‘Redress in the property sector is not broken’, says ombudsman Katrine Sporle

TPO’s 2017 annual report represents a significant amount of remedial action on behalf of consumers – to the tune of £1.36million. Our primary focus has always been on providing expert advice and quality resolutions to consumers, underpinned by our experience and expertise. As the UK’s largest Government-approved property redress scheme, we have built a highly skilled workforce who understand the industry they work in and who have the highest commitment to customer service.

• Our customer service team does all it can to advise, signpost and guide consumers to the right place
• Our evaluation and dispute resolution advisors help to bring things to an early resolution
• Our adjudicators are highly skilled in looking at the evidence when things go wrong, and where possible put things right without the cost, expense and stress of going to court

Fifty-three per cent of consumers and 72 per cent of agents say that they are satisfied that TPO’s decision was fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

REDRESS IS NOT ‘BROKEN’

We do not share the view that existing redress arrangements are broken but acknowledge that there are significant gaps within the property sector that need to be addressed. Throughout 2017, we looked carefully at how we could improve and expand on what we do through innovation, modernisation and renewal.

Innovation has come with the introduction of Yomdel, a 24/7 online chat facility. Yomdel has worked with us to focus on the nature of complaints and provide early information to help consumers decide for themselves whether they need to lodge a complaint against a service provider.

Via this online facility, we have reached a new stream of consumers – notably students, and provided a modern approach to giving advice at the point of need.

We think that there should be a single Ombudsman for the private property sector and another Ombudsman for the social sector. Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.

Modernisation has come in the shape of business process review prior to upgrading our CRM and case handling software systems. We are confident of increasing our efficiency and effectiveness of complaint handling and keeping our consumers in touch with progress as we roll out later this year.

Renewal has come through a comprehensive review of the Ombudsman’s Terms of Reference, which will be introduced at the same time as our new case management systems. This will significantly reduce timescales, a key frustration for consumers, and improve communication between all parties subject to the dispute.

A move to simultaneously issue proposed decisions to both consumer and agent will address the criticism of perceived bias towards agents by consumers when agents see the decision first. It will benefit both parties by emphasising fairness and transparency throughout the process and it will significantly speed up decision making.

MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING QUALITY STANDARDS

We will continue to do all we can to inform and educate, providing feedback through our National Conference (on 13th June, don’t miss it!) our Annual Report, our case studies, the primary advice we offer with Propertymark, our masterclasses and now, with an added dimension of online training for front line staff to understand the consumer protection regulations.

THE FUTURE OF REDRESS

Clearly Government is looking for more redress, not less. We agree that the gaps in redress for New Homes should be remedied and that the imbalance for tenants without redress should be addressed. We see this being achieved by a professional sector operating an even playing field, with a clear culture of excellent complaint handling well before they become disputes that have to be escalated.

That’s why TPO puts so much focus on advice and guidance, education and early resolution. But when it comes to disputes, we are firmly of the view that there should be a skilled workforce that understands the complexities of the issues raised, and can make clear and confident judgements to arrive at appropriate remedies that are fair and reasonable in all the circumstances. That’s what an Ombudsman is there for.

Which is why we believe that there should be only one Ombudsman per sector, but we cannot see one Ombudsman being effective for the whole of the private and social sector. We think there should be a single Ombudsman for the private property sector and another Ombudsman for the social sector with clear partnership working between the two.

Whatever happens this will not take place overnight and we pledge ourselves to finding positive solutions to the needs of consumers and the industry for the foreseeable future, as well as working in partnership with all stakeholders to find the right solutions.