Complaints against property agents continue to increase and were up 32% on last year, according to the latest report by the Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme.
Almost all of these were resolved in favour of the complainant, resulting in record payouts for the consumer by estate and lettings agents in the wrong.
The average sales award was £374 and the average lettings award was £522 but the largest was over £16,000 for one particular letting dispute.
The Property Ombudsman, Katherine Sporle , commented: “The number of agents joining TPO has grown by 82% in the last five years. 35,374 offices are now signed up and following our approved codes of practice.
“Importantly, these figures show that more and more consumers are able to access TPO to have their disputes resolved.
“Last year, out of 16,265 enquiries, 3,304 complex complaints required formal review and, a high percentage of those complaints were supported (83%). Overall, this is good news for consumers and redress, but not so great for the reputation of agents who collectively paid out over £800,000 in awards.
“My message for those agents is simple: pay more attention to the Property Ombudsman’s codes of practice and raise your standards.”
Founder and CEO of online estate agent eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, said that many of the online and hybrid agents are waging war against “the stale, anti-consumer practices of the high-street sector, with many, but not all, excelling in the customer service they provide.”
He commented: “The high-street sector is struggling in the current industry environment, and despite being squeezed for market share by online and hybrid agents are only getting worse, rather than pivoting with the new age of estate agency and offering a better customer experience for a fairer price.”
Customer can check out websites such as TrustPilot and AllAgents, to separate the good from the bad based on reviews from real customers.
Referring to TrustPilot and AllAgents, Quirk said: “Despite this positive evolution in the industry, selling or buying a home can occasionally be an expensive and sometimes fraught experience. The government must now really step in and introduce licensing for all estate agents, in order to regulate against the bad guys, of which there seems to be many.”
