Complaints to the Property Ombudsman surge in the last 12months

The number of complaints from vendors, tenants and landlords has risen dramatically over the last year, the majority of complaints relate to the usual tenant and landlord issues. As with many service industries letting agents, estate agents and landlords must be careful to explain the processes and practices of deposits, property care and the sales process.
The complaints from landlords are of poor reference checks, inefficient property inspections and a lack of procedures to protect against damage to the property. The tenants find biggest issues with the holding and retaining of property deposits.
There has been issues with fees for home information packs falling due if vendors have switched agents and estate agents need to be mindful of such issues when market conditioners are more challenging. Estate Agents have also found issue with the methods employed by some other agents when aggressively marketing to poach their clients.