The answer
Why start before the design is final?
Start with five folders: your organisation, its right to use the building, community use, energy use and the proposed work. This keeps the CARES application tied to facts your committee can produce, while showing clearly which design or permission questions are still open.
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What proves your group and building can apply?
Find your charity or company registration details and governing document, then use the same legal name throughout the application, lease and quotations. If the group owns the building, keep the title evidence. If it leases, use the full signed lease rather than a summary and obtain written landlord consent for the proposed work where needed. Check the lease length and rights over the roof, outside plant and cable routes against the current CARES rules.
Keep one page recording what is confirmed and what still needs an answer from Local Energy Scotland. For example, 'lease runs to X date' is a fact; 'the lease should qualify' is a conclusion the funder must confirm. That distinction helps trustees avoid authorising detailed design on an unresolved assumption.
02 / 03
How do you show what the building is used for?
Export a normal booking calendar, including evening and seasonal use, and list the groups who benefit. If attendance is estimated, say how it was counted. Pair the diary with a year's electricity and heating bills where available. A high annual bill alone does not explain when the building needs heat or hot water; a weekly pattern helps a designer avoid a system sized for the wrong hours.
Take dated photographs of the current heating equipment, emitters, plant room, roof and any obvious condition issues. Existing energy advice, EPCs or repair reports should be included, but label their dates; an old report may predate insulation work, a new tenant or a changed heating schedule.
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What should the survey add to that pack?
A survey should turn the records into a clear technical scope: existing heat and electricity demand, the improvement being proposed, any enabling work, estimated cost and known exclusions. For solar, that includes roof and network questions; for heating, heat loss, hot water and emitters. The quote should separate potentially eligible work from roof repairs or wider refurbishment.
Give one person responsibility for a document index with file names, dates, owner and status. Keep versions of the application, technical design and supplier quote together so a later change in capacity or price is visible. The outcome is not a thicker folder for its own sake: it is a project your board, installer and funder can all understand and challenge.
Where this guidance comes from
Check the original guidance.
These primary sources support the technical or scheme points above. Rules can change; follow the current source before making a commitment.
Apply this to your property
Turn the documents into a project plan.
FLO's free community-building survey can identify what technical evidence is needed and what remains a funding or governance question.