If you have a complaint about an estate agent you can’t resolve, a property ombudsman may be able to help. They resolve disputes between consumers and property agents and can award compensation if they support your complaint.
What is an ombudsman?
An ombudsman is someone whose job it is to consider and resolve complaints about businesses and other organisations. There are a number of ombudsman schemes in the UK that help with complaints about different types of organisations, including the:
Energy Ombudsman
Financial Ombudsman Service
Housing Ombudsman Service
Legal Ombudsman
Ombudsman schemes are free to use. They’re not regulators or enforcement bodies but have the power to investigate complaints and recommend how businesses should provide redress. There are two that cover estate agents – the Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme.
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What is the Property Ombudsman?
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) is the biggest estate agent ombudsman. It’s an independent company that provides an alternative dispute resolution service when consumers and its members have disputes.
Its members include all types of property agents, including estate agents, letting agents and property managers. This means you can use it whether you’re buying or selling a home, or letting or renting one.
Estate agents in the UK dealing the residential property are legally required to belong to an approved redress scheme such as TPO. This is only required for letting agents and property managers in England and Wales.
There are different membership options. Estate agents and letting agents can join as registered agents – the minimum required by law – and work according to best practice. They must comply with TPO’s membership obligations. These include treating customers fairly and equally, and ensuring their advertising and marketing is truthful.
They must also have professional indemnity insurance to cover any financial losses incurred by customers as a result of their negligence and agree to co-operate with any investigations by TPO.
Alternatively, they can choose to become TPO members. This means they agree to abide by TPO’s Codes of Practice and meet higher standards than are required by law. This is the only property ombudsman that has codes of practice to improve standards.
TPO members are entitled to display the Property Ombudsman logo and the Trading Standard Institute’s Consumer Code Approval Scheme logo. These are designed to give you extra confidence that you can get redress if things go wrong and high standards of service.
How to complain to the Property Ombudsman
If you have a complaint about a property agent – for example, that you received poor service or were treated unfairly – take the following steps:
Check whether it’s a TPO member. You can do this on TPO's website. If it’s not, it should be registered with the Property Redress Scheme.
Complain to the property agent itself through its complaints procedure to give it a chance to resolve your complaint. Let it know what you would like it to do to resolve it.
If you receive the agent’s final viewpoint letter and you’re still unhappy or the complaint is unresolved after eight weeks, you can complain to TPO. You do this by completing a TPO complaint form online and sending it to TPO with supporting evidence by email or post.
Respond to any requests for further information and wait for TPO’s decision. It can take 30 to 90 days for it to be issued.
Reply to TPO within 28 days to say whether you accept its decision if it supports your complaint or appeal if it doesn’t.
If TPO finds in your favour, it can make the agent put things right, such as by paying you compensation. This can be up to £25,000 but is usually less than £500. You can still take the agent to court or try to resolve it through another organisation if you decide not to accept TPO’s decision or compensation.
How to complain to the Property Redress Scheme
The process for taking your complaint to the Property Redress Scheme (PRS) if the agent you’re complaining about is one of its members is broadly the same. You still have to complain to the agent first and can complain to the PRS if it hasn’t been resolved after eight weeks using an online form.
The PRS says it takes around 40 days to get a decision once you submit your complaint.