Ombudsman Services withdraws from property market to develop “new model” for housing

The provision of redress schemes within the industry looks to be in trouble after one of the three government-approved ombudsman services announced today that it would be pulling out of the property sector. This means that the estate, letting and managing agents currently signed up to Ombudsman Services now have until August 6th to find a new provider. Ombudsman Services, which is based in Warrington and offers complaint handling services across several other sectors including removals, media, communications, energy and copyright, says it no longer wants to offer a “broken solution to a broken market”. But the organisation, rather than exiting the sector entirely, says it is to develop a “new model” for redress in housing. The move appears to be a pre-emptive strike to distance itself from the existing complaints handling structure that operates within the property sector, and to position itself as the next ‘housing ombudsman’ that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is preparing to establish this Spring. Ombudsman Services says the property industry should copy the finance and energy sectors and feature a single regulator backed by one ombudsman. It is now to quiz consumers on what they want from an ombudsman service…