MCS urges certified installers to avoid non-compliant subcontracting arrangements

15 November 2024

MCS has recently received evidence of a non-certified business targeting and encouraging MCS certified installers to break our Scheme requirements.  

MCS takes this attempt to lure its installers into non-compliant activity seriously. 

We have moved rapidly in our response to minimise the potential impact of this encouragement of non-compliance with the Scheme, issuing a formal cease and desist letter to the non-certified business on the same working day that we were made aware of their activities. 

Below is an outline of the issues we have seen, further details of our response, and a reminder of your responsibilities as an MCS certified installer. 

Contractual arrangements   

We have seen communications which have invited certified installers to enter a contractual and financial arrangement to ‘sign off’ and register MCS certificates for air source heat pump installations. In these cases, the non-certified business said: 

  • They would perform heat loss calculations, provide system performance estimates and install the full physical installation.  
  • They would hold the direct relationship and contract with the customer, while the MCS certified installer would have no direct contact with the customer.  

This arrangement is not compliant with MCS Standards.  

For an installation to receive an MCS Certificate from an MCS certified installer, the installation must be compliant with MCS Standards. The installer that registers the installation on the MCS Installation Database (MID) and produces the MCS Certificate must hold the contract directly with the customer.   

MCS response 

For installations where a non-certified business holds the contract with the customer and simply employs the services of an MCS certified installer to ‘sign off’, these installations are deemed non-complaint with MCS requirements. 

In response, we: 

  • Issued a formal letter to the director of the non-certified business, outlining our concerns with their activity, why it encourages a breach of Scheme requirements, and requesting them to cease such activity immediately. 
  • Have instructed our Customer Support Helpdesk and Outreach team (who contact every consumer with an installation funded with a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant) to monitor for this type of activity.  
  • Are raising awareness of the issues amongst our certified installers to protect them and the Scheme itself.  

Contracting responsibilities 

As a reminder, the MCS Contractor Standard, MCS-001-1 clause 4.10.1 states:  

“4.10.1 A contract for the sale and installation of a system shall be entered into only between an MCS Contractor certified for the technology type(s) in the contract, and a customer; and only this MCS Contractor shall register the system on the MCS Installation Database (MID) under their user account”. 

To reiterate, this means that the installer who registers the installation on the MCS Installation Database (MID) and produces the MCS Certificate must hold the contract with the customer.   

This is crucial in ensuring consumers have clarity on who is delivering and taking responsibility for their installation. It is also important in making sure installations are compliant to MCS Standards. 

We urge any of our certified installers who are approached for this type of work to raise their concerns with our Customer Support Helpdesk. This will help us to continue to respond and take decisive action.  

We also want to thank our certified installer base for their ongoing vigilance in highlighting instances of non-compliance. We’ll continue to work with certified installers and take action on instances of non-compliance when they arise. It is in everyone’s interests to raise standards in our industry, and as such breaches of Scheme requirements will not be tolerated.