The Property Ombudsman scheme received a record number of complaints in the three months after all letting agents were forced by law to join a redress scheme.
Between October 1 and the end of the year, TPO was contacted by 2,246 tenants and landlords unhappy with agents.
The number of lettings inquiries represented 57% of the total number of 3,962 initial complaints made over the same period.
Most (1,444 or 64%) of the lettings inquiries were raised by tenants and 802 (36%) were from landlords.
Of the initial number, 368 progressed into formal complaints about letting agents. In total, there were 644 formal complaints in that three-month period.
Most of the lettings complaints investigated by TPO were upheld – 69%.
The biggest issues were communication failures; repairs and maintenance, including inventories; deposit handling; rent; and duty of care.
More than 12,915 letting agents are now registered with TPO, up 18% from 10,903 in the same period last year, with more than 30,000 property agents registered in total, covering sales, lettings, property buying, auctions, commercial and residential leasehold management agents.
It is estimated that TPO has 85% of UK letting agents signed up to it.
As at January 1, there were 13,802 sales offices signed up to TPO, estimated at 95% of the UK sales market.
Not surprised they are getting that number of complaints , buts what’s the reason?
Is industry is riddled with badly trading agents with poor systems to deal with tenants and landlords.?
Is the ombudsman just willing to listen to every complaint even if there is not real grounds for it?
Is Britain a country that loves to complain. and if so does the ombudsman encourage this by looking and feel more like a court system rather than an impartial redress body?
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Saw an interesting paragraph in the Liverpool licensing for landlords in the link that was posted with the artical yesterday.
‘Do tenants have the right to complain’
‘Absolutely tenants have the right to complain’
Where i am not against tenants knowing they have a right to complain, i fail to see why they need to put ‘Absolutely’ in front of it. Almost willing them to make a complaint and this is from a local council / government not some hippies like Shelter!
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What I would be interested to know is, how many of the these complaints were made against company’s that were not a member of the TPO before they had to be.
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Context is of course everything. Didn’t the recent ARLA report suggest 188 properties per branch as an average figure? That would mean based on 12915 Agents as above that there are nearly 2.5 million rental properties with agents. If that’s correct then 368 formal complaints is a tiny percentage, even if it has increased.
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