HIPs rules bring massive rise in consumer protection

Consumer protection for people buying and selling residential property in England and Wales receives a massive boost today.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has approved the Ombudsman for Estate Agents’ application to run a redress scheme under the Housing Act 2004 in respect of Home Information Packs (HIPs).

From 1 June, all estate agents in England and Wales will be required to join the OEA scheme covering complaints about their conduct with regard to Home Information Packs and offering complainants redress, including the possibility of compensation of up to £25,000. should anestate agent be deemed to have breached relevant rules.

With 17 years’ experience in handling residential property disputes, the OEA already has around 70 per cent of estate agents in England and Wales, the countries covered by the HIPs Regulations, as members of its voluntary jurisdiction.

Under the Order under the Housing Act laid today, every estate agent in England and Wales will be required to join, with the OEA expectingthat many will go on to apply for full membership rather than just complying with the minimum legal requirement.

“We spent some considerable effort in building our application to become an approved scheme under the Housing Act. It is a natural development of what we have been doing anyway but we had to prove to the Secretary of State that we had the right structure, skills and ability to control the work. We have been providing redress to consumers of estate agency services for 17 years,” said Mr. Christopher Hamer, who became Ombudsman in December last year.

The OEA will now begin work with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Office of Fair Trading and other consumer bodies on a campaign to promote awareness of the scheme and will start to register those firms who need to join the HIPs redress scheme.

“The OEA has proved to the DTI and the OFT that it is able to play a major role in Government-backed consumer redress arrangements. In terms of Alternative Dispute Resolution, it is important to focus one industry’s contribution to consumer protection and redress in one area. There is greater consistency for consumers and greater alignment in the standards that the industry has to work to,” added Mr. Hamer.

“All agents in England and Wales will have to work to high professional standards when it comes to HIPs. If they go beyond this to join my scheme as full members they will then adopt the OFT-approved Code of Practice and be able to display to buyers and sellers that such standards cover their full range of business.”

Bill McClintock, chairman of OEA Ltd., which manages the Ombudsman scheme, anticipates that estate agents who are already members of the OEA will incur no extra costs in OEA membership through the HIPs requirements.

“Other agents will be required to pay an annual fee slightly below full OEA membership as the Ombudsman will only be governing their firms’ performance with regard to the HIPs scheme,” he added.

“But I would urge them to pay the little extra that is required to become full OEA members, thereby assuring consumers that they can expect best practice and compliance with the OEA Code of Practice in all areas of their operations.

“We will now conduct a marketing campaign to ensure that those who need to know about HIPs redress - whether buyers, sellers or estate agency firms - are well aware of what is available.”

End

Note to editors: Earlier this week it was announced that consumer champion and former Director General of Fair Trading Gordon Borrie, now Lord Borrie, takes over today as chairman of the independent council that oversees the operation of the OEA.

Borrie and Best Strengthen OEA Team

One of the best known names in consumer protection has teamed up with a leading authority on social provision in the UK to strengthen the body running the Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme.

Lord Borrie, who rose to fame as Gordon Borrie, director general of fair trading under successive Labour and Conservative governments and has since served as chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority, has agreed to become chairman of the council that oversees the OEA and guides its direction.

At the same time, Lord Richard Best, who has just retired as director of both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK, has agreed to join the OEA council and work alongside Lord Borrie.

Lord Borrie succeeds Baroness Gillian Shephard as chairman. Baroness Shephard, who has been appointed chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers, held four Cabinet posts in the Conservative government during the 1990s and was elevated to a peerage in 2005 after a career as an MP spanning almost 20 years.

“With proposed changes in legislation regarding residential estate agents, starting with the introduction of Home Information Packs on June 1, there has never been more focus on the relationship between estate agents and the public,” said Baroness Shephard.

“Handing over the chairmanship of the OEA council to Lord Borrie at this critical time, and knowing that Lord Best is working alongside him, will reinforce public confidence in the OEA scheme.

“More than 60 per cent of all estate agency branches in the UK are now embraced by the OEA scheme, giving consumers the protection of its unique and Government-approved Code of Practice.

“These are exciting times for the OEA. We recently appointed a new Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, who has a wealth of knowledge of ombudsman schemes as well as experience in the world of commerce, and now he has two of the most eminent people in the consumer and housing fields to support him.

“This is the best possible news for consumers and the estate agency industry. With an OEA member on virtually every High Street there is no reason for consumers to accept second rate service from the residential property industry any longer.”

Lord Borrie and Lord Best take up their appointments with effect from March 1, 2007.

End

Notes for Editors:

The Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme offers a free, independent, and impartial service to members of the public who are dissatisfied with the service provided by an estate agent who is a member of the scheme during the buying, selling, or letting of a residential property. The Ombudsman can recommend member agents pay compensation of up to £25,000 in any one case.

