Statistics from the OEA have shown that the number of members has increased from 5,022 estate agency branches at the end of 2005 to 11,816 today.
A growth rate of more than 50 per cent for each of the last two years was spurred by the decision of the National Association of Estate Agents to require most of its members to join the OEA redress scheme and by estate agents in England and Wales enrolling en-masse to meet the new Home Information Pack (HIP) rules that require them to have redress in place.
“All, apart from a few hundred, have signed up to the full OEA Code of Practice, the only one governing the industry that has been endorsed by the Office of Fair Trading,” said the ombudsman for estate agents, Christopher Hamer.
“This means consumers have far greater access to redress against estate agents and this comes ahead of the implementation of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act, probably in April next year. The criteria for approval as a redress scheme under that legislation have now been published by the OFT and the OEA will, of course, be submitting an application.
“This will require all estate agents in the UK to have redress in place – at present the HIPs rules only govern agencies in England and Wales.
“While membership is rising, sadly so are complaints against members, although not at such an incredibly fast rate. So far this year, I have taken on 606 disputes between consumers and estate agents, but 10 per cent of these involve lettings which have not previously featured in the OEA case load.
“With regard to residential sales, there has been a 23 per cent rise in complaints when last year’s figure was 18 per cent. It’s not my job to defend estate agents – I would merely point out that membership has risen much more quickly than complaints.
Hamer said that most complaints in the last three months were from the South West, with 20 per cent coming from London and the Home Counties and 10 per cent from Scotland and Wales together and the remainder equally split between the North, East, and Midlands at 16 per cent each. There were none from Northern Ireland.
