A new “ombudsman” scheme has held its first meeting after appointing advisers including eviction expert Paul Shamplina and property lawyer Tessa Shepperson.
The Property Redress Scheme is operated by Hamilton Fraser, which also runs Mydeposits on behalf of the National Landlords Association.
It has also appointed a Lib Dem peer, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, on to its advisory board.
It has been approved to run a redress scheme for letting agents, alongside the existing Property Ombudsman and Ombudsman Services schemes.
It will cost £95 to join the Property Redress Scheme, which looks to be targeting the 40% of letting agents thought to be currently outside any redress scheme.
Its “ombudsman” or head of redress is to be Sean Hooker.
The date by which all letting agents must belong to a redress scheme has not yet been announced, but it is thought to be October – months later than was originally thought.
However, a further slippage in the timetable could be on the cards, with rumours that there are difficulties still being ironed out.
What a joke all this has become? Clearly commercially orientated, which will be perceived as having an effect of the equitable determinations on cases it is asked to consider.
There should be one Statutory Ombudsman for the PRS reporting to Parliament via the Secretary of State (DCLG). That would ensure national consistency and an independence from the commercial aspirations of this plethora of 'regulatory wannabees'. There is one for the public sector, why DCLG don't extend its remit to include PRS has always been a mystery.
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