Home >
News >
Record numbers of Letting agents join Ombudsman scheme
Monday, April 30, 2012
Two thirds of all UK letting agents have now joined the
scheme totalling over 9000
Gerry Fitzjohn, chief operating officer of TPO,
said:
"The Government continues to ignore pleas for letting
agents to be regulated in the same way as sales agents, which we
believe would raise standards across the industry.
"But lettings agents are showing themselves to be
increasingly ready to commit to the TPO Lettings Code of Practice,
which now has Stage 1 approval under the OFT Consumer Codes
Approval Scheme and is fast moving towards full approval as we
undertake monitoring of agents.
"When you consider that TPO only started offering redress
for lettings six years ago this month, to achieve 9,068 letting
offices within the scheme is phenomenal. We have enrolled around
two-thirds of all letting offices in the UK.
"TPO also has 11,623 sales offices, more than 90% of the UK
total, the highest-ever number and still rising. TPO is now the
largest membership body in UK estate agency."
Fitzjohn said that letting agents should do more to promote
the commitment they have made by voluntarily signing up to the
Ombudsman scheme.
He said: "They have gone far beyond the legal requirement,
even for sales agents who are compelled by law only to register for
redress, which is a vastly weakened undertaking on their part that
does not make them sign up to higher standards."