The Property Redress Scheme, a firm currently acting as one of three approved redress bodies for the lettings sector, has been given the go-ahead to serve as an ombudsman-style scheme for sales agents as well.
The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team in Powys has given us approval and will be making a formal announcement in the next day or so explains Sean Hooker, who is the ombudsman working at the company. The NTSEAT declined to make any official comment when approached by Estate Agent Today.
Property Redress Scheme is operated by insurance company Hamilton Fraser, which also runs Mydeposits on behalf of the National Landlords Association.
Hooker says the PRS will operate the same two-tier fee structure for estate agents as it currently does for lettings agents starting with an entry' service at £95 per branch.
In the event of a complaint, the member agent will be given 10 working days to resolve the issue before Property Redress Scheme intervenes. But the PRS company will then charge the member agent a flat fee of £60 or £90 for the resulting investigation.
The second tier - called the enhanced' service - will be a £199 per branch flat fee, for which there would be no additional charges in the event of complaints.
The firm says it has the right as a very last resort to move a member agent from enhanced' back to entry' if there are too many complaints to handle for the flat fee.
The Property Ombudsman and Ombudsman Services are the two existing redress bodies for estate agents; now Property Redress Scheme is the third.
Comments
More schemes - More complications for the public!
What is needed is just ONE scheme with TEETH.