Ombudsman for Lettings Agents tells clients to take care

Lettings agents are being advised by the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA), Christopher Hamer, to pay particular attention to their dealings with clients.

Renting property has become a very attractive option given the recent uncertainty in the residential sales sector, as many people wait to see what happens with mortgage availability and property values.

But in his first quarterly report for 2008, Hamer reveals an 86 per cent rise in cases investigated that concerned complaints involving residential lettings compared with the last quarter of 2007.

The report shows that new cases involving lettings rose from 37 in the last quarter of 2007 to 69 in the period from January 1 to March 31 this year. Of the 19 cases involving lettings closed in the first quarter of 2008, 13 were resolved in favour of the complainant. The disputes considered in relation to lettings arose from agents mainly failing to provide clear communication to either landlord or tenant about the transaction and issues to do with rent collection or repayment of deposits. New requirements were of course introduced under Tenancy Deposit Scheme rules in April 2007, which require landlords to protect tenant deposits in a custodial or insurance backed scheme. Under the scheme Inventories are also strongly recommended.

Where residential sales are concerned, the number of new cases remained around the same level at 220 for the quarter until March 31, 2008. The overall number of enquiries received by the OEA rose by nine per cent to 2,983 between January 1st and March 31st. But of the 1,655 enquires that came within the Ombudsman's terms of reference, 448 concerned lettings, a rise of 39.6 per cent, while 1,140 were about sales, a rise of 1.6 per cent.