Ombudsman for estate agents
Ombudsman: is it necessary?
Estate Agents have long been plagued by bad press, almost everybody knows someone who has a horror story regarding dealings with Estate Agents. A new official body is hoping to change this, by attempting to monitor and control what at the moment is an unregulated industry. Estate Agents have recently come under fire by the consumer magazine ‘Which’, who undertook a study of the industry and found a significant number of Estate Agents were breaking the law and using misleading contracts when selling houses.
The ‘Which’ report outlined some of the major problems occurring within the Estate Agent industry. ‘Which’ found that the most significant problem home sellers and buyers faced with Estate Agents is with their contracts. ‘Which’ found a widespread use of complicated and misleading contracts by Estate Agents that included clauses that could be legally unfair to home sellers and buyers. This often left people paying thousands of pounds, even when the agent had done nothing to assist with the sale of their property. The Consumer Association ‘Which’, also uncovered serious breaches in the way that Estate Agents conduct their business. After surveying a number of Estate Agents, ‘Which’ found that only small number of Estate agents confirmed offers made by home buyers in writing to home sellers, as they are legally bound to do. Instead the majority of Estate Agents surveyed only gave this information by phone call, which places the Home Seller on legally difficult ground if they want to contest offers or make a complaint about Estate Agents concerning offers, as they often have no evidence showing that the phone call occurred. This leaves Home Sellers on unstable footing when they feel that their rights have been breached, as they are unable to take the Estate Agent to court without the relevant evidence for their complaint.
‘Which’ also found Estate agent companies who lied to ‘Which’ buyers about a “higher offer that had already been rejected and encouraged the buyer to come back with another offer.” ‘Which’ found that the “higher offer” was complete fabrication by the Estate Agent. This is a serious breach of the law and gets right to the heart of the Estate Agents Act 1979. This fabrication could have led to the buyer paying thousands of pounds more for the property they were interested in making an offer for if they had come back with the “higher offer” the Estate Agent suggested they did. The reason the Estate Agent fabricated this “higher offer” was not so much to benefit the seller as it was to line their own pockets. As Estate Agents work on a commission, receiving a percentage of the price paid for a property they are selling, therefore the more the property sells for the greater their own commission.
The 1979 Estate Agents Act was set in place in order to try to regulate the Estate Agent Industry. However without anybody routinely checking Estate Agents and how they conduct their business, Estate Agents are continually able to get away with creating these fabrications, breaking the law and using misleading contracts. Estate Agents are the ones who have complete power over a sales transaction, as they are the only party to have all the information, due to their superior position of sitting between the buyer and the seller. Therefore, Estate Agents are in a place where they could abuse this power, and as ‘Which’ found they often do.
A new organization has recently been set up in order to help people differentiate the rogues from the honest Estate Agents, called ‘The Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA). An ombudsman is an official who investigates complaints against Government Organizations. The Ombudsman for Estate Agents is a scheme that aims to police the Estate Agents’ industry, providing protection for consumer against malpractice within the industry.
The Ombudsman is a voluntary scheme that Estate Agents can join, currently 42% of Estate Agents in England and Wales are signed up to the scheme and it is the only independent redress scheme in existence for Estate Agents. The Ombudsman has set out its own rules and regulations that it requires its members to follow. A spokesman for the OEA issued the following statement :
“Clearly the OEA is good for consumers, but it is also good for the industry. This is proper self-regulation, and should do wonders for the reputation of Estate Agents, because with independent redress, goes a Code of practice, with proper standards, against which to measure the performance of Estate Agents. All good Estate Agents will be able to live by the Code – but the “rogues” will not, and will go to the wall, and good riddance.”
The OEA rigorously enforces its mandatory Code of Practice for the Estate Agents who have signed up to its scheme. The compliance levels and consumer satisfaction are also closely monitored. If consumers have a dispute with a Member Agency, they can refer it to the OEA, who is there to provide a free, fair and speedy review of complaints falling within its Terms of Reference. The OEA is completely independent of its Members Agencies and my try to settle a dispute by coming up with an agreement between you and the Member Agency. If an agreement cannot be reached between you and the Member Agency then the Ombudsman will consider all the relevant factors and make a decision according to what they believe to be fair in all the circumstances. The Ombudsman will not normally consider your complaint until you have complained to the Members Agency itself and have gone through their internal own complaints procedure unsatisfactorily.