Any decision made by the Ombudsman is binding on member agents but not on complainants, who are free to reject the Ombudsman’s decision and pursue the matter in the courts if they wish.

Lord Borrie practised at the Bar before becoming a law lecturer. He was a law professor at Birmingham University and became a QC in 1986. He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.

As Director General of Fair Trading, he was in charge of the Office of Fair Trading from 1976 to 1992. He chaired the Labour Party's Commission on Social Justice from 1992 to 1994 and was created a Life Peer in 1995.

Lord Borrie has served on the Council of the Consumers' Association (now known as Which?) and has written on consumer law. He was also President of the Institute of Trading Standards from 1992 to 1996 and was Chairman of the Direct Marketing Authority from 1997 to 2000. He became the Advertising Standards Authority's Chairman in January, 2001.

Lord Best was Director of both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust from 1988 to 2006. He is President of the Local Government Association and was a member of the Minister of Local Government's Sounding Board from 2002-2005. He was a member of the Housing Minister's Sounding Board from 1999-2001.

He is Chairman of the Westminster Housing Commission, was a member of the Commission on the Future of Birmingham's Council Housing (2002) and chaired the Hull Partnership Liaison Board (2002-2004). He is also Chair of the Giving Forum and President of the Continuing Care Conference.

Among his previous posts have been: Commissioner, Rural Development Commission (1989-1998); Chair, Inquiry into Social Inclusion in Glasgow (1998-2000); Secretary, Duke of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into British Housing (1984-1991). Between 1973 and 1988 he was Director of the National Federation of Housing Associations. On 21 September, 2006, he was appointed Chair of Hanover Housing Association.

He was created a Life Peer in 2001.

Foxtons joins Ombudsman for Estate Agents

Work by the new Ombudsman for Estate Agents, Christopher Hamer, to enrol non-member agencies into the scheme has had a high profile success after just two months with the news that leading London agency Foxtons has signed up.

When he took up his post on December 4, Mr. Hamer said one of his aims was to talk to non-member agencies in a bid to enlist the last third of agents who were not in the voluntary scheme, which operates under a recently-strengthened Government-endorsed Code of Practice.

And Foxtons founder Jon Hunt endorsed Hamer and the new look OEA, which now covers both sales and lettings, saying that the OEA provided the most appropriate redress scheme for the residential property industry.

“With Foxtons enjoying a substantial share of the London area residential property market, it made sense to get the company enrolled as a priority,” said Mr. Hamer.

“Foxtons is very active in both sales and lettings and since the OEA broadened its scope last summer to take lettings under its umbrella Foxtons became an even more logical target for membership.”

Foxtons’ founder and chief executive, Jon Hunt, said: “By joining the Ombudsman scheme we will be able to build upon our own complaints procedure, which has always been robust, consistent and fair.

“We were particularly impressed by the way in which the new Code of Practice introduced by the OEA provides a more comprehensive and common sense approach to redress, and the manner in which new Ombudsman Christopher Hamer is seeking to introduce it. “

Mr Hamer continued: “With an increasing number of residential estate agents joining the OEA, there really is no reason any longer for the public to use non-members.

“There are usually several members on every High Street and working under our Code of Practice, which is endorsed by the Office of Fair Trading, ensures agents operate to the highest professional standards.”

Mr Hunt added: “It is our clients and customers – vendors, buyers, letters and tenants – who will benefit from the additional security that recourse to independent redress offers.

“The time has now come for every estate agent not part of the scheme to have a fresh look at the new Code and join up to the OEA.

“We believe that redress should be applied consistently and that the OEA, under new leadership and with a more complete Code of Practice, is the most appropriate organisation to do this.”

Notes for Editors:

The Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme offers a free, independent, and impartial service to members of the public who are dissatisfied with the service provided by an estate agent who is a member of the scheme during the buying or selling of a residential property. The Ombudsman can recommend member agents pay compensation of up to £25,000 in any one case.

Any decision made by the Ombudsman is binding on member agents but not on complainants, who are free to reject the Ombudsman’s decision and pursue the matter in the courts if they wish.

At the end of 2006, the OEA covered 7,2 83 offices offering residential sales, lettings, or sales and lettings. Official figures estimate the total number of branches in England and Wales at 10,600.

Across the UK as a whole, there are thought to be 12,000 estate agency branches, meaning the OEA covers 60 per cent nationally, or 68 per cent in England and Wales.

For more information, contact James Carron, PR for Foxtons, at Bell Pottinger on 020 7861 3293 or Maurice Hardy, PR for the OEA, on 01264 771661/07831 272220.