Property Ombudsman launches new portal for agents to monitor complaints
....and promotes senior team member to Deputy role while reorganising structure
Salisbury-based The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has promoted its Casework Director Jane Erskine to the role of Deputy Ombudsman and launched a new online portal to enable agents and consumers to review cases as they proceed.
Jane’s promotion is part of a reorganisation at TPO that Katrine Sporle, the Property Ombudsman, says are part of efforts to provide a “streamlined service that puts the consumer at the heart of the process”.
Durham University education Jane (pictured, left) joined TPO as a case officer in 2007 after a nine-year stint working in private practice specialising in wills, conveyancing and probate, and has risen through the TPO ranks.
In 2010 she was promoted to Senior Case Officer at the property dispute resolution organisation before rising to Casework Director two years later. She is a regular fixture on the property speaking circuit including at several regional NAEA conferences and masterclasses.
Key to the TPO’s reorganisation is a new online portal that Katrine says will “transform the way the scheme reviews complaints by allowing agents and consumers to review live case updates, with additional functions for agents who will soon be able to renew their membership and update their contact systems at the click of a button”.
TPO’s new structure, which came into effect last week, means every new case will be assigned to a dedicated team that will manage the entire process from start to finish. Katrine says each team will be multi-disciplinary and include adjudicators, dispute resolution advisors and case management officers.
TPO says it is investing in tech as well as human resource and has installed new telephone and CRM systems too.
“This is very much a work in progress that aims to provide modern services that are fit for purpose now and in the future, which have been designed to reflect the needs of both consumers and agents,” says Katrine.