Your Questions About Business Energy Claims, Answered

Your business is likely to qualify if all of the following apply:

• You are a UK-registered business (not a domestic consumer)
• You used a broker or TPI to arrange at least one energy contract
• You were not given a clear, specific written disclosure of the commission amount
• The relevant contract was entered into within the last six years

Annual energy spend and contract duration affect the potential value of your claim but not generally whether you have one. Very small businesses (under £5,000 annual spend) may find that the recovery amount does not justify the process — we will advise you honestly if this is the case.

There is no legal minimum, but there is a practical one. Below approximately £8,000–£10,000 per year in energy spend, the commission amount involved may be modest and the effort involved in pursuing a claim may not be proportionate to the likely recovery. We assess this honestly during the eligibility review and will not take on a case where we do not believe it is financially worthwhile for you.

Not necessarily. Disclosure must meet a legal standard — it is not sufficient to include a vague reference to commission in a lengthy terms of business document that was never specifically drawn to your attention. Courts and ombudsman schemes have held that disclosure must be:

• Clear and specific (ideally the exact amount or a percentage)
• Given at a point where it could influence your decision
• Presented in a way that allowed you to give informed consent

If your broker claims to have disclosed their commission, we will review the relevant documentation and advise you on whether that disclosure is likely to be considered adequate. Many disclosures we have reviewed do not meet this standard.

Yes, provided the contract falls within the relevant limitation period. The fact that your energy contract has since ended — whether because you switched supplier, renegotiated, or simply let it expire — does not preclude a claim. What matters is whether the undisclosed commission arrangement occurred within the claimable period.

Yes. Where a broker arranged multiple contracts — for example across several site addresses or covering both gas and electricity — each contract may give rise to a separate claim element. Multi-site and multi-contract claims are often the most valuable and we have experience handling them in a consolidated way to minimise disruption to your business.

Most claims that resolve through negotiation conclude within 3–6 months from the date we submit the formal Letter Before Action. The earlier stages — eligibility assessment and document review — typically take 4–8 weeks.

Cases that cannot be resolved through negotiation and require formal dispute resolution or ombudsman referral may take a further 3–6 months. Litigation, where required, extends this timeline further. We provide a timeline estimate specific to your case once the initial review is complete.

We handle the process on your behalf. In most cases, the time commitment from you is:

• 15–20 minutes to complete the initial submission
• Occasional email or phone reviews at key stages
• A sign-off of any settlement offer before it is accepted

We draft all correspondence, handle all requests for information, and manage the negotiation. We keep you informed without burdening you with paperwork.

Where a broker or supplier refuses to respond constructively to our Letter Before Action, we pursue the claim through formal dispute resolution channels. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve referral to the Energy Ombudsman, the Claims Management Ombudsman, or county court proceedings.

We advise you clearly on the merits and likely costs of escalation before proceeding. We will not escalate a claim without your explicit instruction.

Potentially yes, depending on the circumstances. If the broker company is dissolved, a claim may still be possible against the energy supplier directly, particularly where the supplier had knowledge of — or was party to — the undisclosed commission arrangement. We assess each situation individually and advise on the realistic prospects of recovery.

Claims may be founded on one or more of the following legal bases, depending on the specific facts:

• Breach of fiduciary duty — where the broker acted as your agent, they owed a duty to act in your interest and disclose any conflicts
• Undisclosed conflict of interest — receiving commission from a supplier whilst advising you constitutes a conflict that must be disclosed
• Inadequate commission disclosure — vague or buried disclosure that did not allow informed consent may not satisfy the legal requirement
• Unjust enrichment — the broker was enriched at your expense in a way the law may treat as recoverable

See our How Claims Work page for a more detailed explanation of each ground.

The standard limitation period for contract and tort claims in England and Wales is six years from the date of the cause of action. For cases involving concealment or lack of disclosure, the Limitation Act 1980 provides that time may run from the date on which the claimant first became aware of — or could with reasonable diligence have discovered — the concealed facts.

Practically, this means many claims can still be pursued even where the contract was entered into more than six years ago, provided the business only recently became aware of the undisclosed commission. If you are concerned about timing, contact us promptly — we will assess your position.

Ofgem has acknowledged significant concerns about TPI practices, including the lack of transparency around commission structures. In 2023, Ofgem published proposed changes to the TPI code of practice, requiring clearer commission disclosure. This regulatory attention does not itself resolve historical claims but provides important context confirming that the industry practice was problematic.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has separately addressed similar issues in adjacent markets — most recently in the motor finance sector — which has reinforced the legal landscape for undisclosed commission claims generally.

A compensation claim relates to your historical contract and is separate from your current supply arrangements. In our experience, pursuing a claim does not affect your ability to remain with or renegotiate with your current supplier. Suppliers do not typically treat claimants differently with respect to future supply contracts.

You do not need any documents to begin. We can start with just the name of your energy supplier and approximate contract dates. We then obtain the relevant documentation directly from the supplier via Subject Access Request and from the broker where possible.

If you do have documents — particularly the original contract, energy bills, or correspondence with the broker — these are helpful and may speed up the review. But their absence should not stop you from getting in touch.

Under the UK GDPR, any organisation that holds personal data about you must provide it upon request. A Subject Access Request (SAR) to your energy supplier will typically produce the original contract, account records, commission schedules, and internal correspondence — exactly the documents needed to quantify the hidden commission and assess your claim.

We draft and submit these requests on your behalf. Suppliers are obligated to respond within 30 days.

Not at all. This is extremely common. Businesses often do not retain energy contracts for more than a year or two, and original broker correspondence is frequently deleted or simply never saved. We do not require you to locate any documents. All material documentation can be obtained through formal information requests.

No. We operate on a strictly no-win, no-fee basis. You pay nothing to begin the process. There are no review fees, no retainer payments, and no costs charged at any point before settlement is received. Our fee is invoiced only when — and only if — your claim is successful.

Our fee is a pre-agreed percentage of the total amount recovered. This percentage is discussed and agreed with you before we begin work and set out clearly in our engagement letter. There are no hidden deductions and no additional charges. You receive the agreed net amount at settlement.

If your claim does not succeed — whether because the evidence does not support it, because the broker or supplier successfully defends, or because a settlement offer is not acceptable — you pay nothing. The no-win, no-fee structure means our interests are aligned with yours: we only earn if you recover.

In the vast majority of cases, the answer is no. The only circumstance in which you could potentially incur costs is if your claim were to proceed to litigation and you received an adverse costs order from the court — a risk we explain and discuss with you in full before any litigation is commenced. We do not take clients to litigation without a thorough discussion of risk and, where possible, we seek to resolve matters before that stage.

The starting point is the total commission embedded in your contract — calculated by comparing the rates you paid against available market benchmarks and the commission schedules obtained through the Subject Access Request process. To this we may add interest on the overcharged amount for the relevant period.

The final settled amount may be lower than the theoretical maximum, reflecting the negotiating dynamics and the respondent's position. We advise you on what we consider to be a fair settlement at each stage.