Is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme a Scam? How to Spot a Fake Offer

Yes. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a genuine England and Wales government grant, administered by Ofgem on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, that pays towards the cost of replacing a fossil fuel heating system with a heat pump or biomass boiler. It isn't a cold-caller's invention, and it isn't a “too good to be true” giveaway — it's published, budgeted government policy, and you can read the eligibility rules yourself on gov.uk.

What's real and what's suspicious are two different questions, though. The scheme is real. The person on your doorstep telling you that you've “definitely qualified” and needs a decision today is the part worth being sceptical about — and that's true whether they're talking about BUS or something else entirely.

You never receive the grant money yourself. Your chosen installer applies to Ofgem on your behalf, and the grant value is deducted from your quote upfront — Ofgem's official guidance for property owners is explicit that “the value of the grant for your chosen technology should be provided to you as an upfront discount on the quote provided to you by your installer,” who then “claims the money from Ofgem at the end of the project.” There's no income test and no EPC requirement to qualify — you just need to own the property (including rented-out properties) and be replacing a fossil fuel system.

Source: Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), checked September 2026. For the full eligibility rules and how the application timeline works, see our Boiler Upgrade Scheme 2026 guide.

Search “Boiler Upgrade Scheme” alongside “scam” and you'll find the same story repeated on UK homeowner forums: someone knocks on the door, or cold-calls, claiming the resident has “definitely qualified” for a free or heavily-discounted boiler or heat pump. They're often vague about which scheme they mean, sometimes conflating BUS with income-tested schemes like ECO4, and they push for a decision or a signature the same day.

None of that means BUS itself is fake. It means the doorstep and cold-call channel is a poor way to access a legitimate scheme — the same caution applies to double glazing, solar panels, or any other home improvement pitched unsolicited at your door. The grant is real; the sales method is the part to be wary of.

This is where most of the confusion starts. BUS and ECO4 are both government-backed heating schemes, but they work in opposite ways.

If a caller tells you that you “definitely qualify” for a free boiler without asking a single question about your benefits or household income, that's a mismatch worth noticing — genuine ECO4 eligibility depends entirely on means-testing, and genuine BUS has nothing to do with benefits at all. For the full breakdown of ECO4 rules, see our ECO4 eligibility guide.

Most of these apply to any unsolicited home-improvement sales call, not just heating grants — but they're worth having as a checklist the next time someone's on your doorstep.

• Pressure to decide today — a legitimate installer will let you take a quote away, compare it, and come back in a week. BUS isn't a limited-time doorstep offer; it's a standing government scheme.
• Vague about which scheme they mean — if they can't clearly tell you whether they're offering BUS (no means test) or ECO4 (means-tested), that's a sign they're blurring the two to sound more appealing.
• No MCS number offered upfront — a genuine installer can quote their MCS certification number on request; it's required for BUS eligibility in the first place.
• Asking for money to “hold” or “process” your grant — the grant is applied as a discount on your installer's quote; nobody legitimately collects a separate payment to access it.
• No fixed business address you can find — a quick Companies House search takes thirty seconds and tells you if the company has any trading history at all.
• Cold-calling or unsolicited doorstep visits at all — reputable installers generally don't need to door-knock; their work comes from referrals, reviews, and their own accreditation.

You can do this yourself in a few minutes, before you agree to anything.

Alliant Energy publishes its own MCS, NICEIC, NAPIT, TrustMark and ISO 9001/14001/45001 accreditation details, and the same three checks above work for verifying any installer, anywhere in the country — not just us. For a longer walkthrough (including HIES deposit protection), see our installer credential checklist.

“Where we identify a fraudulent confirmation of consent, we may reject the application and contact you and the installer regarding the application. If needed, we may refer the case of fraud to the police.”— Ofgem, Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance for property owners

Ask them to leave written details — company name, MCS number, and a callback number — and tell them you'll compare quotes before deciding. A legitimate BUS-registered installer has no reason to object to that; the scheme itself has no “sign today” deadline. If you want to check eligibility and get a proper quote in your own time, our quote request page gives you a written breakdown showing the grant applied as a discount, with no doorstep visit required.

As our own installer Adam puts it: “I've never once needed a customer to sign on the doorstep. If a heat pump job is right for someone's home, a proper survey and a written quote will show that — nobody needs to be rushed into it.”

What goes wrong if you sign anyway?

If you've already signed something and have doubts, most consumer contracts for doorstep sales in the UK come with a 14-day cooling-off period during which you can cancel without penalty. If the installer isn't MCS-registered, or you suspect the paperwork was misrepresented, you can report it to Ofgem at BUS.enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk or 0330 053 2006, and to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice.