Disputes between estate agents and their clients have finally started to mirror the property market trend, with a significant fall in the numbers involving property sales during the first quarter of 2009.

The Property Ombudsman (formerly the Ombudsman for Estate Agents), Christopher Hamer, says the latest figures show a decrease of 38% against the last quarter of 2008, although property sales had declined by 60% during 2008 as a whole.

But disputes involving lettings agents have shown a slight rise of three per cent this quarter - this is way down on the 200% rise over the whole of last year as many more lettings agents joined the redress scheme.

As in 2008, the most prominent reasons for disputes arising from lettings related to the standards of referencing carried out by agents, whether or not inspection visits had taken place and, to a lesser extent, administration of the deposit, reported Mr Hamer.

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During the first quarter of 2009, Mr Hamer received 3,157 enquiries regarding disputes with estate agents, both for sale and lettings, up from 3,011 in the last three months of 2008. As a result, 102 new cases were opened regarding sales (162 in October to December 2008) and 90 involving lettings (87).

Lettings agents are not required to join a redress scheme such as The Property Ombudsman through legislation, unlike sales agents, but the numbers joining continue to rise, making them subject to the Property Ombudsman’s Lettings Code of Practice. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is being asked to recognise The Property Ombudsman lettings Code of Practice under its Consumer Codes Approval Scheme which will ensure consistency in the standards of services delivered across both the sales and lettings markets. It would also mean that both Property Ombudsman codes had received independent scrutiny and accreditation, enhancing their credibility for consumers.

By the end of March 2009, 5,639 lettings offices in the UK had voluntarily joined the Ombudsman scheme compared with 5,100 at the start of the year, a rise of 10.5%.

Mr Hamer is now visiting agents around the UK to discuss how he deals with cases and explain to member agents how legislative changes will impact on the practices of the scheme.

(CD/JM)