Start with Companies House

Before you get into rates or savings, find out whether the broker is a real, registered company. Companies House is free, it’s the official UK register, and a quick search tells you a surprising amount in under five minutes.

Type the broker’s name into the search at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. You’re looking for a few things. Does the company actually exist as registered? How long has it been trading, going by the incorporation date? Is there a proper registered office address, or just a serviced-office postcode that forty other companies share? Are the accounts filed and up to date, or overdue?

None of these on their own proves anything. Plenty of good brokers are young, and a serviced address is normal for a small firm. But a company that incorporated three weeks ago, has no filing history, and trades under a name slightly different from the one that called you is worth a pause.

Read reviews that the broker can’t edit

Testimonials on a broker’s own website are marketing. They might be completely genuine, but the broker chose which ones to show you, so treat them as a starting point rather than evidence.

Independent platforms are harder to stage. Trustpilot and Google reviews are the obvious two. What you’re reading for isn’t the star rating so much as the texture underneath it. Do reviews mention the same person by name across several years? Do they describe specific things, like a renewal handled smoothly or a query answered quickly? A wall of five-star, one-line reviews all posted in the same fortnight reads differently from a steady trickle over time.

Pay attention to how the broker replies to the bad ones too. A firm that responds to a one-star review with a measured explanation is usually one that expects to still be around next year.

Check they’re signed up to a dispute-resolution scheme

This is the one most people skip, and it’s arguably the most useful. If a deal goes wrong, you want to know there’s somewhere to take it that isn’t the broker itself.

For micro-businesses, the relevant route is alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Brokers that take micro-business clients are expected to be members of a recognised ADR scheme, which means an independent body can look at your complaint and reach a binding decision if the broker won’t resolve it. The main scheme here is run by the Energy Ombudsman, with brokers signing up through the qualifying intermediary route.

Ask the broker directly which scheme they belong to. A legitimate firm will tell you without hesitation and can usually point you to a membership reference. If the answer is vague, or you’re told disputes are handled internally and that’s the end of it, that’s a meaningful gap.

Understand what Ofgem expects of brokers

Brokers sit in a category the regulator calls third-party intermediaries, or TPIs. They aren’t licensed the way energy suppliers are, which trips a lot of people up. There’s no single register of approved brokers to check against.

What does exist is a set of expectations Ofgem has set out, particularly around how TPIs treat micro-businesses. The thrust of it is straightforward. A broker should be clear about who they are, honest about how they’re paid, and shouldn’t mislead you into a contract. The requirement for ADR scheme membership for micro-business clients comes from this same direction.

So when you’re checking legitimacy, you’re not checking a licence. You’re checking conduct. Is the firm transparent about its commission? Does it tell you it’s a broker rather than implying it’s your supplier? Those questions matter more than any badge.

Watch the cold call and the rush

The hard-sell phone call is the oldest tactic in this market, and it still works often enough that people keep using it. The pattern is recognisable once you’ve seen it. A claim that creates urgency, usually that your contract is ending or that prices are about to jump. A deal that’s only available right now. And a request to confirm a few details so they can lock it in.

A trustworthy broker is fine with you taking your time. They’ll send things in writing, they’ll let you check the figures, and they won’t treat a day’s delay as a crisis. Pressure is the tell. If someone needs your verbal agreement on a call before you’ve seen anything on paper, end the call and look them up using the steps above.

Be especially wary of anyone who claims to be calling on behalf of Ofgem, your current supplier, or some official body. Ofgem doesn’t sell contracts, and your supplier won’t outsource a cold call to push you onto a different deal.

Read the letter of authority before you sign it

The letter of authority, or LOA, is the document that lets a broker act for you. It’s how they get your consumption data from your supplier and how they’re able to negotiate on your behalf. It’s also where the trouble tends to hide.

Read it properly. A reasonable LOA gives the broker permission to gather information and quote on your behalf. What it shouldn’t do is give them authority to agree a new contract or switch your supply without coming back to you for explicit sign-off. Some poorly worded or deliberately broad letters do exactly that, and businesses have found themselves bound to a deal they never knowingly agreed.

Check the scope. Check whether it’s time-limited. Check whether it can be cancelled. If the document is doing more than authorising the broker to act as your agent, ask why, and don’t sign until you’re satisfied with the answer.

Ask how the broker gets paid

Brokers are paid in one of two main ways. A commission, usually built into your unit rate by the supplier, or an agreed fee. Neither is wrong. What matters is whether you’re told which one applies and roughly how much it comes to.

A broker that won’t explain how it earns its money is a broker steering you toward whatever pays it best. Ofgem’s expectation is that this is disclosed, and the better firms volunteer it without being asked. We publish ours openly, which you can read on our how we make our money page, partly because we think being upfront about it is the easiest way to earn trust.

It’s a fair question to put to anyone. Ask what the commission is on the contract they’re recommending. If the figure makes them uncomfortable, that tells you what you need to know.

What to do if you think you’ve been mis-sold

If a deal already feels wrong, you have a route. Start with the broker. Put your complaint in writing and give them a clear chance to put it right, because most schemes expect you to do this before escalating.

If they don’t resolve it, and you’re a micro-business, you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman where the broker is a scheme member. The Ombudsman is free to use, independent, and can issue a decision the broker has to honour. Keep everything. The notes from any call, the LOA, the emails, and any contract you were sent. A clear paper trail makes the whole thing faster.

If you think you’ve been deliberately deceived rather than simply let down, the broker’s ADR scheme is still the first formal port of call, and you can also report misleading conduct to your supplier and to Citizens Advice, who track patterns of bad practice in the market.

The twenty-minute check, in short

None of this requires you to become an expert. Find the company on Companies House and see how long it’s been going. Read independent reviews rather than the curated ones. Confirm there’s a real dispute-resolution scheme behind them. Ask how they’re paid and read the LOA before you sign.

A broker worth using will pass all of that without breaking a sweat, and most of them will respect you for asking. If you want help thinking through which broker suits your business once you’ve confirmed they’re legitimate, our guide on how to choose a business energy broker covers the selection side. And if you’d rather just see what’s out there, you can compare business energy prices directly.