Ombudsman Investigates 9 cases of complaint against managing agents

Over the last 6 months of reported cases, the Ombudsman Services: Property has investigated 9 cases of complaint against managing agents. In reaching its final decision, the Ombudsman required the managing agent to apologise (in three cases), to pay compensation of between £50-100 (in three cases), to take remedial action (in eight cases) and to take no further action (in one case). The complaints presented included: failure to provide a service charge certificate with the accounts, failure to upkeep the gardens as agreed, failure to send service charge demands to the correct address, failure to respond to queries satisfactorily and failure to install CCTV following a burglary.

All managing agent members of trade body ARMA are required to belong to an Ombudsman scheme such as the Ombudsman Services: Property, but not all managing agents are ARMA members as membership is voluntary. Under ARMA’s internal complaints procedure not all complaints are referred to the Ombudsman for review and ARMA does not publish all the complaints it receives.