Scottish Property News

Property Ombudsman reports increase in complaints

The Property Ombudsman is reporting a significant increase in the number of complaints from tenants. He's now receiving 129 calls a week about rental issues from throughout the UK, that�s almost four an hour on average, and a significant rise from the 110 during quarter two of 2009 and far beyond the 77 a week this time last year.

The Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer offers a free, independent, and impartial service to members of the public who are dissatisfied with the service provided by a rental agent. He can recommend member agents pay compensation of up to �25,000 in any one case.

He's currently investigating almost 80 per cent more lettings cases (127) at the moment than he did in the same period, July 1 to September 30, last year (71) although the number of people calling for help about lettings has only risen by 67 per cent to reach 1,679 over the quarter.

�Trends in the market are mirrored in the numbers of cases that I am asked to decide about three to four months later so any actual increase in activity in the market will become apparent in my workload towards the end of the year.�

The principal causes of disputes over lettings arise when agents are alleged to have failed to make adequate checks of tenant references, not explaining that holding deposits are forfeit if the tenant does not go ahead with renting the property, and inspection visits not being frequent enough to prevent deterioration of the property.

More details at the Property Ombudsman website.