Complaints
We don't install anything. We'll still help you sort it out.
Your contract is with the installer, and so is the legal responsibility for the work. But we put you in front of them, so a problem with them is our problem too.
We'll acknowledge it within two working days and give you a full answer within ten.
Put it in writing, and we'll work through it from there.
Start with the right people
Three different things can go wrong, and they go to three different places. Sending a complaint to the wrong one costs you weeks.
The installation
Workmanship, delays, damage, kit that doesn't perform, money, or the way you were treated on site.
Installer first, then MCS, then the ombudsman. Tell us as well.
Our advice or service
Your estimate, your recommendation, how we handled your bill and photographs, or not hearing back from us.
Us. There is no ombudsman above us and we say so below.
Your energy supplier
Billing, a tariff you were moved onto, meter readings, or an export payment that hasn't arrived.
Your supplier, then the Energy Ombudsman. Nothing to do with us.
A problem with the installation
Every installer we introduce is MCS certified, and that certification now carries the complaints route with it. It runs in a fixed order and you can't skip a rung.
Complain to the installer, in writing
Email rather than phone, so there's a record. Say what's wrong, what you want done, and by when. Give them a reasonable period to put it right — their own complaints policy will say how long.
Tell us at the same time
You don't have to, and it doesn't replace step one. But we'd rather know on day one than find out at week eight, and an installer who knows we're watching tends to move faster.
Escalate to MCS
If the installer hasn't resolved it, MCS handles the complaint centrally. Raise it through the form on their site, by email to mcscomplaints@mcscertified.com, or by post to MCS, First Floor, Violet 3, Sci-tech Daresbury, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Cheshire, WA4 4AB. Have your contract and quotes to hand.
Escalate to the ombudsman
If you're still not satisfied, if you and the installer disagree with what MCS proposed, or if MCS hasn't concluded it within twelve weeks, it goes to alternative dispute resolution. MCS's ADR partner is the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman, operating as the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman. You have twelve months from MCS concluding your complaint. It's free, MCS pays for it, and the decision binds installers certified under the redeveloped scheme.
If you paid a deposit by credit card and the job is between £100 and £30,000, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act may make the card provider jointly liable for the whole contract, not just the deposit. Worth raising with them in parallel rather than instead. Scheme rules and contacts change, so check the current position on the MCS site before you file.
A problem with us
Our job is the advice: reading your bill, modelling the tariffs, sizing the system, and telling you honestly when the numbers don't work. If we got that wrong, or handled your information badly, or simply went quiet on you, that one is ours.
How to raise it
Email complaints@householdenergysolutions.co.uk, or write to Household Energy Solutions, Little Orchard, Littleworth Lane, Partridge Green, West Sussex, RH13 8JF. Include your postcode and the date we sent your estimate or recommendation, so we can find you.
What happens next
We acknowledge within two working days, and it's handled personally, not a shared inbox. You get a full written answer within ten working days. If something's genuinely complicated we'll tell you before day ten and give you a new date rather than let it drift.
The honest limit
There is no ombudsman sitting above us. We're an advisory business, not an installer and not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so no redress scheme covers our advice. If you're unhappy with our final answer, your options are Citizens Advice, trading standards, or the small claims court. We'd rather you knew that before you deal with us than after.
If it's about your data
Complaints about how we've handled your bill, your meter photographs or your contact details come to us first. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. You don't need our permission and it doesn't cost anything.
A problem with your energy supplier
We don't sell electricity and we can't act for you with a supplier. Complain to them directly. If it isn't resolved within eight weeks, or they send you a deadlock letter before then, you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman free of charge at energyombudsman.org. Their decision binds the supplier.
If we recommended a tariff and the recommendation itself was wrong — wrong rates, wrong assumptions, a tariff you couldn't actually get — that's our advice, not their supply. That one comes to us.
How we are paid
Why you might not believe any of this
We work out whether a battery pays for your house and, if it does, introduce you to an installer. We do not install anything. The installer pays us a percentage of the installed price when the work is finished. You pay the installer directly and never pay us. That is still a reason to be sceptical about whose side we take when something goes wrong, and it is the fair objection to everything above.
What we'd point at in reply is the rest of this page: a route that sends you past us to people who can overrule us, and a plain statement that nothing overrules us. Judge it on that rather than on a promise to be impartial.
What we do when an installer lets you down
A referral business that vanishes at the first complaint isn't worth referring through. So: we chase the installer with you, in writing, until it's resolved or it reaches the ombudsman. We tell you what we're told, including when it's unhelpful.
And if an installer handles complaints badly, we stop introducing them. We have no exclusivity with anyone and nothing stops us doing it.