The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection - Government Schemes, Regulations, Training, Planning & Organisations

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

JamesPa — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 08:18:00 +0000

Thanks and that's very interesting. I agree its admission, and the key words, if your policy is similar to mine are 'building regulations'. I reproduce my policy below which I had (perhaps erroneously) previously decided was worthless. The wording carefully excludes any fault occurring before the supplier continued to trade, which essentially excludes any and all design faults, but there is an exception for the exclusion covering breaches of building regulations.

Actually this exception is potentially very powerful, if difficult to prove, because building regulations require that heating systems are designed to be efficient (I cant recall the exact words). Bearing this in mind together with your experience may help future claimants.

I applaud you for following through on and apologise that I was pessimistic at the start. That said I somehow suspect that the clincher for their decision was the FT article, not a genuine recognition that hey should have paid up in the first place which they will carry forward to future cases.

15217

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Majordennisbloodnok — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:33:22 +0000

“Misquoted what should have been undertaken.” “Should not have been missed.”

Remarkable things, words. So many of them in that letter to @ian-w… and yet somehow, in all those carefully chosen words, not a single one that actually says sorry.

Quite possibly the most honest thing they’ve said, then. One has to be sorry to truly say sorry.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Mars — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:22:37 +0000

“Misquoted what should have been undertaken.” “Should not have been missed.”

Remarkable things, words. So many of them in that letter to @ian-w… and yet somehow, in all those carefully chosen words, not a single one that actually says sorry.

RE: Failed Heat Pump Install: IWA Claim Rejected

Ian — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:11:46 +0000

@JamesPa the letter from IWA Insurance stated: “This assessment was undertaken by the Claims Manager but their report unfortunately misquoted what should have been undertaken in line with breach of building regulations.” Further on they state: “It has been recognised by IWA that this should not have been missed in our final response to you…”. I read this to be an admission that they made a mistake. This letter was issued the day before the FT article came out in print (which enabled them to ask the editor to add the line “After this article was first published online, IWA told the Wards that it accepted the bulk of their claim”. There can be no doubt that this was also a cynical attempt to minimise poor publicity.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Mars — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:36:09 +0000

@ian-w, thank you for your kind words, and I was happy to help, but you and Sarah did the hard part. You documented everything, you kept pushing when most people would have stopped and you had the courage to put your story on the public record. All I did was try to get it noticed by the right people.

Your point about structural failure is exactly right and the water industry analogy is painfully apt. Ofwat, MCS, the insurance framework around certification… they all share the same fundamental design flaw. The bodies supposed to protect consumers are bizarrely either funded by, appointed by or structurally dependent on the industries they regulate, and I can’t help feel that the conflict of interest is not incidental.

But I’m really pleased you triumphed and got the W, and hopefully we’ll start to see more positive outcomes to homeowner complaints.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Mars — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:24:01 +0000

@jamespa I have read and seen the IWA correspondence but it’s not my place to publicly comment on what it said and if any fault was admitted to. I will leave that to @ian-w to disclose if he so wishes.

I will say this much though… sometimes the most revealing thing about a letter is not what it admits, but what it carefully stops short of admitting.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

JamesPa — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:16:15 +0000

Firstly I am delighted you have won this one and congratulations on your persistence. There is no question that this is a major victory. Well done to you and everyone involved.

That said I confess that, before you did, I doubted you would succeed. My doubt was based on the wording of my own insurance contract which, frankly, is not worth the paper it is written on.

My question therefore is, did they admit that they were wrong, or did they just change their mind without admitting fault. The significance of this question is that, in the latter case, it might well be a cynical attempt to minimise poor publicity without any long term effect, whereas the former case is a real change of position.

I share your concerns about structural failing, which is why I cynically suspect it might be more about avoiding bad publicity rather than about a real change of heart.

Hopefully you can tell us and hopefully my cynicism is misplaced.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Ian — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:11:05 +0000

@editor Mars thank you! Tbh you have been the only person in this whole sorry debacle that can clearly see what the problems are, how to fix them, and that has the courage to speak truth to power. Others in this industry, who are being paid very significant salaries in the regulatory bodies, the insurance sector and government are frankly failing to do their job properly. I doubt this is a coincidence. There’s too much greed and short-term profiteering which is what you get in a highly privatised, rapidly expanding new sector. It’s no wonder that the majority of other European countries are way ahead of the UK in adopting cleaner, greener technologies. This is yet another example of ‘Rip Off Britain’ where those in power have the means to make a quick buck at the expense of well-meaning punters who are just trying to ‘do the right thing’ environmentally and are being let down, if not scammed, by them all. Unless those in power stand up to the corporate greed and corruption, especially in the insurance industry, people in the UK will continue to be beholden to the fossil fuel companies and the instability of the global energy market for decades to come.

Finding out about the Renewable Heating Hub, and having you take on our case was a game changer Mars. If I’m honest, we were close to the point of giving up, like many before us. People reading these comments need to know that you have walked alongside us, offering relevant, experienced advice at every step. You gave up your weekend to read through the 84 separate reports, correspondence and research that made up our case, and had the tenacity to keep fighting for us (and many others like us) behind the scenes, even when the chance of success looked bleak. Words are not enough to thank you.

Going back to the point about structural failures (and the driving test analogy), isn’t this exactly what has been going on in the water industry for years? Ofwat, the water regulator, is funded by individual water companies, and therefore cannot enforce regulations without compromising its own source of income. It’s not surprising that our seas and rivers are now full of sewage. Structural failure is at the heart of many of the UK’s problems, and these structures always seem to benefit the wealthy, leaving the rest of us to suffer.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Majordennisbloodnok — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:43:38 +0000

@ian-w, congratulations to you both. Despite the fact I'm only a homeowner like you, I can't help feeling vicariously saddened that you are owed a huge apology from the heat pump industry for what you've been put through. Nonetheless, I'm very pleased you've finally had a measure of acknowledgement and success even if it'd be rather a push to call it justice. Well done.

RE: The Reality Behind a Failed Heat Pump Installation – and an IWA Insurance Rejection

Mars — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:56:44 +0000

An update.

The Wards have won.

Following the recent coverage and the wider publicity generated by this community, IWA Insurance have reversed their position and agreed to fund the significant remediation work on Sarah and Ian's installation. @liamk (part of the Renewable Heating installer network) has been contacted directly to carry out the work. Eight of the ten documented non-conformities will be rectified at the insurer's expense.

We see too many homeowners in identical situations who are scared to make noise, worried about being difficult or simply exhausted into silence by a process designed to wear them down. The Wards refused to be worn down, and it made all the difference.

The full update is here: https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/when-you-fight-back-how-one-couples-refusal-to-give-up-changed-everything

If you are going through something similar, please do not stay quiet. DM or email me (editor@renewableheatinghub.co.uk).