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Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Southampton Landlords isn't it time you moved letting agent?

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has just released its first report since the introduction of new legislation which gives every landlord and tenant the legal right to have complaints reviewed through free and independent redress in the event of a dispute with a lettings agent. This legislation came into effect on the 1st of October 2014.

In the three months following the introduction of the legislation 2246 letting queries were logged with the TPO, this represented 57% of all queries lodged. These queries covered disputes concerning rental deposits, letting fees, property viewings, rent collection, tenancy agreements, inventories and reference checks. Agents who sign up to the TPO scheme follow a code that has been through a rigorous process, so businesses and consumers working with the TPO can be assured that if there is an issue with a letting agent it will be resolved independently and fairly.

During the three months following the government's new lettings redress legislation (Q4 2014), TPO helped consumers with:
  • 64% (1,444) enquiries were raised by tenants, while 36% (802) enquiries were made by landlords requesting TPO's free, fair and impartial dispute resolution service
  • 368 formal lettings complaints (which represented 57% of the 644 property complaints reviewed by TPO, covering lettings, sales and other property disputes)
  • 69% of lettings complaints investigated were supported by the Ombudsman
  • A huge variety of disputes - the biggest issues reported by tenants and landlords were:
    1. Communication failure (23%)
    2. Repairs and maintenance (16%) - inc. inventories
    3. Deposit handling (12%) - inc. holding deposits
    4. Rent (9%)
    5. Duty of care (9%) e.g. Failure to meet contract pre conditions
 We meet a lot of landlords who are unhappy with their agent, some can't get their rent paid over, others can't get invoices etc for tax returns and most suffer poor communication. If you are experiencing any of these problems them talk to a letting specialist who understands the real needs of landlords and tenants. As the sales market continues to pick up the traditional estate agents will move resources from lettings to sales and the level of service you experience may get worse. So if you are unhappy take action now or you could become part of the TPO's next quarterly report!

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