I am having a nightmare with the Ombudsman Service - Property following a complaint against an estate agent which has not been investigated in a fair an unbiased manner. I am desperately trying to establish what my rights are with a view to taking matters further following the investigating officer's final decision. I came across an old thread in this forum (linked below) and was hoping to be able to contact some of the members who had posted in this thread. I am particularly interested in the comments in post 29. Any help or guidance will be appreciated!
(As a new member I am unable to post a link to the old thread) It was titled Complaint about Ombudsman Services Property and was started in 2012)
Default Re: Complaint against Ombudsman Services Property
Quote Originally Posted by Alirus View Post
We're going through a similar nightmare with the Ombudsmanicon Services Property and would love to know how you managed to get the lead ombudsman involved as there is no way we will get anywhere if the case is reviewed by the same officer who is clearly biased in favour of the firm.
It's very difficult - at the moment, it's a three stage process. Each time they issue a provisional decision, you can accept or reject. If you accept, it becomes the Final Decision. If you reject you have to provide new evidence or show that they made some kind of error in the decision making process. If this works, your complaint gets bumped up a level. You start with an Investigation Officier, then it goes to Investigtion Manager, then up to Ombudsman him/herself. If you get as far as the Ombudsman, when they write, it's the Final Decision regardless. You accept or reject. If you accept, it becomes binding on both parties. If you reject, you get nothing but you can pursue other methods of complaint (court proceedings etc).
I can't find anywhere on their website where this process is detailed and it's not made clear from the outset that this it works, so I can't refer you to anything 'official' to show this is how it works, but that's our experience. Our case was reviewed by the Ombudsman in the end, but it took a very very long time. You just have to stick with it and keep writing the letters. Brace yourself for a long battle.
In the meantime, please contact Steve G (ombudsmans61percent) who has already posted on this thread - he's trying to get everyone to work together to highlight the practices of this terrible unfair process.