Ombudsman wants agent input on new codes

The Property Ombudsman is calling on agents to let him know how his current codes of practice can be fine-tuned in the light of what he believes is a more reactive regime run by the Trading Standards Institute.

TPO Christopher Hamer, in his interim report for 2014 published this week, says that since the demise of the Office of Fair Trading on April 1, the organisation providing independent accreditation under its Consumer Codes Approval Scheme is the Trading Standards Institute.

Under the old OFT the process was somewhat long-winded meaning that TPO was not always able to quickly amend the Codes to reflect legislative changes and market developments admits Hamer.

However, he says he is confident the TSI will be more reactive to the need to make changes to the codes. Whilst that does not mean there will be frequent new versions it does mean that any changes to legislation which might affect the standards can be accommodated reasonably swiftly he says.

Meanwhile Hamer is claiming a significant majority of sales and lettings agents are using the TPO as their mandatory redress scheme, rather than the two rival organisations, The Property Redress Scheme and Ombudsman Services Property.

We've already seen nearly 1,000 firms register this year, making us the largest redress scheme with 11,744 lettings offices under my jurisdiction and following our Code of Practice, which sets out what service consumers should receive from member firms says Hamer.

We estimate that these figures represent 95 per cent of sales agents and 65 per cent of lettings agents operating within the UK he adds.