An ombudsman body handling property disputes says complaints have risen by a third in a year with growing concern about how little some agents know about consumer laws which apply to house sales.
Ombudsman Services - a rival to The Property Ombudsman and one of the services recently approved by the government to undertake independent investigations into complaints in the lettings sector - says that within the past year it has dealt with 926 property complaints.
Some 41 per cent of the complaints were about the Homebuyer survey and valuations. Another 10 per cent of complaints were about more detailed building and condition surveys, 16 per cent concerned property management issues and 13 per cent were about the performance of the managing agent.
The remaining 20 per cent of complaints covered a wide range of subjects.
We've handled an increasing number of complaints about mis-descriptions of property information or where an individual feels that a property wasn't marketed properly. Overall, complaints tend to be where estate agents haven't acted within the revised consumer protection regulations explains the OS property ombudsman John Baguley.
Buyer beware' was previously the rule - it was up to the consumer to discover defects and problems - but revised regulations require estate agents to be much more upfront. Many of the complaints we have seen since the change reflect the fact that some estate agents do not realise how far reaching the changes are claims Baguley.
Most of its complaints about lettings were from tenants unhappy about repair quality, or about misunderstandings over who was responsible for doing and paying for repairs.
Ombudsman Services is considerably lower profile than TPO although it is part of a much bigger operation, and is already the preferred redress scheme for the National Approved Letting Scheme, the Association of Residential Managing Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Like TPO it operates on a not-for-profit basis; it already provides dispute resolution services for the energy, communications and copyright licensing sectors.
Comments
I agree - I am regularly dealing with agents where staff know the regulations exist but aren't confident in how to approach them - I offer practical solutions to help understanding!
You expect agents to be on top of new legislation so the increase in complaints is understandable as it's the agents' duty to take care of the matters mentioned. However, I agree with Tony that rival ombudsman scheme could complicate matters.
Consumers, agents, local authorities are just a few who may be confused by new legislation and to make matters even more complicated - 'rival ombudsman scheme' - presumably with different procedures, codes of practice. Nothing like providing clarity.