Ombudsman
Retirement Homesearch is a member of
the Property Ombudsman Scheme which was established on 1
January 1998. The Scheme is open to all those firms of estate
agents with a principal, director or partner who is a member of the
National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) or Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors (RICS); to all corporate estate agents,
defined as those who are subsidiaries of a bank, building society
or insurance company, or are themselves quoted on the Stock
Exchange and to other estate agents who are sponsored and seconded
by existing member agents. From June 2006, the OEA extended its
services to Lettings and Property Management agents.
By dealing with a Member of the Property Ombudsman, the public
may be confident about the agent's approach in its dealings with
actual and potential buyers and sellers of residential property or
lettings in the UK.
With effect from 1 October 2008, all estate agents are required
to register with an Estate Agents Redress Scheme that has been
approved by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and which investigates
complaints against estate agents. The Property
Ombudsman is one of the schemes approved by the OFT. Many
estate agents have in addition agreed to follow the Property
Ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents, approved
by the OFT under its Consumer Codes Approval Scheme. Estate agents
signing up to this Code of Practice are required to provide
additional consumer protection that goes beyond that required by
the law. They can be recognised by the joint Property Ombudsman/OFT
approved code logos which they display. Registered agents, who do
not voluntarily accept the Code of Practice obligations of the
Property Ombudsman Scheme, are not entitled to show the OFT
approved code logo.
The Property Ombudsman provides a free, fair and independent
service for dealing with unresolved disputes between sales and
lettings agents who have joined the Property Ombudsman and
consumers who are actual or potential buyers or sellers or
landlords or tenants of residential property in the UK. The
Ombudsman is a member of the British and Irish Ombudsman
Association and follows the standards and rules of the Association.
The Ombudsman is totally independent of agents and reports directly
to the Property Ombudsman Council which has a majority of
non-industry members. The Ombudsman's role is to reach a resolution
of unresolved disputes in full and final settlement and, where
appropriate, he will make an appropriate award of financial
compensation or other action for example make an apology.
Therefore, if you feel that you have been disadvantaged by the
actions or inactions of an OEA member, you have access to an
independent dispute resolution service and can be certain of
receiving a fair and reasonable judgement of your complaint.
Click here to view our Complaints
Procedure
For further information about the Scheme, please contact:
The Property Ombudsman
Beckett House, 4 Bridge Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1
2LX.
Telephone: 01722 333306;
Fax: 01722 332296; or visit their
website: http://www.tpos.co.uk/
