Ombudsman Services – the rival scheme to TPO – resolved 27% more property complaints last year.
One of the complaints, which was not upheld, was literally ghostly and had to do with a haunted house.
The buyer said he felt a presence in the property he had planned to buy, but the estate agent had not disclosed that the property was haunted. The prospective purchaser wanted his deposit back.
Ombudsman Services ruled that if a consumer wanted to put down a non-refundable deposit to have a property taken off the market and does not complete the sale, the deposit can be retained by the vendor.
It said in its ruling that it was unreasonable to “pursue a complaint against an estate agent who had not disclosed the potential presence of a supernatural force, and that it would not be possible to to investigate if there was a supernatural presence at the time of the viewing.”
The organisation, which offers exclusive rates to NALS members, said it welcomed the requirement – likely to be implemented early next year – for all letting agents to have to belong to an approved reress scheme.
Ombudsman Services also drew attention to the different types of homebuyer report, saying these are causing confusion among consumers.
Most complaints to Ombudsman Services (60%) were about surveys and valuations, while 24% were about lettings and management, and just 8% on sales.
Altogether, Ombudsman Services now has just under 8,000 property companies signed up to it. It received almost 4,000 initial inquiries – but only a handful, 18%, were inside the terms of reference.
One main reason for the organisation not accepting a complaint was because the consumer had not given the company concerned enough time to resolve the issue. This was the reason in 44% of cases. However, in 43% of cases, the organisation could not help because the company that was the subject of the complaint did not belong to it.
.jpg)
Comments
When I was buying my house the selling agent said he had loads of other people interested so I should hurry up and make an offer before they snapped it up. It turned out that the other interested parties were just ghosts and it was really just me that was intererested so it seems that ghosts do exist, at least in terms of phantom viewings and interested parties that never materialise. Hey ho, cest la vie !!
I once let a very old house on a short let to a couple with two young boys. At the hand back the tenant said did I know about the ghost! He said that one of his sons had seen a little boy in period clothes at the top of the stairs - when he asked in the village he was told that the ghost was well known and was of a little boy who had died in tragic circumstances in the house.
I said that I was not aware of the ghost when I took the house on but, as the house was to be sold, at least I wouldn't have to disclose the ghost to future tenants.
Suffice to say that when the tenant had gone I didn't linger in the house too long!
I think the agent had a simple argument here. There are no such thing as ghosts!
Difficult one this. Many many years ago I rented a house in Virginia Water, Surrey to a lovely young American family. After several months the Wife called me and said they HAVE to move out.
Her Husband travelled during the week during which time they all felt very scared, the children so much that all 3 of them slept with their Mother. She resorted to staying in a Hotel with the children during the week, only returning to the house when her Husband was there too.
I explained this to the Owner who then advised me his gorgeous young Wife had hung herself from the staircase a few years earlier.
The SPOOKY thing was - that this young American Wife (tenant) turned out to be a virtual TWIN of the lady who had so tragically died. The neighbours who knew her were equally spooked when they saw het coming and going.
The Landlord, kindly and understandably - released them without penalty from their tenancy. I believe the house was re-let (not through me) and this problem never recurred.
Life is strange .....
Spooooooky.
The situation should be - Why was the seller selling.
1/ for non spooky matters, ie work, upsizing etc, etc
or
2/ Did the owners feel they had a spirit in the house and were consequently moving.
If the second and non disclosed then I feel the buyers would have had a case.