An independent, government-approved complaints service for buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords who have a dispute with an estate agent, letting agent or property manager, based in Salisbury.
The Property Ombudsman, known as TPO, is an independent complaints service for the property industry. If a buyer, seller, landlord or tenant has a problem with an estate agent, letting agent or property manager that they cannot sort out with the firm, they can ask TPO to look at it. It describes itself as providing an independent and impartial dispute resolution service for consumers and property businesses. It looks at each case on its facts, aims for a full and final settlement, and can award compensation for a loss that can be counted and for distress or inconvenience caused by a business. It is not a regulator and cannot fine agents or take legal action, which is a job for Trading Standards.
TPO says it has offered alternative dispute resolution since 1990, which makes it one of the longest-running schemes in the sector. It is a not-for-profit company with a non-executive board of eight people, and the board appoints the Ombudsman but has no role in individual decisions. The page we read does not set out a mission, vision or values in so many words, so we have not invented one. What it does show is a structure designed to keep decisions independent: the Ombudsman decides cases, a separate board runs the organisation, and independent reviewers can look at complaints about how TPO itself handled a case.
TPO's registered office is in Salisbury, Wiltshire (The Clarendon Centre, Salisbury Business Park). It deals with firms across the UK, and has a separate legal entity, TPO Scotland, so that Scotland-specific codes of practice can be kept up. It is approved by government bodies for different parts of the property industry: by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government for lettings and property management agents and by the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team for estate agents. It is also approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and is a full member of the Ombudsman Association.
The people at TPO include 22 dispute resolution officials who are appointed permanently after interviews and checks, and a management team that the organisation lists by name, including a Chief Ombudsman, a Chief Executive, and directors for operations, finance and membership, people, and policy. In 2018 it launched Consumer and Industry Forums to hear from the people who use and are covered by the scheme. These are the organisation's own descriptions; we did not find independent reviews of working there.
Jobs at an ombudsman service are about reading evidence, speaking to people, and making fair decisions, so they suit people who enjoy fairness, careful writing and problem-solving. Typical roles are case handlers and dispute resolution officers, people who check that a firm follows the scheme's codes of practice, membership and customer service staff, policy specialists, and finance, technology and people teams. You do not need to have worked in an estate agency, though knowing how property transactions and lettings work helps.
Website: www.tpos.co.uk
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