Heat Customers
If you have a complaint about your heat supplier, you must contact them to explain your complaint before taking any other action.
- Keep a record of all events and conversations about your complaint. Include times and dates, what happened, who you spoke to and what was said. Keep copies of any other relevant information like meter readings, bills and bank statements.
- Know what you would like your supplier to do to resolve your complaint. This could be a change in service/supply, an apology, and/or financial compensation.
If you've complained to your heat supplier and the problem still isn't resolved, then:
- If your heat network is registered with Heat Trust, read the rest of this page below to find out how to refer your complaint to the independent Energy Ombudsman for free.
- If your heat network isn't registered with Heat Trust, see our separate information page here. The Energy Ombudsman can only investigate complaints about heat networks registered with us.
If you're not sure if your heat network is registered with Heat Trust, check this here.
Please note that Heat Trust itself can't investigate complaints or make enquiries on behalf of individual consumers. We require heat suppliers for our registered heat networks to have a robust complaints process and provide their customers with access to the Energy Ombudsman.
How to make a complaint:
You must give your supplier the opportunity to resolve the problem before taking any other action. Let them know of any problems as soon as possible, as the sooner you tell them the sooner they can put things right. It can also stop issues from escalating further.
Don't be scared of complaining. Complaining can resolve issues and stop problems happening again.
Contact details for your heat supplier will be included in your heat bill, account statement or customer information pack. Heat Trust requires heat suppliers for our registered heat networks to have a clear complaints-handling process, and we expect them to resolve complaints within eight weeks.
We do not recommend that you cancel direct debits, or stop paying your heat charges, as this could make the situation worse. If your complaint is about a bill, ask your supplier to put the disputed part of the bill on hold.
Your heat supplier should send you a Deadlock Letter within eight weeks of you registering your complaint. This sets out your supplier’s final position on the complaint.
If you're unhappy with your heat supplier’s final offer to resolve your complaint, or it's been over eight weeks and you haven't had a Deadlock Letter, then follow Steps 2-6.
If your heat network is registered with Heat Trust, you can take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman from eight weeks up to 12 months after you first made the complaint to your heat supplier.
The Energy Ombudsman has discretion to accept a complaint made outside of these time limits, but only if it's satisfied that there are exceptional reasons to justify the delay.
The Energy Ombudsman can look into complaints about your heat supplier's:
- Unfair, discourteous, or unprofessional treatment
- Untimely management of a problem, or failure to take action to rectify a problem
- Provision of wrong or misleading information
- Failure to comply with Heat Trust's Scheme rules (find out more about these here).
You must have been the supplier's customer, a domestic or micro-business consumer, and on a Heat Trust registered heat network when the problem covered by your complaint happened.
Under its arrangement with Heat Trust, the Energy Ombudsman can't investigate complaints about:
- Commercial decisions on whether to provide a product or service, or the terms under which they may be provided
- Price increases that weren't caused by metering or billing errors
- Infrastructure or equipment that aren't the supplier's responsibility under Heat Trust's Scheme rules
- Problems that are already being dealt with by the courts or by another independent dispute resolution service
- Issues that happened outside of the Energy Ombudsman's time limits, including any that took place before your heat network became registered with Heat Trust
- Complaints that the Ombudsman considers to be trivial or malicious, or have no reasonable prospect of success.
You can find more eligibility information in the Energy Ombudsman's Terms of Reference here.
You can do this:
- Online at www.energyombudsman.org/raise-dispute
- By phone on 0330 440 1624
- By email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- By post to Energy Ombudsman, PO Box 966, Warrington, WA4 9DF.
You'll need the name of your heat supplier (if you're unsure who this is, then check your bill, account statement or customer information pack). The Energy Ombudsman will ask for some details about you, the date that you first complained to your supplier, actions taken by you and the heat supplier, and how you would like your complaint resolved.
If you have specific communication needs, you can let the Ombudsman know by phone on the number above or by emailling This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Someone else can complain on your behalf as long you send written authorisation to the Energy Ombudsman. This could be a member of your family, a friend, a solicitor, or a volunteer from a body like Citizens Advice. If you nominate a representative, the Energy Ombudsman will communicate with them as if they were you.
The Energy Ombudsman's service is free of charge to consumers; its costs are paid by your heat supplier.
It can typically take between six and eight weeks for the Energy Ombudsman to make a decision.
The Energy Ombudsman will take all the circumstances into account to make a fair and impartial decision. They will explain their reasons to you and your supplier, and will set out timescales in which any remedy/award is due.
The Energy Ombudsman has expertise in dealing with complaints and will investigate fairly, by listening to both sides of the story and looking at the facts. They are an independent organisation, an accredited Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider and the Ombudsman for gas and electricity complaints.
If you accept the Energy Ombudsman's decision, it becomes binding on your heat supplier. If you don't reply to the decision with the specified period, or choose not to accept the decision, then it will not be binding on your supplier.
The Energy Ombudsman will always try to achieve a resolution which is acceptable to both sides, taking account of all available evidence. If, after a resolution is proposed, either party feels that there is an error in fact or has new evidence which was not previously available, it may appeal the decision to the Energy Ombudsman. The Energy Ombudsman will check to see if the outcome is affected by this new information. A final decision will then be issued.
Nothing in the Heat Trust Scheme shall limit your right to take court proceedings against your heat supplier, should the Energy Ombudsman’s decision not be binding on them.
The Energy Ombudsman can ask your heat supplier to apologise, provide an explanation, take action to correct the problem, or present you with a financial award up to £10,000 including VAT. The supplier has 28 days to do this.
No award or remedy will be made against you.
When a heat supplier registers a heat network with the Heat Trust Scheme, they have to sign a contract with the Energy Ombudsman. This contract is known as a Deed Poll. It's enforceable in court, by you or the Energy Ombudsman, in relation to any decision the Energy Ombudsman makes (provided that you accept the Energy Ombudsman’s decision).
Energy Ombudsman decisions aim to put things right, not punish the supplier. The Ombudsman can't dictate how heat suppliers operate or issue fines.