The Ombudsman deals with complaints that involve the Members Agency; infringing on your legal rights; not complying with the OEA Code of Practice; has treated you unfairly; or been guilty of maladministration, including inefficiency or undue delay. However, there are certain complaints and situations which the Ombudsman cannot handle, this information is available on the Ombudsman website: www.oea.co.uk
Once the Ombudsman has made a decision they will send it to you and the Member Agency who you have the dispute with. You can then decide whether to accept or reject the Ombudsman’s decision. The Member’s Agency is obliged to pay any compensation up to £25,000 that the Ombudsman awards you the consumer, provided that you accept the payment in full and agree to the final settlement of your complaint. Your legal rights are not affected by the Ombudsman decision, if you reject their decision, it will lapse and you are free to do as you wish, including taking legal action. The Ombudsman is working for the consumer’s benefit as it is there as a body to police Estate Agents. The OEA Council which makes decisions regarding complaints is made up of a majority of non-industry members including leading consumer representatives.
Home buyers and sellers deserve to have an independent and impartial body that can listen to their complaints and offers financial compensation when appropriate. The Ombudsman for Estate Agents provides this service for consumers and aims to regulate the Estate Agent industry. I would urge any home buyer or seller to make sure that the Estate Agent that they are dealing with belongs to the OEA Scheme before they decide to do business with them, as it will give them added protection if things go wrong. The OEA logo can be found on Agent’s windows and stationary if they have signed up to the OEA Scheme. If you are still not sure whether an Estate Agent is part of the scheme you can contact the OEA office for confirmation. The OEA now has more than 900 members with more than 4,500 offices among the 10,600 Estate Agency Offices operating in England and Wales , so it should be simple to find an OEA affiliated Estate Agent in your area.
The OEA can be contacted by the following means:
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA)
Beckett House
4 Bridge Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP1 2LX
Telephone: +44 (0) 1722 333306
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1722 332296
Website: www.oea.co.uk
E-mail: admin@oea.co.uk
we signed up end of june with connells who promised us the earth , weve had 2 viewings
no feedbach – had to take our own photos and rewrite their blurb( it was so poor) and for all that- whether or not we sell weve got to pay them.! they must be the worst estate agents in England- they should be exposed for what they are- useless!
I rented a property with Beresford Adams in North Wales for 6 months. I left after the end of this period which was the 1st of September.To this day; the 5th of October, I am still waiting for my deposit refund. I am not happy ang suggest to anybody reading this DO NOT use them as a letting agent as they do put your deposit into any type of scheme that thery should by law; they keep it in their own accounts department.
I decided to sell my house and a family in rented accomodation nearby made me an offer which I refused, because I felt that I could possibly get more by marketing it with an estate agent. So I put my house up for sale with a local agent, but when signing the contract I told them of the offer which was duly noted on the contract. Now the estate agent is in contact with this family and trying to get me to accept their offer, and are not sending anyone to view the house stating that this family want to buy it. My contract with the agent expires in 7 weeks . If I were to decide to sell to this family after this time where would I stand legally in regard to estate agents fees?
The OEA are in the pocket of estate agents. They are funded by them and hence they are loathed to bite the hand that feeds them by finding against any of their member estate agents.
This view is based on my personal experience where the OEA found that the letting agent who marketed our family home and referenced the eventual tenants met their code of conduct despite :
1, They did not identify the correct identity of the tenant
2, They did not get any previous address history
3, He validated his income via an email (from himself) to their credit reference agent
4, They did not take any character references
5, They had no utility bills, passport copies, drivers licence copies, Pay slips or even a Videocard !
It transpired very quickly that the man was a convicted fraudster with no job, income or morals. He trashed my family home, did not pay the rent for months and carried out several frauds from my address. we are still getting bailiffs calling and our house is blighted for any credit.
