Chris Wood, is a well known industry figure who had a thirty year career in estate agency. In 2017 Wood was controversially blocked by the organisation from standing as a vice-president of the NAEA. He resigned from the trade body saying, ““I believe the association has failed to uphold, promote and no longer embodies its own standards and the good name that many of its members over the years worked so hard to establish.”
Highly critical of the Purplebricks business, the following year, at the UK Investor Show Wood was billed as a speaker who would ‘blow the lid’ on the company. At the time he tweeted: “Looking forward to meeting Purplebricks UK lawyers face to face as I’m guessing they’ll be showing up.”
Then in mid-2018 Wood found himself in receipt of the attentions of the Advertising Standards Authority…
Chris Wood, in his own words, tells what happened next.
In last week’s trade press, the news broke about my name being cleared of any censure or wrong-doing in my long running battle with NTSEAT and Powys Council. The repercussions though, should be far reaching for NTSEAT, The NAEA, The Ombudsman scheme, the ASA, consumers, and the property industry as a whole.
At best incompetence and lack of professionalism, at worst, a whiff of collusion, turning a blind eye, and possible underhand dealings.The public deserve better. Law-abiding agents deserve better.
Here is a very brief, and edited of necessity for space, recap of how we reached this stage.
• This story started around 4 years ago with a complaint to the ASA by an anonymous and cowardly troll about a specific blog article I’d written questioning the business model and claims by some call-centre estate agents. The article did not mention or imply any other businesses name/s but, unfortunately, the ASA (a self appointed quango, Ltd company with no statutory powers or, seemingly, independent scrutiny) mistakenly confused and conflated a separate article I’d written with the original article complained about and added in some social media posts for good measure. The ASA subsequently found against me and also appeared to ‘rule’ that all Tweets by a business owner or Director of any business are also advertisements.
• I wholeheartedly disputed the decision and asked for it to be referred to Trading Standards for adjudication, as it affected my standing locally and nationally as a professional estate agent. In this, my local trading standards team (Cornwall) were supportive and had lawful authority.
• At this point NTSEAT stepped in and decided that they had authority and, that is was a reserved matter for them, not my local Trading Standards team. This being contrary to NTSEATs own published narrow mandate at the time of only dealing with offences under the 1979 Estate Agents Act and, to issue warning or banning orders for breaches of The Act or, serious breaches of a recognised Ombudsman scheme code.
• NTSEAT after a significant wait, then put me under former legal caution for interview. I explained that I was not going to abide by the ASA ruling, as they had, in my opinion and that of legal friends, made a gross error and, additionally had no right to rule that I had acted unprofessionally without independent scrutiny or redress by a statutory power such as a trading standards officer or, a court of law.
• I was then informed that, whilst I remained under caution, they were not going to question me about the ASA complaint but had decided to open up an enquiry of their own. The subject of which, they would not discuss a that time.
• Despite numerous requests to be informed of the nature of the investigation and for the ASA case to be passed to Cornwall Trading standards, as well as clarification as to what the charge was for, and when it was to be lifted; this situation was not resolved for some months.
• I was subsequently faced with a series of claims and allegations by NTSEAT emanating from a minor complaint made against my firm by a disgruntled client to the PRS. The PRS threw out the complaint in its entirety but issued a £75 fine for the ‘inconvenience’ suffered by the complainant. (I disputed the £75 award but was in no mental state to fight it and said my company was willing to and would pay the fine when and if the company had resolved its responsibilities to other, earlier, creditors.)
• NTSEAT then claimed they had concluded their investigations and decided I may be guilty of, amongst other criminal offences, fraud. I was to be issued with a warning order. Strangely, as fraud had been alleged, NTSEAT did not seem keen to take the case to be decided in court!?
• At this point, I sought the advice and support from The Federation of Small Business, of which I have been a member for a number of years. On listening to the case, the FSB solicitors agreed to represent me and were instructed.
• To keep this summary brief, there then followed a protracted battle with Powys Council legal department (NTSEAT). A warning order was issued and immediately appealed. The appeal made it clear that there was no evidence supplied to substantiate any claim of fraud or serious wrongdoing but, unhelpfully, made an ambiguous comment that was not pertinent to the original NSTEAT charges but which NTSEAT seized on and decided to issue the warning order in any case based on a tangential matter.
• The FSB again came to the rescue and instructed Serjeants Inn chambers to represent me in a formal, judge-chaired tribunal to appeal the warning order. Which we subsequently won.
‘So… A small estate agency business that has since ceased trading and been dissolved, kicked up a fuss and didn’t receive a warning order NTSEAT clearly thought was deserved. So what?!’
In my opinion, a great deal should happen and be learned from this sorry and costly debacle.
Tomorrow Chris will explain what he thinks should happen as a result of his experiences.
