Has anyone here had any dealings with the TPO?

[chickpea]

I'm starting to think that making a formal complaint to The Property Ombudsman might be our best course of action against our letting agent - has anyone gone down this route?

I've checked that the agent is a member of the TPO, and as such should follow their code of practice but is there actually any mileage in persuing this with them? Or am I simply adding more stress for very little recourse?

In all honesty, it's gone beyond any kind of financial recompense - my main motivation is not to let the agent get away with being so blatantly incompetent and untrustworthy. Am I being naive?

[Richlist]

Whilst I sypathise with you, I think there are a number of far more urgent priorities that need your time & effort to sort out. These include :-

* Reimbursement of charges to your satisfaction by existing agent.

* Sorting out the existing deposit problems.

* Getting your tenants moved back into property & ensuring they are happy.

* Setting up a new agent with all the documentation required......AST, extra clauses, inventory, deposit protection, S21, standing order form etc etc.

* Ensuring you have a system in place to deal with future emergencies.

Way .....way down that list is retribution, revenge, retaliation & punishment. Surely that can all come later when you have more time (and the agent thinks he's got away with his actions) ?

[chickpea]

Thanks,Richlist - it helps to see the main points of action needed and I'm working on all the points you've made.

The tenants are back in the property and we haven't heard anything from them all week (other than an exchange of texts concerning the deposit protection situation).

We fired off another email to the agency director last night, asking him again, outright, to tell us whether he has protected the deposit and issued the prescribed info to the tenants. (we had an email from him previously, saying that the deposit had been lodged by BACS, according to his book keeper).

We are seeing the new agent tomorrow to get that all in place - they have a proper info pack for all tenants, plus emergency provision for contacting contractors etc. They are also members of NAEA etc.

I feel like I need to get a complaint underway, concurently, because I know it's something I won't have the energy/motivation to persue it once the immediate nightmare is resolved. I'm also wondering whether the ombudsman may provide clarification over the initial plumbing issue, if it is found that the agent was deficient in his handling of the check-in ( or rather, lack of).

But you're right - the immediate issues need to be resolved PDQ and maybe everything else will follow as a consequence.

[Grampa]

There are2 types of membership for the ombusman . Lettings & Sales

If you sell houses it is a legal requirment to sign up to the sales one.

If you are a letting agent you DO NOT have a legal requirement to sign up to the Lettings ONE. But if you are a member of Arla, Nals, TDS they require you to sign up as part of their membership.

If they are members of the Letting one there is a code of conduct they have to abide by which I'm sure could get off their website.

[chickpea]

Thanks Grampa.

I'm having trouble finding out which they belong to - they have a link to the TPO on their website, and when I search members on the TPO site, they come up...but it doesn't say whether it's for sales or lettings as far as I can see.

Think I'll give the TPO a quick call later.

Editd to add: spoken to TPO, who have confirmed that the agent is a member for both, and that we have 12 months to submit a complaint.