Home owners association VEH says it has received some 2,000 reports since setting up a hotline about problems with heat pumps and a shortage of engineers to fix them.

Three-quarters of members contacting the association say their systems need maintenance, and two-thirds have not yet arranged a maintenance contract at all. Most of them live in new homes where the pump was already installed.

“Some homeowners have been looking for years for an engineer … and have been left literally in the cold,” director Cindy Kremer said. “That is shocking.”

“We’ve also had reports from homeowners whose pump is on the roof, between the solar panels,” she said. “Then you need a hydraulic platform to access it. Try finding a company to do that at an acceptable price.”

Tens of thousands of Dutch homes have been fitted with heat pumps as part of the previous government’s plans to switch away from gas to green energy. However, the new Dutch government has scrapped plans requiring households to replace their old gas boilers with hybrid heat pumps from 2026.