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Complaint to your energy supplier about bills or meters (Northern Ireland)
Northern Ireland · in English · for consumers
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12 questions · about 5 min
Made for use in Northern Ireland
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For a household customer in Northern Ireland with a problem with their electricity or gas supplier: a wrong or estimated bill, a catch-up bill for energy used more than 13 months ago, a meter fault or poor service. The letter is the formal complaint the supplier must deal with under its complaints procedure; if it is not resolved, the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland takes energy complaints free, and publishes its own free letter for a disputed bill. Send it by email or first class post, and keep the date.
- Made for use in Northern Ireland
- Last updated October 29, 2026
- Document in English
Where a UK document reproduces the words of legislation or of a government publication — UK, Scottish or Northern Irish — it contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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When to use this document
- Your electricity bill in Northern Ireland is far higher than what you actually used.
- Your gas supplier sent a catch-up bill for energy used a long time ago.
- The supplier keeps billing on estimates and ignores your meter readings.
- You want to make a formal complaint to Power NI, SSE Airtricity or another supplier.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Town or city
- Sender's postcode
- Date
- Energy or gas supplier
- Energy supplier's postal address
- Account number
- Supply address (where the energy is used)
- What the complaint is about
- Requested outcome
- Period a catch-up bill covers (leave empty if none)
Common questions
- Where does an unresolved gas or electricity complaint go in Northern Ireland?
- To the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, free of charge, once you have used your supplier's own complaints procedure; it can take the complaint up with the supplier, and it publishes its own free letter for a disputed bill. The Utility Regulator licenses the suppliers and can decide some disputes, often after the Consumer Council has been involved. Ofgem and the Energy Ombudsman are Great Britain's bodies.
- How far back can a Northern Ireland supplier send a catch-up bill?
- Where the delay was not your fault, no more than 13 months: the Utility Regulator decided in 2020 to limit back-billing of domestic customers' electricity and gas, whatever the payment method. Great Britain's limit is 12 months. The rule may not help if the late bill was caused by you, for example by refusing access for a meter reading.
- Can the same letter be used for heating oil or a water bill in Northern Ireland?
- Not as it stands. Heating oil is bought by the order from a retailer or broker, so a problem with it is an ordinary consumer complaint to the seller, with Consumerline for advice. NI Water has its own complaints procedure, and the Consumer Council takes water complaints too. Your supplier's online form, phone line or web chat is also free; note the date you complain.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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