Frequently asked questions
The questions businesses actually ask us
Including the ones that end with us telling you there is nothing here worth pursuing.
- What is a hidden or undisclosed broker commission?
- It is a payment made by an energy supplier to the broker who arranged your contract, funded by an uplift added to your unit rate. It is not usually invoiced separately, so it does not appear as a line on your bill. Where you were never told it existed, or were told only that a commission 'may' be paid without any indication of the amount, it may not have been properly disclosed.
- My broker told me the service was free. Does that help or hurt my position?
- It tends to help it. A broker that presented its service as costing you nothing, while earning an uplift built into the rate you paid, is describing the arrangement inaccurately. That gap between what was said and what was happening is often central to a claim.
- The broker got me a better rate than I was on. Can I still claim?
- Possibly. The two questions are separate. A broker can move you off an expensive out-of-contract rate and still take several thousand pounds out of the saving without telling you. Whether you ended up better off than before is not the test; whether you were told what you were paying is.
- How far back can I claim?
- The general limitation period in England and Wales is six years from when the contract was entered into. Section 32 of the Limitation Act 1980 can extend that where a relevant fact was deliberately concealed, which is why older contracts are still pursued, but it has to be argued and the burden is on the claimant. Scotland has a five-year prescriptive period under its own legislation.
- How much is a typical claim worth?
- It depends entirely on consumption, the size of the uplift and the length of the contract. A business using 250,000 kWh a year on a three-year term with a 2p per kWh uplift is looking at roughly £15,000 across the contract. A small single-site business might be in the low thousands; a multi-site operator can be considerably more. Any firm quoting you an average before seeing your bills is guessing.
- Does this apply to my home energy bill?
- No. This concerns non-domestic contracts arranged through brokers. Domestic household supply is regulated differently and is not covered.
- My broker has gone out of business. Is that the end of it?
- Not necessarily. The supplier paid the commission and, depending on the circumstances, may have known or ought to have known how the broker was presenting itself. Claims are frequently pursued against the supplier rather than the broker.
- What documents do you need from me?
- The energy contracts signed in the last six years, a year of bills or an annual statement for each supply, and any correspondence with the broker including the letter of authority. If some of it is missing, we can often obtain copies from the supplier.
- What does it cost?
- The initial review is free and carries no obligation. If we take a matter on, we work on a no win no fee basis at a percentage agreed in writing beforehand. There is no upfront payment, search fee or administration charge, and if nothing is recovered you owe us nothing.
- How long does a claim take?
- The initial review takes a few days. Obtaining commission data from a supplier typically takes four to eight weeks and sometimes longer. A negotiated settlement generally lands somewhere between three and nine months from instruction. A litigated claim can take a year or more.
- Could this harm my relationship with my current supplier?
- Claims almost always concern historic contracts rather than your live supply, and raising one does not affect your ongoing service, which is protected by the supplier's licence conditions. It is a commercial dispute, handled as one.
- Do I need you at all?
- Not always. If your business meets Ofgem's microbusiness definition and one modest contract is involved, the free route through your supplier's complaints process and then the Energy Ombudsman is usually the sensible first step. You are also entitled to bring a civil claim yourself. We are worth involving where the sums are larger, several contracts are in play, or you have already tried and got nowhere.