Occupier Outrage A selection of recent quotes from our consumer group, who have had retrofit works completed under the ECO4 scheme “I was contacted to ask if we wanted Eco4 works at a tenanted property of ours, I declined (the property had under gone a full refurbishment 15 years ago). They turned up with documents ‘signed’ by me and our tenant allowed them in . The signature was forged. We were completely unaware until the works were completed and our tenant had some snagging issues’.” “Trustmark didn’t help me: my solar panels are fitted incorrectly, the heating system not working, ventilation not done correctly. And the installer, who have been payed won’t finish the job correctly. Trustmark are useless.” “The system has been tested on the most poor of us,oap’s and disabled and now pulled because it doesn’t save on energy costs.We all now have yet more money to find and many like myself more anxious and with the National Health mess and adverts on telly every night for funerals no wonder why we have all had enough of the way that this country is going.” “There is a lot of shady stuff going on. For example, the retrofit coordinator who forged my signature on the forms to say the work had been done correctly has been disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.” I am a 79year old widow, who is one of the many victims that has been left with unfinished and poor quality instillation of a heat pump system and solar panels fitted to my home by and under the eco4 scheme. The costs per day this winter is around £20 per day. The government has left us trapped in a situation through no fault of our own, our lives turn upside down a living hell. I should be living my later years without this stress, which has caused my health both physically and mentally to go down hill. We seem to have been left stranded without a life line, whilst the government are letting these criminals get away with it. “Due to the catastrophic failure of the internal wall insulation (IWI) installation and the fundamental breakdown of the government-appointed governance and oversight systems, I have suffered immense distress and long-term consequences.” “Our nightmare began over a year ago when I qualified for funding on medical grounds as I am disabled, & is still not over. To cut an extremely long story short, all the organisations who should have helped when things went wrong failed us.” “A lot of us will never recover from what has been done to our homes and our possessions. For the government to put something into place that has so many loopholes is unforgiveable. When you complain you get treated like some dreadful person that was given something for free and is ungrateful. All the big organisation in place to protect us from the cowboy installers that have latched onto ECO4 work, are missing the big picture and the staff that work within them are unqualified to resolve the problems.” “They knew I had the grant for health reasons… and I was living in damp, cold conditions” “This is not just a property; it is our home. This prolonged situation has caused immense stress and anxiety in our household. Our home has been left in an unsafe and disrupted state for months. The unprofessional conduct of CES staff, coupled with their lack of accountability, has affected our mental health and placed a strain on our relationship.” “We have sent NAPIT photographs of burnt carpets, metal pipework overhanging door ways that catch your ankles, skirting boards left off because they are impossible to fit back with the new pipework in the way, solder melted into carpets and more. NAPIT’s response is to say the ASHP installation standards are now fine and they require an independent survey before they will look at it again. “ “We are currently still in the process of waiting for everything to be finished with CES. The work started back in March of this year and has been absolute hell! They have caused us so much stress, anxiety and worry! Not including damages to our belongs and property! Countless phones calls are just met with more lies! I’m literally at a dead end on what to do! We’ve got a baby in the property on oxygen, and have just encountered a dangerous leak into our fuse box below the cylinder they installed but refuse to replace as they are not willing to pay out 2k of their own money on a new cylinder if they cannot find a fault. Otherwise they will bill us the amount of the cylinder for ‘wasting their time’ Absolutely sick of these cowboys passing the blame on every other department! They’ve agreed to pay us a small settlement for damages to some of our property but it won’t even scratch the surface.” NICEIC arranged for a surveyor to attend my home, yet when he arrived he stated he did not know why he had been sent and that nobody had briefed him on what he was expected to assess. A further surveyor, appointed via the installer, attended and was immediately defensive of the installer rather than approaching the situation independently. “My boiler had started to leak so something had to be done quickly and I rushed into an air source heat pump. I wish I hadn’t, I now have a system that costs triple the amount the oil boiler did mainly due to having very little wall insulation, it should have never been installed without that being rectified” “Re heat pumps: why are we (low income, vulnerable and disabled) the guinea