Law guide: Complaints and disputes

See how we helped Liz

"It's not just a website... there are people there on call who can help answer your queries."

Liz W, London

Complaining to the Energy Ombudsman

Complaining to the Energy Ombudsman

The Energy Ombudsman is the UK energy sector's independent dispute resolution service. It resolves outstanding complaints about energy suppliers that provide gas and/or electricity to your home.

All companies involved in the supply of gas or electricity to domestic consumers must be members of the ombudsman. It's the only scheme specifically servicing the energy sector in the UK.

When to refer a complaint

Before the ombudsman will consider your complaint, you must contact your energy supplier and make every effort to complete its complaints procedure. You need to refer your complaint to your energy supplier within 12 months of becoming aware of the problem.

After this, the ombudsman will generally only consider your complaint if one or more of the following applies:

  • You're having difficulty registering a complaint with the energy company.
  • It has been 8 weeks since you first made the complaint to your energy supplier and you're still not happy with how your complaint has been dealt with. In this case, you then have 9 months to refer your complaint to the ombudsman. (This 8-week limit applies to the main energy suppliers E.ON, EDF Energy, British Gas, npower, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern.)
  • You've received a 'deadlock' letter from your energy supplier (which states that you're unable to reach an agreement). You then have 6 months to refer your complaint to the ombudsman.

How to refer a complaint

You can contact register your dispute with the ombudsman online or by post, phone or , emailwhere the ombudsman will take your details and send you a filled-in complaint form. Or you can complete its online enquiry form. Where possible, you should send scans or photos and emailof any documents you're relying on. If you send the ombudsman original documents, you might not get them back.

Copyright © 2024 Epoq Group Ltd. All trademarks acknowledged, all rights reserved

This website is operated by Epoq Legal Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 3707955, whose registered office is at 2 Imperial Place, Maxwell Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JN. Epoq Legal Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 645296).

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.