Natural Resources Canada lists the Canada Greener Homes Grant as closed, and the final date for submitting documents under it has passed. If you are searching for how to apply, the answer is that you cannot.

This matters most to two groups. Homeowners who began a project assuming they would claim afterwards, and homeowners who have been putting off a decision in the belief that the money would still be there. The second group has been waiting for something that is not coming back in the form they remember.

If you had an application in progress or an evaluation done while the programme was running, your position depends on where you got to and on the programme's own rules for existing participants. That is a question for Natural Resources Canada directly rather than one to settle from an article.

Because the Affordability Program is delivered through agreements with individual provinces and territories, whether it is available to you depends on where you live rather than only on whether you qualify.

Published information at the time of writing indicates that several provinces had signed delivery agreements and that Ontario had not. If that is still the case, an Ontario homeowner who qualifies on income may still have nothing to apply to under this particular programme.

This is exactly the kind of fact that changes, and it would be a poor outcome if someone read this page a year from now and assumed nothing had moved. Treat the sentence above as a prompt to check rather than as a current statement of fact, and confirm the position for Ontario directly with Natural Resources Canada.

The practical rule either way: do not commit to a project on the assumption that a federal programme will cover part of it. Confirm first, then decide, and make the work stand on its own merits if nothing is open.

Search for this and you will find pages promising large amounts under a programme that is closed. Some are simply old and never updated. Others are lead generation for contractors, where the rebate is the hook and the enquiry form is the point.

There is a straightforward way to protect yourself from all of it. Any page quoting a figure should tell you which programme pays it, who administers it and where to apply. If it does not, or if following the link lands you on a contact form rather than on a government or utility page, treat the figure as marketing.

The same caution applies to anyone who comes to your door, calls you, or quotes you a price that is contingent on a rebate. Confirm the programme yourself, from the administrator, before signing anything. Nobody should be arranging an application on your behalf as part of a sales conversation.

Under the old grant, a pre-retrofit evaluation by a registered energy advisor was a required step, which meant most people treated the audit as paperwork rather than as information.

That gets the value backwards. An evaluation tells you where a specific house is actually losing energy, which is frequently not where the owner assumed. People replace windows because windows are visible, when the attic, the air sealing or the ductwork would have done more for less. A house that has had an evaluation is a house where the money goes to the right place.

Whether an evaluation is required for any programme you are considering is a question for that programme. Whether it is useful is a separate question, and the answer there does not depend on any rebate existing.

One practical note for older housing in Richmond Hill and Thornhill: homes of that era often have several small, unglamorous problems rather than one large one, and an evaluation is how you find them. Our guide to what adds value in York Region covers which of them buyers actually notice.

Do not undertake a large energy project immediately before listing in the expectation that it returns what it cost. It generally does not, and that was true while the grant existed too.

What does carry weight is documentation. Buyers in this market discount for uncertainty about systems age, so written dates for the furnace, air conditioner, heat pump, roof, windows and insulation work are worth assembling whether or not you upgraded anything. A twenty year old system with paperwork is a known quantity. The same system with a shrug is a deduction plus a risk premium.

If you did complete work under the old programme, keep the evaluation reports, invoices and any permits together and have them available. It is a small thing that removes an objection before it is raised.

And the direct answer to the question behind all of this: if the house needs a major system replaced, it is usually better to price for it than to install one shortly before selling. Our complete guide to selling in Richmond Hill sets out where the money should go instead.

1. Starting work on the assumption that a programme will cover part of it. Confirm with the administrator first. Not with a contractor, and not with a blog post.

2. Believing a figure that does not say who pays it. If a page cannot name the programme and the administrator, the number is marketing.

3. Signing with anyone who offers to handle the application as part of the sale. Confirm the programme yourself before you sign anything.

4. Spending on what is visible rather than on what is losing energy. This is what an evaluation is for, and it is why windows are so often the wrong first project.

5. Doing a large upgrade immediately before listing. Price for the work instead. Buyers deduct for problems, they do not reimburse improvements.

6. Not keeping the paperwork. Evaluation reports, invoices, permits and warranty documents are worth more at resale than most owners expect, and they are impossible to recreate later.