Assure Certification is a UKAS-accredited certification body and a government-authorised Self-Certification Scheme (formerly known as a Competent Person Scheme). Installers we certify can sign off their own work under the Building Regulations. They register each job with us, and we tell your council and send you a certificate.

We are not an ombudsman, a consumer protection body or an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider. We do not guarantee an installer’s work. Your contract is with your installer, and your installer is responsible for the work.

A. Complaints about work registered with Assure

Start with your installer

Complain to your installer in writing first. They must have a complaints procedure. When they give you their final answer, they must tell you about any dispute resolution scheme they have to use.

What we can look at

We can only look at a complaint if all of these apply:

• the job was registered with Assure by an installer we certify
• the installer is still with Assure when you complain
• you believe the registered work does not meet the Building Regulations
• you complained to the installer in writing, and they have given you their final answer, or eight weeks have passed without one
• you contact us within six months of the installer’s final answer, and within six years of the job being finished

If any of these does not apply, we cannot look at your complaint. We may accept a late complaint if there is a good reason for the delay.

What we cannot look at

We do not deal with:

• prices, payments, deposits, refunds or compensation
• delays, missed dates or cancelling your contract
• damage to your home or belongings
• how the work looks, or faults that do not affect the Building Regulations
• product faults, or anything else covered by your installer’s guarantee
• what you were told when you bought, or the terms of your contract
• work that was not registered with Assure

For these, go back to your installer, or to the ADR scheme they told you about. The Citizens Advice consumer service can explain your rights.

If your installer has left Assure or stopped trading

We cannot look at your complaint, and we cannot make anyone put the work right. If the installer has stopped trading, check the financial protection that came with your job. Your paperwork tells you who provides it and what it covers.

If a company says it is with Assure but is not on our register

It cannot register your job through us. Tell us at [email protected].

How to send us a complaint

Email [email protected]. This is the only way to send us a complaint. If you cannot use email, someone else can email for you. If you need us to make an adjustment because of a disability, tell us in your email. Our complaints procedure is free.

Include:

• the address of the job and the installer’s name
• your Assure certificate, if you have it
• your written complaint to the installer, and their final answer or proof that eight weeks have passed
• each part of the work you believe does not meet the Building Regulations, and why
• photographs

Tell us everything at the start. Once we have started, we do not add new points to a complaint. A new point needs a new complaint, and the conditions above apply to it.

We share your complaint with the installer

If we look at your complaint, we tell the installer that you have complained and send them your complaint and all the evidence you give us, so they can respond. We cannot look at a complaint without doing this. If you ask us not to tell the installer, or not to share any of your complaint or evidence with them, we will not look at your complaint.

Our privacy policy explains how we use your information.

What happens next

1. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days.
2. Within 10 working days, we aim to tell you whether we can look at it. If we cannot, we tell you why and close it.
3. If we can, we send it to the installer for their response and evidence. We may ask you for more information.
4. We decide on the written evidence, including photographs, from you and the installer. Our own technical staff assess it. We do not carry out inspections to investigate complaints, and we do not arrange or pay for inspections or reports by anyone else. You do not need an expert report to complain. If you choose to get one from an independent expert, at your own cost, we will take it into account and the installer can respond to it. If the evidence does not show that the work fails to meet the Building Regulations, we will not uphold your complaint.
5. We tell you and the installer our finding in writing. It says whether the work meets the Building Regulations and, if it does not, what we require the installer to put right to keep its certification. The finding is made, or reviewed and approved, by someone at Assure who was not involved in any inspection or certification decision about your installation, and who has not been employed by, or provided consultancy to, the installer in the last two years. We aim to give it within 60 working days of telling you we can look at your complaint. If we need longer, we will tell you.

Putting it right

Only your installer can put the work right. We do not carry out work, and we do not send another company.

Agree a date with your installer and let them in. If you will not let them back without a good reason, we will close your complaint. We cannot leave a certificate in place for work that may not meet the Building Regulations, so we may also change or withdraw your certificate and tell your council.

If the installer does not put the work right, we may take action against them under our scheme rules. Any action we take is between us and the installer. We will not tell you whether we have taken action, or what it is.

What our finding means

Our finding is a decision for our certification scheme about whether the work meets the Building Regulations. It does not settle any other part of your disagreement with your installer, and it is not ADR, mediation or arbitration. It does not change your legal rights or your installer’s, and it does not give you any rights against Assure. We do not pay or award compensation, refunds or costs.

Asking for a review

If you or the installer disagree with our finding, either of you can ask for a review. Email [email protected] within 20 working days of our finding and say why. A director of Assure who was not involved in the original decision will look at the evidence already provided, with technical input from Assure’s own staff where needed. Their decision is our final decision for you and the installer. We confirm it in writing, and that ends our complaints procedure. If no one asks for a review, our finding ends our complaints procedure.

When we pause or close a complaint

We put a complaint on hold if court action, or ADR, is started about the same work. We look at it again when that has finished, if it still needs a decision from us.

We may close a complaint if:

• it does not meet the conditions under “What we can look at”
• you do not send information we ask for within 20 working days
• you will not let the installer back, without a good reason, to put the work right
• the installer has put the work right
• the installer leaves Assure before we give our finding
• you withdraw it
• it is vexatious (see below)

If you think we were wrong not to look at your complaint, or to close it, you can complain about how we handled it under section B below.

Behaviour and vexatious complaints

We treat everyone with respect and ask that you treat our staff with respect in return.

We may treat a complaint as vexatious, and close or limit how we deal with it, where behaviour is unreasonable. For example:

• abusive, threatening or offensive contact with our staff or the installer
• sending the same complaint again after we have given our finding
• contacting us so often that it gets in the way of our work

Frequent chasing will not resolve a matter any faster. Decisions to treat a complaint as vexatious are taken in line with our Unreasonable Behaviour Policy and are recorded.

B. Complaints about Assure

If you have a complaint about Assure, our service or our staff, email [email protected]. Explain what happened and what you think we did wrong. This process is free of charge.

We aim to acknowledge receipt within 5 working days, and within 20 working days of receipt either to give you our answer, or to tell you what more we need and when we will answer.

If you are not happy with our answer, you can ask for a review once we have answered, or after 20 working days if we have not. A director of Assure who was not involved in handling the original complaint will carry out the review. We will confirm the outcome to you in writing, which marks the end of the complaints process.

C. Appeals by members against an Assure certification decision

This procedure is for Assure members who wish to appeal a decision made by Assure about their certification status – for example a decision to refuse, suspend or withdraw certification, or a finding raised following an audit or assessment.

How to appeal

You must submit your appeal in writing to [email protected] within 20 working days of being notified of the decision. Please state the decision you are appealing, the grounds for your appeal, and include any supporting evidence.

What happens next

We will acknowledge receipt of your appeal within 5 working days.

We are responsible for gathering and verifying the information needed to decide the appeal. We may ask you for further information and will set target dates.

Independent decision. The appeal will be decided by, or reviewed and approved by, one or more people who were not involved in the original decision being appealed. Where technical judgement is required, we will involve a person with the appropriate technical competence. No one who has provided consultancy to, or been employed by, the member within the previous two years will review or approve the appeal.

We aim to decide the appeal within 30 working days of acknowledgement. We will give you formal written notice of the outcome, which confirms the end of the appeal process. If we need longer, we will write to you with a revised target date.

Lodging an appeal does not, by itself, suspend the decision being appealed unless we tell you otherwise.