UFC-Que Choisir denounces door-to-door sales for energy renovations, a source of "harmful practices"

Door-to-door sales for energy renovations are the source of massive "harmful practices" with "disastrous consequences" for vulnerable people, warned UFC-Que Choisir on Tuesday, April 1, calling on senators to ban this practice.

After analyzing a thousand individual disputes recorded since 2018, the consumer association notes that "deviant practices" of doorstep selling are "particularly frequent" in the field of energy renovation.

The disputes handled by the association's local branches demonstrate a "massive phenomenon of scams" affecting people approached under the guise of energy renovation, the UFC emphasizes in a press release.

"Door-to-door canvassing related to energy renovations is dangerous. It relies on a number of toxic and unfair practices to force (those canvassed) to sign an excessively high purchase order, which is often not honored," warns Marie-Amandine Stévenin, president of UFC-Que Choisir, quoted in the press release.

The amount of damages is estimated at an average of 20.000 euros per case, or approximately "20 million euros of economic damages overall for the disputes handled by the local UFC-Que Choisir associations alone."

A significant proportion of these disputes concern elderly or disabled people, a preferred target of canvassers who combine "technical discourse, false allegations and psychological pressure to lead the victim to enter into a contract often committing them to considerable sums," explains the association.

In addition, some professionals sometimes unduly pass themselves off as public operators or those mandated by an official body and the people approached are also "frequently misled about the amount of public aid that the canvassers are dangling in front of them".

The work sometimes carried out also often leaves room for poor workmanship, whether it involves home insulation work (30% of cases), the installation of heat pumps (33% of cases) or the installation of renewable energy production equipment (37%).

The association is calling on senators to ban door-to-door sales in energy renovation projects as part of the examination on Wednesday and Thursday of a proposed law on public aid fraud.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.