Published on : Mon, 16 May 2005 00:00GMT
by : Richard Byers

Close on the heels of Which?, the consumer magazine’s report last week that notified irregular valuations by estate agents saying that the sale of property was being treated like lottery, the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA) summoned all estate agents today to join a mandatory redress scheme, so that property complaints could be duly addressed.

Stephen Carr-Smith, the Ombudsman for all estate agents stated that it had become essential for the industry to concentrate on problems relating to property. Besides providing consumers access to a separate complaint procedure, it was necessary for the present voluntary redress scheme to extend to a compulsory scheme, with an expanded cover base.

Smith said further that the base of the current scheme could be made to cover complaints regarding the leasing of property, property management, surveys and valuations also, instead of merely covering the sale and purchase of property, as was happening presently.

He expressed his desire to introduce a ‘residential property ombudsman service’ system that would help customers with their grievances, giving them a ‘one-stop shop’ for all complaints related to property. Smith was quoted as saying, “All of us in the property services industry need to focus our attention on making independent redress available to many more consumers. It can bring nothing but benefit to consumers, and will do wonders for the reputation of the residential property industry.”

Repeating his call for the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) to join the bandwagon and make the OEA mandatory for their members, Smith said that the NAEA had concurred with the compulsory redress idea and had fixed a deadline of 2006 for estate agents to join the scheme.

However, Rics had not yet given a final date to agents for the scheme even though it had committed to make its members join the OEA.

Currently, about 1,030 members were part of the scheme in Britain, which meant that less than half, merely 40% of estate agents were registered with the ombudsman’s scheme.

While Peter Bolton King, the NAEA chief executive, stated that the organisation had always suggested its members to join the OEA scheme. He added that the NAEA was going to make sure that all its members furnished independent redress to complainants by January 2006. At present, it was deciding whether to set up its own redress system or make its members enrol with the OEA scheme.

Nevertheless, Bolton King reassured that the NAEA would make its choice within the coming months. Meanwhile, Rics too appeared to be undecided over changing the voluntary scheme into a compulsory one since it had a separate redress scheme of its own. Rics also said that its associates performed other activities besides duties of estate agents.

In the annual report of the OEA, an increased number of 5,500 complaints had been received in 2004 against 5,356 complaints in 2003. Out of these complaints, about half, 2,564 of the complaints- had been registered against those agents who were not enlisted in the OEA scheme.