To keep our heat network operating efficiently, there are times when we need to carry out essential maintenance. This might result in a temporary interruption to your heating and / or hot water supply.

When this is required, we’ll give you at least five days’ written notice. We’ll let you know the reason for the interruption, how long we expect it to last and when your heat will be restored.

If we fail to give you five days’ written notice of a planned interruption, we’ll give you a one-off Guaranteed Service payment of £10.

We’ll also make sure that any planned interruption to your heating supply doesn’t last longer than five days. If a planned interruption exceeds five days, we’ll pay you £45 for each additional 24-hour period that you’re without heating – capped at £725.

If you have no heating and / or hot water and weren’t given advance notice of planned maintenance, we’ll aim to restore your supply within 24 hours from your first notification to us.

If we can’t restore your heating supply within 24 hours, we’ll compensate you with a Guaranteed Service payment of £45 for each full 24-hour period you’re without heating or hot water – capped at £725.

If there’s an emergency, we’ll have an engineer on site within four hours (often sooner). We define an emergency as a situation where there’s an immediate threat to life and / or significant damage to property. For example, a big leak.

To keep unplanned interruptions to an absolute minimum, we monitor our network and service it regularly. If you experience four or more unplanned interruptions in a 12-month period, where you have a total loss of heating and / or hot water lasting longer than 12 hours each time, we’ll compensate you with a one-off Guaranteed Service payment of £80.

For all other non-urgent faults where your heating and hot water supply isn’t interrupted, we’ll respond within seven days. As a minimum, our response will include details of the action we’ll take to try and put things right and a timescale for doing it. If we fail to provide a response within seven days, we’ll compensate you with a one-off Guaranteed Service payment of £10.

We’ll always try and keep appointments with you. If, for any reason, we need to change that appointment, we’ll give you at least 24 hours’ notice. If we fail to attend or don’t give you 24 hours’ notice to cancel or change an appointment, we’ll give you a one-off Guaranteed Service Payment of £10.

If you are a vulnerable customer and registered for Extra Care, and there’s a complete loss of heating during a planned or unplanned interruption that lasts longer than 12 hours, we’ll provide you with temporary heating. If we fail to do this, we’ll give you a one-off Guaranteed Service Payment of £35 each time we fail to arrange temporary heating. This payment is in addition to any other payment due under normal circumstances.