Specialist utility cost recovery and statutory reliefs for faith-based charities.
We recover overpaid utility charges, secure statutory reliefs, and resolve billing disputes on a no-recovery, no-fee basis.
Faith-based organisations of every tradition.
We work with faith-based organisations of every tradition: places of worship and the schools, care homes and charities they run, from a small parish to a large religious institution.
Energy VAT and levy recovery
We review the VAT and Climate Change Levy charged on your energy accounts and reclaim up to four years of overpayments, refunded through your supplier. Qualifying electricity is currently zero-rated until 31 March 2027.
Water and drainage charges
We review water and wastewater accounts for metering errors, incorrect tariffs and surface-water and highway drainage charges. Where rainwater does not reach the public sewer, or a building qualifies as a place of worship, we apply for rebates and concessionary reductions, backdated up to six years.
Billing disputes and unexpected bills
We draw on our in-house expertise to establish which charges are valid, based on actual consumption and the relevant legislation, and work with the supplier to have the rest cancelled.
Business rates and exemptions
We establish whether your property qualifies for exemption or charitable rate relief, and manage the application process through to completion.
Waste and compliance advisory
Your obligations under the Simpler Recycling regulations depend on staffing levels. We establish which requirements apply and when they take effect.
Resolving a disputed bill and recovering years of overcharges.
A church came to us after being issued a large gas bill it could not explain, running to tens of thousands of pounds.
One of the church's gas accounts had previously shown as in credit. It was then issued a large catch-up bill, reissued over time at figures ranging from around £28,000 to over £34,000. The supplier reviewed the account, applied back-billing, and offered a goodwill payment of £150. This left a disputed balance of around £23,800, and the church had no clear way to establish whether it was right.
We audited the church's full billing history across all of its sites and both fuels, and found that the back-billing had been calculated on an incorrectly prepared bill. Two errors sat behind it. The bill rested on an estimated opening meter reading that implied annual gas consumption of about 144,000 kWh, more than double the church's actual metered consumption of approximately 63,600 kWh. The account had also been charged VAT at the standard 20% rate and billed the Climate Change Levy since 2022. As a place of worship, the church qualified for the reduced 5% rate and exemption from the levy, so both had been overpaid for several years. Because the underlying bill was overstated, the back-billing figure taken from it was inflated as well.
We set out the evidence in full, reconstructed the actual consumption from the recorded meter readings, and escalated the case to the supplier's most senior office. The estimated reading was corrected, and the account was reassessed under the back-billing protections in Standard Licence Condition 21BA, which prevent a supplier recovering charges for energy used more than twelve months earlier where the fault was its own.
The overpayments were returned and the disputed balance cleared, leaving the gas account in credit against future consumption.
About Borunen Partners
We bring specialist expertise in utility billing, VAT and statutory reliefs to faith-based charities, recovering overpaid charges and securing the reliefs to which they are entitled.
Our expertise is built on advising utilities within a global consultancy, specialising in supplier billing practices, VAT, statutory reliefs and complex billing disputes. That work revealed a recurring problem: organisations routinely paying charges they were never required to pay.
Faith-based charities are particularly exposed to this. Most have limited administrative resources and rely on trustees and volunteers to oversee their finances. Their means are committed to the work of the charity, leaving little opportunity to examine historic utility accounts in the detail required. And suppliers do not correct errors that go unnoticed.
Borunen Partners was founded to close that gap. We recover overpaid VAT and energy levies, secure statutory reliefs, and resolve utility billing disputes, on a contingent-fee basis, so that a charity incurs no cost unless a recovery is made.
We represent the charity's interests alone, and build every recovery on evidence that will withstand scrutiny, so that what is recovered remains recovered. We do not act as accountants, auditors or financial advisers; those cases remain with the charity's own professional advisers.
Short form
A few questions about your organisation and your sites. Only takes a couple of minutes.
Engagement and authority
A short engagement letter setting out our terms, and a letter of authority allowing us to deal with your suppliers directly. Both are signed online.
Account review
We obtain the full billing history from your suppliers ourselves and check every charge against actual consumption and the relevant legislation, at no cost.
Recovery
We engage the supplier with our findings. Overpayments are reclaimed, invalid charges removed from your account, and recovered amounts returned to your organisation.
No recovery, no fee.
We are paid an agreed percentage of any amounts successfully recovered. There are no upfront costs, and if nothing is recovered, you pay nothing.
Our guarantee. If the same issue recurs within 12 months, we will re-engage at no additional charge.
Our engagement is structured so that your organisation's interests are protected throughout.
We work for your organisation and for no one else. Every review and every claim is undertaken solely in your interest, so you can be confident that the guidance you receive is impartial and entirely on your side.
All refunds and recovered sums are returned directly to your organisation. Our agreed fee is invoiced separately; at no point do we hold or route your funds.