This was 2 years ago and despite an OEA ‘investigation’ and an appeal Mr Hamer of the OEA concludes that the estate agent met their code of conduct !
This is a scandal. Does anybody else have any similar accounts as I would like to present cases to my MP so we can get something done about the OEA sham.
Thanks Guy.
Guy – thank you very much for sharing that comment. It is shocking but not surprising. Let it be a warning to everyone else. DB
Thanks Danny for your comment, i am having trouble with Enfields and a customer of theirs whom refuses point blank to exchange let ALONE COMPLETE! There is another person in the same situation before me who is my purchaser.
Enfields have done nothing but lie this has been going on since November i am now beside myself with frustration my life has been turned upset down,i was promised a definate move date as Jan 8 2010 as you can see that has gone it went then to 13th for exchange haha !!
Yes it is a joke then tonight i get a call full of apologies from my Agent whom has been slogging away trying desperately to sort this with can we make it 12 Feb to exchange well i hit the roof.
As i handed in my notice at work, so now i am unemployed as well !!!
Just who do you go to ? When Estate Agents
although my agents have found me a buyer I have not been able to find a property I want I originally found a new build but was told not to put an offer on until my buyer was definate now I have lost the new build. According to my contract if I withdraw from the sale I am liable for 10% of the selling price is this correct
I was with Williams and co. estate agents in Redcar with would you believe it 3 years. I was promised that if I paid the higher price then my property would be in the property guide every week until it sold. I was in about 3 or 4 times in the first year. Half way through my second year I went under offer (not written)only when I gave in 2 weeks written notice as required to go with another estate in my local area. These were a couple who has viewed 5 months earlier without any feedback at all. They paid for a surveyor who didn’t bother to look around the house at all and only had a 5 minute conversation about football and left. Inevitably this fell through because I wasn’t given enough time to find another home for my family. The second time I went under offer was a couple of weeks ago I went under offer on the Monday and by Friday of the same week the surveyors were on the phone booking themselves in for the following Monday. I delayed this for a week so that i could have at least2 weeks to look for somewhere else. Unfortunately my estate agent Jill wound up my buyer enough to send her knocking on my door telling me she would only give me until that weekend to find somewhere (less than 2 weeks) or she would go with another house with the same agent as myself. So my estate agent could’nt lose only I lost my sale. I’m on the market to try and solve my financial problems by downsizing and I get the feeling they already know this so if they put off enough people buying my property hopefully I will be repossessed and they can seize my property for one of their friends allegedly at a greatly reduced market value price. The mental stress and anguish has been second to none and they continue to get away with it. Hopefully estate agents will die out and we will all use the internet.
we viewed a property with country wide after accepting an offer on our property (our vendor also having sold through country wide).loved the propertyso much that we put the full asking price as an offer with the estate agent whilst still at the property – offer accepted- only next day were told they had shown the property to someone else who had offered the full asking price too after us ! then was asked for last and final bid …. reluctantly we offered another £5,100 which was very happily accepted . all addresses etc passed to solictors ect same day -we are cash buyers-but same day 5 hours later estate agent called to say other offer had been increased by another £10,000 taking property over asking price by £15,000!!! and please have yet another last and final bid into estate agent by 10 am the next day!! We think morally this is wrong and have pulled out totally and am contemplating not selling to our vendor as through country wide too . am i correct in taking this further with ombudsman . We thought last and final bids was only allowed once??????
My wife’s parents suggested we both sell our houses and buy a bigger property between us all. This was a great idea as we need an extra bedroom but the jump from 3 to 4 bedroom in prices was too high. (already had a loft conversion). We both used the same Agent, Allen & Harris. We were both told by the branch manager that if we sued their solicitors we would not have to pay for a HIP. We were also told that if we paid £165 fee then after 6 months if no sale was made then we could withdraw and have no fees to pay. We sold and the in laws did not. We have now moved in with them and plan a major building project on the house. Allen and Harris now ant my in laws to pay £500 to withdraw from the contract despite the fact that in 10 months they have not had a single viewing or request for details. I work for a law firm so will be looking to instruct a solicitor for miss selling and misleading