pigs? But without any consumer protections – it fries my mind – the incompetence – the lies – the cover ups” “They want to come out and ‘fix’ the issues but we are reluctant to allow them back through fear they make do an even worse job, as the ‘fix’ seems to be a much bigger job than the install” We have had an awful experience: Damage to our property, holes in the walls, solar not fitted correctly, one of the workmen put a foot through a ceiling. We were without heating for 2 weeks. The wrong heat pump and tank were fitted. The company are abysmal and also Eco4. We have so many emails, telephone calls but they couldn’t care less about us.” “My home has been totally trashed , carpets ruined , laminate flooring delaminating due to serious flooding twice , by faulty workmanship , skirting not finished , cupboards plastered closed , mess everywhere” “It has come to my attention that several of us have had our signatures forged on the retrofit end of project survey (and likely elsewhere)” “I have had TrustMark assessor and TrustMark Consumer Director in my home looking at the install. The accreditation company fell short of communicating and also seemsed very biased in favour of the installer. TrustMark supposedly did an internal investigation and when I asked for the results/outcome, I was told as this was an internal to them, I was not entitled to access or to know the outcome.” “After my home was put back together, which took two years, I insisted on being provided with indemnity insurance to cover all the work that was done so that if anything further goes wrong in the future, I am covered by the indemnity insurance. I think all of us need the insurance.” “The company did send people occasionally to supposedly remedy things but they were either unqualified, unprepared or the knowledgable ones would leave the company half way through trying to organise things” “It was very stressful, my partner was ill off work and the house was upside down so we wanted the whole ordeal to end. However I now have concerns about the product they choose for an older building / the way it was installed specifically around structural wood beams and the potential issue of rotting. We had water ingress due to failed render and so the insulation should never have been installed.” “I’m really struggling health-wise & have very limited energy. I truly feel on the edge of a breakdown but I do not want the installers, scheme providers, funders & whoever else is part of the problem to get away with this taking advantage of anyone, particularly vulnerable people, to line their pockets!”
“I was contacted to ask if we wanted Eco4 works at a tenanted property of ours, I declined (the property had under gone a full refurbishment 15 years ago). They turned up with documents ‘signed’ by me and our tenant allowed them in . The signature was forged. We were completely unaware until the works were completed and our tenant had some snagging issues’.”
“Trustmark didn’t help me: my solar panels are fitted incorrectly, the heating system not working, ventilation not done correctly. And the installer, who have been payed won’t finish the job correctly. Trustmark are useless.”
“The system has been tested on the most poor of us,oap’s and disabled and now pulled because it doesn’t save on energy costs.We all now have yet more money to find and many like myself more anxious and with the National Health mess and adverts on telly every night for funerals no wonder why we have all had enough of the way that this country is going.”
“There is a lot of shady stuff going on. For example, the retrofit coordinator who forged my signature on the forms to say the work had been done correctly has been disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.”
I am a 79year old widow, who is one of the many victims that has been left with unfinished and poor quality instillation of a heat pump system and solar panels fitted to my home by and under the eco4 scheme. The costs per day this winter is around £20 per day. The government has left us trapped in a situation through no fault of our own, our lives turn upside down a living hell. I should be living my later years without this stress, which has caused my health both physically and mentally to go down hill. We seem to have been left stranded without a life line, whilst the government are letting these criminals get away with it.
“Due to the catastrophic failure of the internal wall insulation (IWI) installation and the fundamental breakdown of the government-appointed governance and oversight systems, I have suffered immense distress and long-term consequences.”
“Our nightmare began over a year ago when I qualified for funding on medical grounds as I am disabled, & is still not over. To cut an extremely long story short, all the organisations who should have helped when things went wrong failed us.”
“A lot of us will never recover from what has been done to our homes and our possessions. For the government to put something into place that has so many loopholes is unforgiveable. When you complain you get treated like some dreadful person that was given something for free and is ungrateful. All the big organisation in place to protect us from the cowboy installers that have latched onto ECO4 work, are missing the big picture and the staff that work within them are unqualified to resolve the problems.”
“This is not just a property; it is our home. This prolonged situation has caused immense stress and anxiety in our household. Our home has been left in an unsafe and disrupted state for months. The unprofessional conduct of CES staff, coupled with their lack of accountability, has affected our mental health and placed a strain on our relationship.”
“We have sent NAPIT photographs of burnt carpets, metal pipework overhanging door ways that catch your ankles, skirting boards left off because they are impossible to fit back with the new pipework in the way, solder melted into carpets and more. NAPIT’s response is to say the ASHP installation standards are now fine and they require an independent survey before they will look at it again. “
“We are currently still in the process of waiting for everything to be finished with CES. The work started back in March of this year and has been absolute hell! They have caused us so much stress, anxiety and worry! Not including damages to our belongs and property! Countless phones calls are just met with more lies! I’m literally at a dead end on what to do! We’ve got a baby in the property on oxygen, and have just encountered a dangerous leak into our fuse box below the cylinder they installed but refuse to replace as they are not willing to pay out 2k of their own money on a new cylinder if they cannot find a fault. Otherwise they will bill us the amount of the cylinder for ‘wasting their time’ Absolutely sick of these cowboys passing the blame on every other department! They’ve agreed to pay us a small settlement for damages to some of our property but it won’t even scratch the surface.”
NICEIC arranged for a surveyor to attend my home, yet when he arrived he stated he did not know why he had been sent and that nobody had briefed him on what he was expected to assess. A further surveyor, appointed via the installer, attended and was immediately defensive of the installer rather than approaching the situation independently.
“My boiler had started to leak so something had to be done quickly and I rushed into an air source heat pump. I wish I hadn’t, I now have a system that costs triple the amount the oil boiler did mainly due to having very little wall insulation, it should have never been installed without that being rectified”
“Re heat pumps: why are we (low income, vulnerable and disabled) the guinea pigs? But without any consumer protections – it fries my mind – the incompetence – the lies – the cover ups”
“They want to come out and ‘fix’ the issues but we are reluctant to allow them back through fear they make do an even worse job, as the ‘fix’ seems to be a much bigger job than the install”
We have had an awful experience: Damage to our property, holes in the walls, solar not fitted correctly, one of the workmen put a foot through a ceiling. We were without heating for 2 weeks. The wrong heat pump and tank were fitted. The company are abysmal and also Eco4. We have so many emails, telephone calls but they couldn’t care less about us.”
“My home has been totally trashed , carpets ruined , laminate flooring delaminating due to serious flooding twice , by faulty workmanship , skirting not finished , cupboards plastered closed , mess everywhere”
“It has come to my attention that several of us have had our signatures forged on the retrofit end of project survey (and likely elsewhere)”
“I have had TrustMark assessor and TrustMark Consumer Director in my home looking at the install. The accreditation company fell short of communicating and also seemsed very biased in favour of the installer. TrustMark supposedly did an internal investigation and when I asked for the results/outcome, I was told as this was an internal to them, I was not entitled to access or to know the outcome.”
“After my home was put back together, which took two years, I insisted on being provided with indemnity insurance to cover all the work that was done so that if anything further goes wrong in the future, I am covered by the indemnity insurance. I think all of us need the insurance.”
“The company did send people occasionally to supposedly remedy things but they were either unqualified, unprepared or the knowledgable ones would leave the company half way through trying to organise things”
“It was very stressful, my partner was ill off work and the house was upside down so we wanted the whole ordeal to end. However I now have concerns about the product they choose for an older building / the way it was installed specifically around structural wood beams and the potential issue of rotting. We had water ingress due to failed render and so the insulation should never have been installed.”
“I’m really struggling health-wise & have very limited energy. I truly feel on the edge of a breakdown but I do not want the installers, scheme providers, funders & whoever else is part of the problem to get away with this taking advantage of anyone, particularly vulnerable people, to line their pockets!”