Each case is founded on documented evidence such as meter readings, billing records and the applicable regulations, so that it withstands independent scrutiny.
You incur no charge unless a recovery is achieved. There is no upfront cost and no charge for our time, ensuring that our interests remain aligned with yours throughout.
The 60/40 rule and mixed use
When a hall is let or a café trades, the qualifying-use test decides whether the 5% rate applies to the whole supply.
Read more →Rebates on surface water drainage
If rainwater on your site soaks into grounds, a graveyard or a car park and never reaches the public sewer, the drainage charge on your water bill may be reduced and reclaimed.
Read more →Back-billing and the twelve-month limit
A supplier that failed to bill correctly may be barred from recovering charges over twelve months old.
Read more →Simpler Recycling and the 2027 deadline
Your obligations turn on full-time-equivalent staff, and volunteers complicate the count.
Read more →Do places of worship pay VAT on energy?
Energy used by a place of worship or charity for charitable non-business purposes qualifies for the reduced rate of VAT instead of the standard 20%: currently 0% for electricity (from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, in England, Scotland and Wales) and 5% for gas. It is also exempt from the Climate Change Levy. It is not applied automatically. You must give your supplier a VAT declaration, and overpayments can generally be reclaimed for up to four years. Registration with the Charity Commission is not required. Excepted and exempt charities qualify on the same basis, which covers many places of worship. The body does need charitable status. That status can be evidenced by the body's governing document or by recognition from HMRC, which is the reference a supplier will usually want to see alongside the VAT declaration. Mixed-use buildings are covered by the 60% rule. If at least 60% of a meter's supply is for qualifying use, the whole supply is charged at 5%. Below that level, the supply is apportioned.
Do places of worship pay business rates?
A place of public religious worship in England and Wales is wholly exempt from business rates under Schedule 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, and the exemption extends to halls and similar buildings used in connection with it. This applies across faiths where the building is certified as a place of worship. Other charity premises qualify instead for 80% mandatory relief, with up to a further 20% at the council's discretion.
Can places of worship reduce their water drainage charges?
Often, yes. Water bills include a surface-water drainage charge for rainwater assumed to reach the public sewer. Where it drains instead to ground, a soakaway or a watercourse, that charge can be reduced or removed and backdated up to six years. In some regions, registered places of worship also qualify for a concessionary scheme that caps surface-water and highway drainage charges regardless of site size. What applies depends on your water company, so we check the position for each site.
We have received a large unexpected bill. Do we have to pay it?
Not necessarily. Under Ofgem's back-billing rules, a supplier generally cannot pursue you for energy used more than twelve months ago where it failed to bill you correctly and the fault was not yours. This 12-month cap is guaranteed for domestic and microbusiness customers, a category most smaller places of worship fall into by staff numbers or by low energy use. Larger organisations outside that definition are not automatically covered by the cap. Suppliers must still bill them fairly, and an estimate that cannot be reconciled with your actual meter readings can be challenged in any case. We would advise against payment until the bill has been reviewed.
Do the Simpler Recycling rules apply to us, and by when?
Yes, they apply to charities and places of worship. Organisations with 10 or more full-time-equivalent employees had to comply by 31 March 2025. Those with fewer than 10 have until 31 March 2027. Volunteers, contractors and the self-employed do not count towards the employee total, so many faith charities fall under the later deadline.
How much does it cost, and what if nothing is found?
We work on a no-recovery, no-fee basis: an agreed percentage of what is actually recovered, with no upfront cost. If nothing is recoverable, you pay nothing, and you gain the assurance that your accounts are correct.
How do we know if we count as a “microbusiness” for energy?
Ofgem's microbusiness definition (Standard Licence Condition 7A) treats you as a microbusiness if you meet any one of these: you use no more than 100,000 kWh of electricity a year; or no more than 293,000 kWh of gas a year (the threshold applies per fuel); or you have fewer than 10 employees (full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million. Most churches, mosques and smaller faith charities qualify on the energy-use test alone. Microbusiness status matters because it brings protections including the 12-month back-billing limit. Separately, since December 2024 a wider small business category (fewer than 50 employees and turnover up to £6.5 million) can reach the Energy Ombudsman, so larger organisations may still be covered there.
Do we qualify for water rebates, and does our size matter?
Water works differently from energy: there is no business-size test. Any non-household premises (which includes charities, places of worship, schools and care homes) can claim a surface-water drainage rebate. The test is about drainage, not size: if rainwater on your site drains to a soakaway, watercourse or the ground rather than the public sewer, the charge can be removed and backdated. If your charge is based on site area and more than 10% of your site does not drain to the public sewer, you should receive at least a partial rebate. Some wholesalers also offer community-group and place-of-worship concessions that cap the charge further.
Find out whether your charity has been overcharged.
Answer a few short questions and we will take it from there, or email us directly at [email protected]. You can also reach us by phone at 0330 223 8310.
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