The Property Ombudsman
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Features
Right to refund
"A buyer paid a reservation deposit and a buyer’s premium but the sale did not go ahead, so should the agent repay the fees? Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman supported the claim and made an award of £6300."
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Features
‘Redress in the property sector is not broken’, says ombudsman Katrine Sporle
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has been resolving consumer disputes with property agents for 27 years. Now the Government has launched a consultation that could lead to a single ombudsman for the whole property sector. Katrine Sporle of TPO, explains its position to Sheila Manchester.
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Features
Case study: when a sole agency agreement stood despite customer complaint
COMPLAINT A case that The Property Ombudsman was asked to review came from a seller concerning the agent’s estate agency agreement. The seller believed that the terms and conditions within the agreement, concerning their liability to pay the agent’s commission fee, lacked clarity and that the agent had not fully complied with their obligations under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. The seller wanted the agent to change their agency agreement in order for their fee liability to end and compensate them for the aggravation and inconvenience caused by the agent’s actions. INVESTIGATION When investigating this complaint, the Ombudsman took paragraphs 5m and 5n of the Codes of Practice into account. Paragraph 5m explains that an agent’s Terms of Business must clearly state the minimum duration of their instruction and how instruction can be terminated by either party. When a contract is signed by a client (the seller) during a visit by the agent to their home, at their work place, away from the agent’s premises or online, then they must be given a right to cancel that contract within 14 calendar days of signing. The client should be given a ‘Notice of Right to Cancel’.…
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Latest property news
TPO pushes back against government plans for whole-sector ombudsman
The Property Ombudsman believes the industry should have separate redress schemes for the social and private halves.
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Features
How long should it take to fix a window?
"Was a damaged window frame the result of poor maintenance or was the window cleaning contractor being framed?" asks Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
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Latest property news
Competition hots up between remaining property ombudsman providers
TPO makes a bid for members exiting OS:P as competition hots up between two remaining ombudsman.
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Latest property news
Should there only be one property ombudsman to handle complaints?
That's one of the questions Ombudsman Katrine Sporle will face when she goes live on Wednesday on Rightmove's Webinar platform.
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Latest property news
Former housing minister Mark Prisk to headline ombudsman gathering
One of David Cameron’s former housing ministers Mark Prisk is to make his first keynote speech about the industry since he left stepped down. Mark was in post for a characteristically short time for a recent housing minister, although longer than last year’s Alok Sharma, holding office for 11 months from September 2012 to 2013. He is to make his speech at The Property Ombudsman’s annual conference this summer which is to be held at Birmingham’s National Conference Centre in Solihull on June 13th. The event will focus on how to raise standards within the industry. Mark, who is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and was arguably one of the more thoughtful and better-qualified Tory housing ministers of recent times, will be joined by BBC business journalist and TV presenter Declan Curry, consumer champion and newspaper columnist James Walker, Ryan Hampson from Brief Your Market and Rob Symes, Rightmove’s lettings innovations boss. “Mark’s previous role as Housing Minister and current membership of the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Declan’s work for the BBC and James’ experience in helping millions of consumers get their problems sorted, makes them great assets to the conference,” says…
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Features
Conflict of interest
"Agreements, valuations and a conflict of interest – be careful where you stand when you are caught in the middle", says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman.
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Features
Fraudulent deposits
"If a tenant pays by credit card, it should put the agent ‘on notice’ that the tenant could, potentially have affordability issues.”
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