Fortunately, there are several professionally recognised bodies for estate agents and letting agents in the UK helping to protect consumers. These organisations offer a wide range of help, support and useful advice should anything go untoward.
Useful Websites
Arbon House
6 Tournament Court
Edgehill Drive
Warwick
CV34 6LG
Tel: 0845 250 6001
The Association of Residential Letting Agents is the UK’s foremost professional body for letting agents. Its members are professionals working at all levels of letting agency, from business owners to office employees.
ARLA was formed in 1981 as the professional and regulatory body for letting agents in the UK. It was recognised that the requirements of the residential lettings market were so detailed and specific that a separate organisation was required to promote standards in this important and growing sector of the property market.
Today, with our head office based in Warwick, and our additional offices in London and Edinburgh, our key roles include providing help and guidance for property professionals across a broad spectrum of disciplines while continually campaigning across the UK to make the property market more efficient and user-friendly for the home buying and selling public.
As a leading player in the property industry, ARLA offers significant benefits to letting agents and consumers alike.
Arbon House
6 Tournament Court
Edgehill Drive
Warwick
CV34 6LG
Tel: 0845 250 6001
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is the UK’s leading professional body for estate agency. Our members practise across all aspects of property both in the UK and overseas, including residential and commercial sales and letting, property management, business transfer, auctioneering and land.
NAEA was founded in 1962 by estate agent and entrepreneur Raymond Andrews. We were established with the goal of upholding good practice and high professional standards in UK estate agency. This struck a chord with the industry at a time when there was little representation for estate agents and has allowed the Association to grow phenomenally for over 50 years.
Today, with our head office based in Warwick, and our additional offices in London and Edinburgh, our key roles include providing help and guidance for property professionals across a broad spectrum of disciplines while continually campaigning across the UK to make the property market more efficient and user-friendly for the home buying and selling public.
As a leading player in the property industry, NAEA offers significant benefits to both estate agents and consumers.
The Brew House
Wilderspool Park
Greenall’s Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL
We are Ombudsman Services, an ombudsman service that provides dispute resolution for the communications, energy, property and copyright licensing industries.
Ombudsman Services was founded in 2002 to provide independent dispute resolution. We provide an independent, impartial and cost effective means of resolving disputes outside the courts.
We are experts in dispute resolution; here to sort out complaints about the companies which have joined us.
We operate under appropriate legislation and regulatory authority, and our governance ensures that we are independent.
We are a not for profit private company.
Not-for profit
The Ombudsman Service Ltd is a company limited by guarantee; a not-for-profit organisation. This means that Ombudsman Services has no shareholders and does not pay dividends. It can make a surplus but with no dividends to distribute, this surplus is used for two specific purposes. The first is to provide sufficient reserves to ensure the company can continue operating against a background of variability of income. The second use is to invest back into the business to further its aims of independent redress.
Ground Floor,
Kingmaker House,
Station Road,
New Barnet,
Hertfordshire,
EN5 1NZ
Tel: 0333 321 9418
Email: info@theprs.co.uk
The Property Redress Scheme is a new, straightforward and easy to use consumer redress (ombudsman) scheme for Property Agents and Professionals.
The main purposes of the Property Redress Scheme are to allow Agents to comply with their legal requirement to be a member of a government authorised consumer redress scheme and to settle or resolve complaints made by consumers against our Members.
Our Members and consumers will both benefit from our simple three stage process to resolve the complaint:
The Member will first be given an opportunity to resolve the complaint directly
The Property Redress Scheme offers a mediation service
The Property Redress Scheme Ombudsman will make a binding decision on the complaint
12 Great George Street (Parliament Square)
London SW1P 3AD
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)24 7686 8555
Email: contactrics@rics.org
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Our name promises the consistent delivery of standards – bringing confidence to the markets we serve.
We accredit 118,000 professionals and any individual or firm registered with RICS is subject to our quality assurance. Their expertise covers property valuation and management; the costing and leadership of construction projects; the development of infrastructure; and the management of natural resources, such as mining, farms and woodland. From environmental assessments and building controls to negotiating land rights in an emerging economy; if our members are involved the same professional standards and ethics apply.
SAFE AGENTS,
P O Box 1174,
Cheltenham
GL50 9TQ
Tel: 0845 519 7992
SAFE – Safe Agent Fully Endorsed – is a mark denoting firms that protect landlords and tenants money through client money protection schemes.
There are several schemes in the sector operated by ARLA/NAEA, the Law Society, NALS and RICS to which agents voluntarily belong. These schemes are run by recognised industry bodies or organisations operating in the private rented sector to provide accreditation and/or regulation. They are completely independent from the letting agent and they do not act on behalf of, or have a duty of care to the participating firm. The scope of their CMP schemes varies and you should contact your agent to find out which scheme they are part of.
Landlords and tenants often make decisions based on cost but it is important to ensure you ask your agent for details of the organisation they are regulated by and whether or not they are covered by a client money protection scheme. All agents who are part of ARLA/NAEA, the Law Society, NALS and RICS maintain and operate separate designated client accounts where your money is held completely separate from the operating funds of the firm. If the agent you are using cannot provide you with the assurance of knowing they are covered by a client money protection scheme the question you need to ask is why not?
Eagle Tower
Montpellier Drive
Cheltenham
GL50 1TA
Tel: 01242 581712
Email: info@nalscheme.co.uk
NALS is the National Approved Letting Scheme, and is the most respected and recognised scheme of its type; offering superb value for money for agents, and complete peace of mind for tenants and landlords.
We offer a completely independent licensing scheme. That means people can have confidence in any firm using the NALS logo, because they know every single accredited firm has had to agree to:
Meet defined standards of customer service
Be part of a Client Money Protection Scheme
Have a written customer complaints procedure offering independent redress through an ombudsman.
Have current Professional Indemnity Insurance
Have a designated client bank account
These requirements, and service standards, provide protection and security for both the tenant and the landlord.
Milford House
43-55 Milford Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2BP
Tel: 01722 333306
The Property Ombudsman came into being on 1 May 2009. Formerly, the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA), the name change was made to reflect the broader jurisdiction in relation to Complaints we are now able to deal with, e.g. Sales, lettings, commercial and overseas.
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA) Scheme was established on 1 January 1998. The Scheme is open to all those firms of estate agents with a principal, director or partner who is a member of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) or Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS); to all corporate estate agents, defined as those who are subsidiaries of a bank, building society or insurance company, or are themselves quoted on the Stock Exchange and to other estate agents who are sponsored and seconded by existing member agents. From June 2006, the OEA extended its services to Lettings and Property Management agents.
By dealing with a Member of the TPO, the public may be confident about the agent’s approach in its dealings with actual and potential buyers and sellers of residential property or lettings in the UK.
With effect from 1 October 2008, all estate agents are required to register with an Estate Agents Redress Scheme that has been approved by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and which investigates complaints against estate agents. The TPO is one of the schemes approved by the OFT.
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