Property Ombudsman reports record number of complaints

A record numbers of complaints were made about property agents last year.

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has revealed it received a record number of complaints regarding property agents in 2013.

A total of 16,378 complaint enquiries were received by the body, a 23% increase on the year before.

However only 2,151 were deemed necessary to take onto mediation or a formal review.

TPO is the largest property Ombudsman scheme in the UK. It provides a free, impartial and independent resolution service (backed up by a redress scheme) for complaints against property agents that are part of the body.

What we’re complaining about

Below is a summary of the main areas TPO deals with and the number of complaints the body received in each area.

Lettings made up 10,179 or 60% of complaint enquiries last year.

50% of complaints came from landlords while 47% came from tenants. These mainly revolved around communication failure (23%), duty of care (17%) and reports and maintenance (9%).

However, only around 1,300 went through the complaints process and required mediation or a formal review. The issues TPO chose to investigate centred around communication failure (13%), complaints handling (11%), deposits (8%) and repair and maintenance (8%).

A total of £318,452 was paid out last year to complainants, up 80% on the previous year, averaging £412 per award.

Cases included disputes over poor tenant checks leading to problems later down the line and poor protection of tenants’ deposits.

Meanwhile sales made up 5,319 or 30% of complaint enquiries last year.

Sellers complained in 67% of cases, while buyers made up 28%. Complaints in this area were centred on communication failure (26%), duty of care (16%), fees and charges (11%) and sales details/advertising (10%).

However only 843 were deemed in need of a formal review or mediation. The cases that went through to be investigated involved communication failure (22%), complaints handling (16%), markets (9%) and fees and charges (9%).

A total of £173,812 of awards were paid out, with an average payout of £391.

Cases included agents embellishing the features of a property, unclear service charges due on leasehold properties and buyers being pressured to use an agent’s associated service.

Other cases TPO dealt with related to residential leasehold management, commercial agents, property codes compliance board, international property and auctions. A total of 880 cases were received for these areas, but only 44 went through.

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How to make a complaint

All sales/estate agents are obligated to be part of an Ombudsman or similar redress scheme where people can take their complaints, though letting and management agents have so far not had to.

However, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act received Royal Assent in October 2013, which means soon all letting and residential leasehold (block) management agents need to sign up with a redress scheme.

The Property Ombudsman has around 28,500 agent offices that it handles complaints for.

If you want to make a complaint to The Property Ombudsman you need to check the firm you are complaining about is registered with TPO’s scheme. You can do this using its search function here.

However, TPO won’t be able to progress your complaint unless you have written to the firm setting out your grievance, which should be investigated within eight weeks.

If after this period your case has not been resolved to your satisfaction or the firm says you have exhausted its internal complaints procedure you can refer the case to TPO.

All you need to do is fill out a complaints form and send this to TPO together with any supporting documentation. If you need help presenting your case there is a handy guidance pack that you can use.

TPO operates seven stages in its complaints procedure, which in some cases could end up in redress of up to £25,000 for quantifiable loss and or aggravation, distress and inconvenience caused by the actions of a registered firm.

For more information on the process visit the website.

However, the body is not a regulator so cannot take regulatory or legal action against a firm, though it can refer firms to the TPO Disciplinary and Standards Committee which can expel firms from the scheme and/or report them to the Office of Fair Trading, which can ban firms from carrying out estate agency business.

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