off Guide for Homeowners, p. 4

Who signs each form and when

1. The contractor may only sign after the grant work is fully complete and compliant, and after they have been paid in full or a written payment schedule is in place. A promise to come back and finish later is not acceptable on a signed form.
2. Every signature must be dated at the moment of signing. The "date the grant work was completed" box is a separate date and can differ from the signature date.
3. The BER assessor completes and signs their section, and the after-works BER must be published before you submit.
4. You check every completed section, sign each form last, complete the Request for Payment (one signature for the bank-details request and one for the payment declaration), and submit the complete set together, by email or by post.

For a single-measure claim that is six signatures across three parties. Each additional measure adds two more: yours and the contractor's nominated person's on that measure's form.

Sources: BEH Contractor Code of Practice, p. 13 · SEAI DOW Sign Off Guide for Homeowners

What gets a claim returned

SEAI's own guidance says a significant number of Declaration of Works forms come back incorrect or incomplete, and names a missing homeowner or contractor signature as the most common reason. The contractor Code of Practice lists the recurring section 2 defects: the wrong works date, missing insulation type, roof area confused with insulation depth, unexplained coverage under 100%, a top-up not stated, and product conductivity entered where the before and after U-values should be. SEAI does not publish a numeric return rate for claim packs.

The signer matters too. A form signed by someone who is not on the contractor's nominated-person list can delay or reject payment and cause the paperwork to be returned; for the contractor, SEAI's quality assurance procedure treats it as non-compliance carrying an immediate two-month sanction.

One wider number for context: in 2022, 54% of the Better Energy Homes properties SEAI inspected passed initially. The Comptroller and Auditor General notes the inspections were targeted and probably not representative of all work, and no published breakdown separates documentation problems from workmanship.

Sources: SEAI DOW Sign Off Guide for Homeowners, p. 2 · BEH Contractor Code of Practice, pp. 13-14 · BEH Quality Assurance and Disciplinary Procedure, p. 17 · Comptroller and Auditor General, 2022 report, chapter 8, Fig. 8.7

Which expiry date to use

Different SEAI pages currently give different claim windows (six months in one place, eight in another). Use the Date of Expiry printed on your own Letter of Offer and repeated on each Declaration of Works as your claim deadline. If the works are completed but the paperwork is late, SEAI's guide says you may still submit the documents with a cover letter explaining the delay; SEAI will review them and consider payment, but that is not an automatic extension or a promise to pay.

Source: your Letter of Offer; the conflict is between SEAI's BER grant page and the Homeowner Application Guide, p. 16