Subsequent to the publication of this story EYE received the following statement from National Trading Standards:
“This selective and one-sided opinion piece includes a number of false, misleading and unsubstantiated claims that do not accurately represent the legal processes around this tribunal. This includes misinformation about the role and remit of the lead authority and of National Trading Standards, misunderstanding of the various procedures involved in issuing warning orders and a failure to accurately reflect the totality of the tribunal’s findings. Far from alleged ‘incompetence’ or perceived ‘collusion’, the tribunal did in fact find evidence of wrongdoing. We accept the tribunal’s decision that, despite finding some wrongdoing in this case, a Warning Order is ultimately not justified.”
I thought he’d finally gone away.. alas no..
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Chris will take great satisfaction knowing the wrongs he was fighting and those who will knowingly do wrong are irritated by what he has done.
2-nil him!
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If only, I think he craves the attention to be fair.
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That isn’t the case Dom, the rules that govern decent people just because they are decent and will abide by the rules should not be a handicap on decency, honesty or integrity. Chris felt strongly his agency was being disadvantaged by spivs who paid no regard to the rules and showed open contempt for authority.
There is little point in regulations if they work against those who abide by them
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MY OPINION ONLY!
That all sounds terrible. An example of the incompetence with which our industry sector is policed.
’Ombudsmen’ not finding in any material way against the estate agent but issuing a fine anyway, in order to make their stats look good. The knock on effect of which can, as demonstrated have huge effects.
I have personal experience of NTSEAT and their incompetence as well as other large organisations that hide behind opaque legislation and take advantage of the fact most estate agencies are small, individually owned businesses that generally do not have the will or the money to take them on. Well done Chris!
All of the so called ‘compliance and regulatory’ organisations involved in our industry should hang their heads in shame. Interesting that none appear to want to comment in public.
The whole thing needs to be properly regulated and all the amateur associations left to die on the vine for all the good that they do.
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It isn’t imcompetance, it is a lack of sector domain knowledge, the enormity of the task, a lack of proper funding and quite a lot of ‘how very dare you?’.
I sat in a meeting with Chris where the full establishment was against him for saying things that were correct but which the room didn’t want to hear. It got personal all too quickly for a meeting of industry professionals who share a common goal.
Having the audacity to speak openly about the challenges the industry faces shouldn’t be a crime, nor should trying to help.
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Hi Robert, I would say your opening paragraph is the very definition of incompetence. The sector is broken due to personalities, but fundamentally it is about money and who gets their grubby paws on it! It costs money to regulate, and in Estate Agency there are too many noses in the trough. ‘If they say it isn’t about the money, then it is REALLY about the money!’
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There is not one so called overseer of the property industry that is worth anything.
NTSEAT, The NAEA, The Ombudsman scheme, the ASA Propertymark. Not one of them is worth being in.
A load of out of touch mutual back slapping bloated wasters.
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Jan, I could not agree more with you!
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So Eye, any response from any of the organisations that are in charge of policing our industry? Nobody appears to be defending them and the silence is deafening!
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This dude has to stop living in the past and get on with his life.
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I think he has demonstarted most clearly that he has got on with his life .
Dusted himself down. Seamlessly moved into Ocean 3D and his video business .Securing a portfolio of high quality clients during a pandemic.
All this with the Sword of Damolces hovering over his head. How wrong you are
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Hey dude, make you feel good coming out with crass statements?
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“This story started around 4 years ago with a complaint to the ASA by an anonymous and cowardly troll about a specific blog article I’d written questioning the business model”
I suppose the real question here is WHY, did he write an article.
Just live your own life man and stop worrying about what others do.
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“Just live your own life man and stop worrying about what others do.”
Ever thought of taking your own advice?
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Oh, I never take my own advice but thank you for taking the time to respond.
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The story of this saga is people and attitude and I don’t mean CW. ‘Bureaucrats’ is a phrase often used in the negative and adopting an attitude which would often fail miserably in a criminal court, is more akin to “I have power and I will throw it around as it pleases me and there’s not much you can do about it”.
If an agency does this, it is not fit for purpose and should never be a regulator who has to be squeak clean and seen to be.
If the people that should be supervising our industry where doing their job right in the first place and not seen to be constantly ignoring often flagrant wrong doings, then people like Chris highlighting what is apparently wrong, wouldn’t have to and this type of situation wouldn’t arise.
There has to be more to this. In law you are guilty or innocent. Not innocent and get a fine! The PRS threw out the complaint in its entirety but issued a £75 fine for the ‘inconvenience’ suffered by the complainant.
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Very sad that a decent and honourable man was treated in this way, but a measure of the man is how he is conducted himself with the upmost dignity during what must have been an incredibly difficult and stressful time. What it does demonstrate is the general incompetence of the trade and regulatory bodies in our industry, that are massively out of touch and in serious need of overhauling and modernising.
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