The number of complaints against agents and the value of redress paid both increased in 2019, The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has revealed.
TPO’s annual report, released today, shows the number of formal complaints against agents was up by 20% annually last year to 5,106.
Of these, 1,669 were about sales and 2,518 regarding lettings agents, with the rest about residential leasehold management (RLM) and other firms such as buying agents and auction houses.
Lettings may have made up most of the complaints, but its total was only up 2% annually compared with a 27% rise in issues with sales.
The top causes of lettings issues were management, communication and record keeping, complaints handling and tenancy agreements, inventories and deposits, the TPO report said.
The main gripes in sales were communication and record keeping, complaints handling, marketing, and terms of business.
The issue of dual fees that has been regularly covered by EYE was a rising theme, TPO said.
TPO upheld 67% of letting cases and 63% in sales, this was up from 66% and 58% respectively in 2018.
The report reveals TPO received 30,356 enquiries overall in 2019 – a record number – and ordered £2.2m of redress, up 1.4% annually.
Of this figure, £1,112,910 was from lettings cases and £735,879 from sales. The rest is made up of those in the RLM sector and other TPO members who don’t fall into agency definitions.
The highest award was in sales at £20,200, where the average was £742.
Within this cohort, 67% of complaints came from sellers and 29% were from buyers.
In lettings, the highest award was £17,644 and the average was £635 with 50% of complaints from landlords and 48% from tenants.
TPO said 98% of agents paid awards and only 22 firms were expelled last year for non-compliance compared with 24 in 2018.
Property ombudsman Katrine Sporle said: “As always, I’m proud that the team rose to the challenge of rising complaint numbers.
“Our customer services team responded to a record number of people, over 30,000 initial enquiries raised, with nearly 10,000 of those received through our 24/7 online chat service, a 7% increase on 2018.
“Just over 25,000 enquiries that did not go on to become formal complaints saw TPO effectively assist consumers in other ways, whether that be signposting them to the correct place or person or giving advice and guidance to promote a local resolution between them and the agent.
“In order to further enhance consumer experience, TPO has translated its work in the initial enquiry stage into a self-diagnostic tool. Still in its piloting phase, we hope to promote the online tool this year.
“Overall, 2019 represented a year of growth and improvement. 2020 has already brought a huge challenge with the outbreak of Covid-19.
“TPO acknowledges that the current situation is an extremely difficult one, for agents and consumers alike. TPO is here to help as best it can and is operating a full service.
“Consumers can still make a complaint at this time and the property industry can access information, guides and advice via our website.”
Online or trad agents? %
These sound like purplebricks complaints.
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I see the sun has picked up on agents claiming to sell and let houses in lock down.
You are actual idiots. No wonder rightmove is so strong, with owners like this operating .
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Is there an Ombudsperson that Agents can submit complaints about customers?
Some truly shocking examples of customers and the way they interact with Agents.
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Completely agree. Also agents about agents.
Nobody knows a rat better then a rat catcher.
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The “authorities” don’t want to know, Bless You.
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1. Poor communication, now that is a surprise!
Seeing agents are stuck in the middle of both customers (Vendor/Landlord) (Buyer/Tenant) who are never wrong and we encourage complaints in a service industry setting and considering the total number of COMPLETED transactions Sales England & Wales January to November 2019 £756,355 (Source HMRC) and add in national average of 25% for abandoned, then the number withdrawn? then add in all the lettings and total of 30,356 consumers contacted TPO and 25,000 failed to meet complaints criteria =
Over 1 millions transactions plus lettings another million? and total 5,106 complaints = total 2,738 complaints upheld in sales/lettings. Register on the Richter scale at less than 0.1% of all transactions.
Now add in all the day to day enquirie aqents have to deal with = multi millions!
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