Get your heat network registered by 26 January 2027.

No. Registering with Ofgem is free, and it doesn't ask you to upload documents. Our check and worksheet are free as well. The documents are there if you want them written for you. Plenty of organisations could write their own.

You can still register. Ofgem's registration guidance says declaring non-compliance won't stop you (para 3.2), and registration isn't an assessment or an approval (para 3.31). The one exception: you can't finish the fit and proper declaration unless you can confirm you have a list of your senior people with significant responsibility or influence. Answer truthfully, because Ofgem uses this as its baseline, and it may get in touch about some answers. The rules themselves already apply: most conditions have since 27 January 2026, whatever you say on the form.

Plan to 26 January 2027. Ofgem's register page says the 26th, and so do the Regulations: the period ends the day before the first anniversary of 27 January 2026. The guidance says the 27th (para 3.7). Don't rely on the extra day. Access takes up to 10 working days, so a request on 12 January 2027 is the last that's sure of a reply by the date, with no time left to complete it. Mid-December is safer.

Probably. A block of flats on a shared system is Ofgem's typical example of a communal heat network, and there's no minimum size. The main exception is a single converted building, such as a house split into flats, with one appliance of 45 kW or less. Others are in who should register, and the free check walks through them.

The operator controls the heat and makes the big decisions on the system, including investment. The supplier deals with customers commercially: charges, bills, complaints. Often that's one organisation. In leasehold blocks the freeholder is typically the operator, though a right-to-manage or residents' management company may be. The guidance can't settle every case. Ofgem takes questions on roles at heatnetworksregulation@ofgem.gov.uk, though it won't confirm how the law applies to you.

Quite a lot, and it's easy to overbuy. Registered providers, registered social landlords and councils are outside the Material Asset Register, the resources condition and most of the Continuity Plan condition, and Ofgem doesn't ask them the financial questions. You still need a complaints procedure, a Priority Services Register, a fit and proper process and heat supply information, and fair pricing still applies. Heatdesk leaves out what you don't need. An energy company set up by a housing provider isn't treated the same way.

Usually your client, as the operator or supplier. Its regulatory contact has to start the account, then add you as a user with the permissions it chooses. For the Energy Ombudsman, you'd apply with a Letter of Authority. Your licence covers documents in each client's own name, up to 5 or 50 networks in total. Your client stays responsible for what you do for it.

It applies the approach in Ofgem's cost allocation guidance to the costs as you classify them: costs that vary with use by meter, floor area or bedrooms, and fixed costs equally per home, to the penny. It doesn't prove your prices are fair, and nothing can yet: Ofgem sets no price and may compare networks in ways it hasn't published. It does show how you reached each charge, which Ofgem expects you to be able to explain.

Then the charges follow your lease. Heatdesk shows each home's share beside what Ofgem's approach would give, because Ofgem says it takes legacy arrangements into account and suggests recording how you'll move towards its approach where you can. Service charges must also still be reasonable under housing law. Ofgem doesn't expect you to rewrite leases straight away.

Prepayment meters in any depth (conditions B10 and B11: see chapter 6 of Ofgem's consumer protection guidance). Technical maintenance and the technical assurance scheme, HNTAS, which isn't final. The 24-hour contact route you need for supply interruptions, which you have to set up. Quarterly and yearly data reporting, which Ofgem will ask for after you register. We don't write the notices you send case by case: the ombudsman notice on a complaint (B4.18), notices of a change in charges (B3), or the prepayment statements (B10.7, B6.18). District sites with their own communal blocks should read Ofgem's page on them before starting. The map of the 29 conditions says what's left for you under each.

The duty carries on, and the longer it goes the harder it is to explain. Ofgem says its first-year priority is understanding the sector, and that it aims for open dialogue, with more serious action where someone won't work with it or customers are harmed. Its penalty policy caps a penalty at 10% of turnover or £1 million, whichever is higher. If you're late, tell Ofgem.

If your role includes supply, yes. The Energy Ombudsman's Heat Network Supplier scheme is separate from Ofgem. It asks for a list of your sites, your Complaints Handling Procedure and a signed Deed Poll. Check its fees with them.

No. Heatdesk is software that applies Ofgem's published rules to what you tell it. No solicitor has reviewed your documents. Read them before you adopt them, and take advice if anything is unusual or disputed. You're responsible for what you submit: your regulatory contact declares that it's correct to the best of their knowledge.

Nothing is kept. No account, no database, no cookies. The check and the charges working run in your browser. When you download something, what you typed is sent over an encrypted connection, used to draw the file, and then it's gone. You never send us the Priority Services Register or your list of senior people: those stay with you.

By invoice. Email your order and we send an invoice from RDZZ LTD with your licence code within one working day; pay by bank transfer within 30 days. Download a full preview first, so you can see exactly what you're buying. The price is the total you pay, and anything you've downloaded stays yours after the licence ends.