Energy Grant Scams: How to Spot Them and Check Who’s Really Certified

Quick answer: no legitimate UK energy grant scheme cold-calls you, charges an upfront “survey”, “admin” or “processing” fee, or needs your bank details to “release” funding. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is claimed by your installer through Ofgem, the Warm Homes: Local Grant runs through your council, and ECO funding comes via energy suppliers. Anyone who rings out of the blue promising “free government money” should be checked against the MCS and TrustMark registers before you say another word — and most will not be on them.

The red flags, in order of reliability

• An upfront fee. Energy Saving Trust is blunt on this: genuine schemes never ask the applicant for money up front. A “refundable survey deposit” is the single most reliable scam tell
• A cold call, text or door-knock. Councils, Ofgem and DESNZ do not phone households about grants. Installers you have never contacted have bought your number from somewhere
• Vague authority claims. “Government-approved”, “working with your council” and “authorised assessor” are not real designations — the real credentials are MCS certification, TrustMark registration and (for gas work) Gas Safe
• Manufactured urgency. “The scheme closes this week” is usually false. Beware the half-truth version: real deadlines like the 31 March 2027 end of the £9,000 oil/LPG window get borrowed by scammers to pressure you — a real installer will confirm dates in writing and give you time to compare quotes
• Bank details before eligibility. Grant money is deducted from an installer’s invoice or paid to contractors — no scheme pays cash into your account after you “verify” your card
• “100% free” promises before any survey. Even fully funded schemes are eligibility-tested and capped — nobody can promise a free installation from a call script

How the real schemes actually reach you

Verify in five minutes: the registers

• MCS register (mcscertified.com) — every legitimate heat pump, solar or battery installer claiming grant work must be listed. Search the company name exactly
• TrustMark (trustmark.org.uk) — required for government-funded retrofit work such as ECO4 and WHLG measures
• Companies House — check the trading name matches a real, active company and note how recently it was incorporated; week-old companies selling “government schemes” speak for themselves
• Call back on the official number. Never trust the number the caller gives you — find the website independently and phone that. For anything “from your council”, ring the council switchboard

If you have already paid or shared details

• Contact your bank immediately — UK banks operate mandatory reimbursement rules for authorised push payment fraud, and speed helps
• Report to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 (England, Wales and NI) or Police Scotland on 101
• Call the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 — they can also alert Trading Standards to the trader
• If work was done badly under a real scheme, complain via the installer’s MCS certification body or TrustMark — funded work carries consumer protection routes

Three live scam patterns to know in 2026

• Spray foam “grant” insulation. High-pressure doorstep sales of spray foam loft insulation, often dressed up as a government scheme. Beyond the fee, the product itself can be the damage: several mortgage lenders decline or down-value homes with spray foam in the roof, and removal costs thousands. No mainstream grant scheme funds doorstep-sold spray foam
• “Grant checker” websites. Slick sites that “check your eligibility” for ECO or heat pump funding, then sell your details as sales leads — the follow-up calls are the product. Check eligibility on GOV.UK or your council’s own site instead
• “You’re pre-approved” texts. SMS messages claiming pre-approval for energy bill support or insulation grants, linking to data-harvesting forms. DWP payments are automatic; no genuine scheme pre-approves you by text

The safest route to a genuine grant

Start from the scheme, not the salesman: check what you qualify for in our complete list of live UK energy grants, use the GOV.UK application pages directly (our Warm Homes: Local Grant guide and ECO4 guide walk through them), and gather two or three quotes from installers you found on the MCS register. Solar-specific cold-call tactics have their own patterns — see our solar scams guide. And if an offer only exists while the caller is on the line, it was never real.