More than 3,000 individual residential property agents and professionals are now signed up to the Property Redress Scheme (PRS), new figures show.

The new consumer redress scheme for the property industry, authorised by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team, aims to provide fair and reasonable resolutions to disputes between property agents and their consumers.

It became a legal requirement for all property agents, as defined by legislation, to join a consumer redress scheme on the 1st October 2014. The PRS began trading in the summer of 2014 and was authorised and set up as an alternative to the two other schemes, the Ombudsman Service: Property and The Property Ombudsman, which were already in operation.

The PRS claims that prior to 1st October 2014 deadline, there were an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 letting agents that would be required to comply with the new legislation, indicating that many of these previously unregistered agents have chosen to join the PRS.

The PRS also claims that its scheme is also seeing an increase in the volume of agents switching from the other schemes now that awareness is spreading that there is another option available to them.

The Property Redress Scheme, which offers membership with prices starting from £95+ VAT, covers the agent for all the property work they carry out – for example, an estate agent that also carries out letting agency work would only require one membership with the scheme.

The PRS is the only scheme to offer two different membership models, a model which covers all their complaints and a pay as you go option, giving agents the opportunity to decide which pricing structure is best suited to them. This means the scheme covers the needs of different types of agents whilst remaining affordable and flexible.

The Head of Redress, Sean Hooker (left), said, “Compulsory property redress for the lettings market is a major step forward in improving service and safety for consumers so it is great to see that the majority of Agents now appear to be compliant. Attaining a membership base of 3000 within our first six months of operation is quite an achievement and we hope to continue this success.”