Extra protection for Southend tenants

June 23, 2015 by Mike

Extra protection for Southend tenants

Wednesday 24thJune 2015

Southend’s Letting Agents and property managers now belong to a national scheme to help customers if they feel they are being treated unfairly.

New rules mean Letting Agents and property managers must by law join a Government-approved Ombudsman redress scheme.

The Council has recently enforced these requirements to make extra sure they are all signed up.

Customers with issues about their letting agents or property managers should first use the agent’s own complaints procedure.

However, if that fails, they can now take the matter to the redress ombudsman. This gives people a straightforward, impartial and effective way to hold their agents to account.

If the ombudsman upholds their complaint, they could be given compensation of up to £25,000 to pay back unfair costs or losses incurred.

Under the new national rules, letting agents and property managers had to join one of the three approved schemes within a set time limit.

After this deadline had elapsed the Council’s Private Sector Housing Team then undertook detailed checks of more than 100 people and companies in the borough to ensure they had joined an ombudsman scheme.

Whilst the vast majority had done so, seven companies were found still to be operating without the appropriate membership.

These were warned about penalties of up to £5,000 for non-membership, and all seven subsequently joined a scheme within the warning period given, thereby escaping fines.

Executive Councillor for Housing, Planning and Regulatory Services, Councillor David Norman, said: “Most tenants and landlords are happy with the service they receive from their letting agent or property manager.

“However, where people have complaints these should be addressed quickly and effectively.
“The Ombudsman schemes give an impartial means of doing so if letting agents or property managers fail to respond adequately to concerns raised.
“I’m pleased to see that there is a good take up from Letting Agents to this scheme and that those who weren’t members have quickly joined.
“The private rented sector is an important part of the local housing market and the Council is keen to work closely with good landlords and Agents, but if we do find companies in breach of these new regulations then we will take action against them.”

If you have an issue with your letting agent or property manager, you should first pursue this via the Agent’s own complaints procedure.

However if there is no response or you are unhappy with the outcome, a complaint can then be made under Redress.

• The Property Ombudsman www.tpos.co.uk
• Ombudsman Services Property http://www.ombudsman-services.org/property.html
• The Property Redress Scheme www.theprs.co.uk

Further information can be found at www.gov.uk or www.southend.gov.uk

If your letting agent or property manager is not a member of one of the approved schemes, you can report their details to the Council’s Private Sector Housing Team at council@southend.gov.uk