February 2008

OEA: please get your facts right, David!

Sir,

DEAR old David Perkins is at it again — another little rant about the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme (Dec/Jan issue).

Not long ago he likened us to the Gestapo. How yesterday! Now he tells estate agents they don’t need to belong to the OEA any more as they can get their bare minimum Home Information Pack requirements from the Independent Disputes Resolution Service. Still yesterday, I’m afraid.

David may not be keen to know that of the 12,000-plus estate agency branches covered by the OEA Scheme, only a few hundred signed up to the bare minimum HIPs cover. The rest of the industry has moved on, so 11,000 branches have full OEA membership.

I don’t want to make David too restless, but they are even signed up to our Code of Practice, an industry-leading document that reassures consumers they can expect the best possible service. And can I also tell him that everyone was invited to comment about the IDRS application published on the DTI (now BERR) website, just as they were invited to comment about the OEA.

As I understand it from the document David promotes, IDRS is an arbitration scheme, so it can’t be an ombudsman either. David’s document makes it clear there is no code of practice with PACS, which is detrimental to consumer protection, and he makes a point about IDRS handling complaints for the OEA. It does not. As usual, he is ill-informed on this point and then misinforms everyone else as a result.

In the meantime, the rest of us have moved on. David is out of step. The arbitration he promotes is confrontational and yesterday’s solution being promoted by yesterday’s man. In future, he should check his facts before he goes into print and have the decency to tell everyone who has downloaded his misinformed document that he has made some huge mistakes.

MAURICE HARDY,
Press Officer, Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme.