FAQs

A TPI is the acronym for ‘Third Party Intermediary’ – also known as energy brokers or energy consultants.

Simply provide us with some details of the contracts that the broker(s) put in place for you, sign a letter of authority allowing us to engage with the broker(s) and supplier(s) and we will do the rest. We will write to the broker & suppliers to ascertain the value of your claim, and let you decide if you wish to launch a claim.

In the event a claim is started, you will be required to co-operate with the solicitor at all times so that we can achieve a successful outcome. We will try to keep your involvement to as little as possible, and will use our expertise to gather all evidence with little to no interruption to yourself, although sometimes we will require your help.

It depends on the size of the claim. The legal process can be split into small claims, fast track claims, or multi-track claims and are typically dictated due to the monetary value of the claim. A small claim should take a maximum of 6 months, a fast track claim should take 9 month, and a multi track claim could take a lot longer. Once a claim has begun, we will keep you fully updated throughout the process and let you know how much money we have claimed.

In some ways it is similar to PPI for the consumer market. This is for the non-domestic energy market and relates to gas and electricity bills only.

We will complete the initial enquiries into your claim on a no obligation basis and at no cost to you. Once we have established whether you have a claim, to proceed you will need to sign an agreement setting out our Terms & Conditions, this will set out clearly our fees upon achieving a successful outcome.

We take the case on in anticipation of a successful outcome, some people call these types of agreements “no-win, no-fee agreements”.

In the event your claim is successful we will deduct our fee (set out clearly and explained to you in full when you begin your claim) from the compensation awarded.

Given that the broker wants repeat business, we often find that brokers become very friendly with their clients, and we think that is a good thing.

However, there is a good reason for them doing this, a tight relationship ensures repeat custom, and means you won’t question the rates when they present them to you, as the trust is already established.

Typically speaking not really, but some things that may happen are that the broker may take their commissions out of the deal leaving you with a lower rate, or they may offer to cancel the contract, we will always ask your permission to have any such changes applied.

No, we are not an energy broker, we do not sell energy contracts.

There are no figures on the scale of mis-selling in the industry, and certainly there are brokers who correctly review the market and describe the options accurately whilst demonstrating transparency over their fees with their clients. However, if your broker did not disclose to you how much they earned at the very least, they have not demonstrated transparency and you could have a claim.

If the broker is telling you very clearly EXACTLY how much it is earning and the bills you pay are what you expected to pay, then no they probably are not mis-selling. But the reason that businesses receive so many calls from brokers is that there are so many of them with such low barriers to entry that new ones are being incorporated all of the time. And with no regulation in place, and such high commissions potentially payable there are many opportunities for disreputable persons to become brokers and for bad practices to proliferate.

Some brokers really do add value added services for your benefit, that’s good. However if you don’t know with certainty how much you are being charged, you can’t make an informed decision about the additional services you may be receiving.

Unfortunately, the supplier will probably not disclose this as the supplier and broker have an arrangement whereby the supplier must leave it to the broker to answer questions about commissions, we think this is wrong. It is also true that some suppliers rely heavily on the introductions they get from some brokers.

You could, but if there’s not check in place to ensure you are told not just the truth, but given all the information you need to make an informed decision, then you can’t guarantee you are have information that is both correct and complete. We have experience of brokers giving both incomplete information and even actively misleading clients.

There is a small chance you may have to. Only a small number of cases proceed all the way to court but if this happens, your solicitor will be there every step of the way to guide you.