Move comes after plans were revealed to create a signle ombudsman for housing

Housing shutterstock 526583401

Ombudsman Services (OS) has announced its withdrawal from complaints handling in the property sector after housing secretary Sajid Javid鈥檚 revealed plans in November to create a single ombudsman for housing in the country.

The not-for-profit organisation said it will have exited the current schemes it operates for surveyors, managing agents, estate agents and letting agents by 6 August 2018.

OS will also work with charities, consumer groups, property professionals and the public on a major report around the creation of a single housing ombudsman for submission to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in the spring.

Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith said: 鈥淲e are ceasing what we鈥檙e currently doing in the housing sector in a professional and planned way, because we believe it is not adding value. Rather than continue to offer a broken solution to a broken market, we are stepping away to listen to what consumers actually want.

鈥淭here are models in other sectors that work far better 鈥 for instance the single ombudsman model in financial services and the scheme we operate in energy which handles around 40,000 complaints every year.鈥

 

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