Three redress schemes landed this week. Only one has to come and find you.

On 28th August the Competition and Markets Authority confirmed compensation for heating oil customers whose orders were cancelled when prices spiked during the Middle East conflict. Around 1,700 people are affected. Roughly 800 have been contacted. Those who went out and rebought at a higher price get the difference, somewhere between £150 and £350. Then comes the sentence that matters more than any of those numbers: you only receive compensation if your supplier joined the scheme, and the CMA has declined to publish a list of which suppliers did.

So there is money on the table, and there is no way to find out from the regulator whether any of it is yours.

Compare that with what happens on Monday. On 31st August the implementation period closes for Scheme 1 of the FCA's motor finance consumer redress scheme, covering agreements taken out between 6th April 2007 and 31st March 2014 (PS26/3, published 30th March 2026; Scheme 2, for agreements from 1st April 2014, closed on 30th June). From that date the firm is on a clock. It has three months to tell people who have already complained whether they are owed money and how much, so 30th September for Scheme 1. More significantly, it has six months to go and find the people who never complained at all, where those people are likely to be owed something. That is end of February 2027 for Scheme 1, and the end of this year for Scheme 2. Across both schemes the FCA estimates around £7.5 billion across roughly 12.1 million agreements.

Two redress routes, announced within days of each other. In one, the institution bears the cost of finding you. In the other, you bear the cost of finding out whether the institution opted in, and the regulator will not help.

The line is participation, not size

It is tempting to read this as big scheme versus small scheme, but the variable is whether participation is compulsory.

The week made that explicit, because a third scheme landed on 28th August pointing the same way. The Government committed to tackling fraudulent builders through an Approved Code in the home improvement sector, to be launched in the autumn by the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman, with a trusted payment scheme releasing money only as work milestones are met. Redress is compulsory for members. Membership is voluntary. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute welcomed it and immediately said it does not go far enough, calling for a mandatory licence for tradespeople in home repair and maintenance. CTSI's number for the scale of the problem is £10.3 billion lost by consumers on home and garden maintenance in 2024.

Set that against the fourth item of the week. On 26th August the Government laid secondary legislation making accreditation with the Enforcement Conduct Board compulsory for enforcement agents in England and Wales. Until now that accreditation was voluntary. The ECB will be able to set binding rules, and firms that do not comply will not be allowed to trade. It takes effect in 2027, and the ECB still does not get the power to fine.

Bailiffs, then, have just crossed the line from voluntary to mandatory. Builders have not, in a sector CTSI puts at £10.3 billion of annual consumer loss. The distinction is not about how much harm a sector causes. It turns on whether a body already exists with the statutory grip to make membership a condition of trading. Where there is one, the scheme comes and finds you. Where there is not, you get a code, and the burden of discovery lands on the person who has already lost the money.

What this changes about how you work a case

If your dispute sits inside a compulsory scheme, your job is a diary entry rather than an investigation. Know the firm's deadline rather than your own. If your motor finance agreement is in scope and the firm's own contact deadline passes with nothing from you in the post, that silence is itself the complaint, and the ombudsman route sits behind it. Keep your address current with the lender, including on agreements you settled years ago, because a firm that has to find you can only find you where it last looked. One caveat worth carrying: the Upper Tribunal suspended certain components of the motor finance scheme on 2nd July 2026, so the shape of some elements is still moving.

If your dispute sits inside a voluntary scheme, membership is the first fact you establish and it is a fact you establish in writing. Ask the trader directly whether they are a member of the relevant scheme, and ask before you pay a deposit rather than after the work goes wrong. If a supplier will not answer that question in writing, you have learned something useful about the supplier. And where a regulator will not publish a participant list, the question goes to the company instead, which at least produces a document.

The part people miss is that a voluntary scheme takes nothing away. If your builder is not a member of the Approved Code, you still have section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and a service that must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and you still have the county court. If your heating oil supplier did not join the CMA arrangement, you still have the contract. An ombudsman scheme is a faster and cheaper road to the same place, and its absence changes the route rather than the right.

I hold a deputyship, and the practical difference between the two classes is the difference between a note in the diary and a research project. Both are winnable, but one of them costs you a fortnight before you have even started.

The question to ask of any new scheme is whether anyone has to come and find you.

Also worth your time this week

A short guide to what moved between 22nd and 29th August.

• Motor finance redress hits its second deadline (31st August). The implementation period for Scheme 1 of the FCA's motor finance consumer redress scheme, covering agreements from 6th April 2007 to 31st March 2014, closes on Monday. Firms then have three months to tell existing complainants what they are owed, and six months to contact people who never complained but are likely due money. PS26/3.
• Bailiff regulation becomes mandatory (26th August). Secondary legislation makes accreditation with the Enforcement Conduct Board compulsory for enforcement agents in England and Wales, replacing a voluntary regime. The ECB can set binding rules and non-compliant firms cannot trade. It takes effect in 2027, and the ECB does not get fining powers. Coverage.
• Energy price cap rises to £1,723 (26th August). Ofgem confirmed a 3.6 per cent increase from £1,663 for a typical dual-fuel direct debit household, running 1st October to 31st December. That is about £5 a month. Around 11 million households on fixed tariffs are unaffected. Ofgem.
• CMA secures heating oil compensation, but not a participant list (28th August). Customers whose orders were cancelled during the summer price spike can recover the difference if they rebought, roughly £150 to £350. Around 1,700 people are affected and about 800 contacted. Payment depends on the supplier having joined, and the CMA has not said which ones did. LPG customers are excluded. Report.
• Home improvement gets a voluntary Approved Code (28th August). The Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman will launch it in the autumn, with a trusted payment scheme releasing funds at work milestones. CTSI welcomed it and called for a mandatory licence instead, citing £10.3 billion of consumer loss on home and garden maintenance in 2024. CTSI.
• EGR Wealth Limited enters administration (26th August). Anyone holding an unresolved complaint against the firm needs the FSCS route rather than the firm. FCA.
• Nearly half of landline users do not understand the analogue switch-off (26th August). A survey puts confusion at 45 per cent, which matters most for telecare users and anyone whose provider handles the migration badly. ISPreview.
• Two ISPs quit Gigaclear's wholesale network (27th August). Exascale and Squirrel Internet cited unfair treatment of wholesale partners. Affected customers face migration. ISPreview.
• TransUnion is changing millions of credit scores (27th August). Lenders read the file, not the score. A wrong entry on the file is a rectification request under Article 16 of the UK GDPR, not a complaint about the number. MSE.
• Citizens Advice puts winter affordability at more than a third (26th August). Published alongside its response to the price cap. Citizens Advice.

Stand stronger. Start a free case.