It is aimed at individuals who are dissatisfied with the service they have received from the OEA in resolving their case.
Cyril Lanch has been appointed as independent reviewer by the organisation’s governing council.
His role is to determine disputes where consumers using the OEA feel they have not received a satisfactory level of service and have been unable to resolve their dispute directly with the organisation, which deals with complaints against member estate agents.
He will not be conducting a complaints procedure for people who disagree with a decision made by the Ombudsman – complainants will be directed to Lanch if the OEA cannot settle the matter through its own internal complaints handling procedure.
If he considers that a service complaint should be upheld in whole or in part he may recommend to the Ombudsman that the OEA makes an apology or pays appropriate compensation (equivalent to that which the OEA would award against a member firm in similar circumstances) for any damage, distress or inconvenience caused by the OEA’s standard of service to the person or firm making the service complaint.
Commenting on his appointment, Lanch said: “With the introduction of Home Information Packs and the enactment of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill there is an increasing consumer awareness of, and demand for, independent redress arrangements.
“Now is a crucial time for all involved in the industry and it is therefore particularly apposite that the OEA should appoint an independent reviewer or service complaints at this stage.”
Christopher Hamer, who became Ombudsman for Estate Agents in December last year, added: “This is a totally new role within the OEA to display continuing commitment to transparency and accountability.
“Complaints regarding estate agents only come to me after a failure to resolve them within individual estate agencies’ own internal procedures. We expect our members to offer internal resolution of disputes so it is only right that the OEA should do the same.”
“We support the Government’s efforts to streamline and speed up the planning system – which is still the biggest constraint on new homes supply – and its various initiatives to help first-time buyers, particularly key workers like teachers, nurses, emergency service personnel and those others who keep our vital public services running” said Mr Pretty. “But these initiatives, while welcome, really only deal with part of the problem. To crack it, we need decisive action on land supply and the planning system.”
Commenting on Conservative leader David Cameron’s conference announcement this week, for plans to scrap Stamp Duty for first-time buyers, Mr Pretty said: ‘I welcome it and look forward to seeing the details. I’ve been calling for this for sometime, and as recently as June, but the elimination of Stamp Duty on its own will not be effective. It needs to be part of an overall package of special measures in areas of acute housing need, including land release and fast-track planning.
“The plight of today’s first timers is so precarious that, in my view, we also need an all-party consensus on resolving it. As I’ve said before, a generation has already been sacrificed and it will happen to another generation unless we soon take strong action on a national scale.”
He concluded: “The Government is working hard on the problem, and the housebuilding industry is confident that it can boost production, but we need the active co-operation of local communities and their representatives. We have a collective responsibility, but our poll demonstrates there is still more work to do to convince communities to welcome new homes in their areas. Without their co-operation, the Government’s housing targets are going to be extremely hard to achieve.
“First-time buyers are now an endangered species. It’s in all our interests to treat them as a special case - we have to act to stop them slipping further down the endangered list.”
