In House Complaints Procedure

We are committed to providing a professional service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Where appropriate, we will make reasonable adjustments for consumers who might be disadvantaged in accordance with the TPO Code of Practice. This includes, but is not limited to: Their age, infirmity, disability, lack of knowledge, lack of linguistic or numeracy ability, or do not speak English as a first language.(1)

If you have a complaint, please notify your Portfolio Manager so he can escalate the matter to be dealt with by a Senior Member of Staff. You will then be sent the relevant forms to detail your complaint, to provide an account of events and to supply any evidence that supports your complaint.

In accordance with the TPO, receipt of your complaint (and completed forms) will be acknowledged within 3-working days, and an investigation will be promptly undertaken.

We acknowledge that the TPO states “. A formal written outcome of your investigation must be sent to the Complainant within 15 working days of receipt of the original complaint”. For any complaint we receive that are not in relation to reservation fees being refunded, we will adhere to said time frame.

However, the TPO also states “In exceptional cases, where the timescale needs to be extended beyond this limit, the Complainant should be kept fully informed and an explanation provided”

We deem any complaint that is in relation to reservation fees being refunded as “exceptional cases” due to the significant sums of money involved. It is simply not possible to have gathered all the evidence from both parties, reviewed it all and measured the complainant’s complaint against all the ways in which the Ombudsman would do (to ensure a fair and reasonable decision has been reached), in just 15-working days.

The Ombudsman allows up to 8-weeks for a matter to be resolved, and thus, this is the time frame in which we strive to meet. However, the average time frame (to date) it takes to complete an investigation and to have delivered the Final View Point Letter” to the complainant by is 3-months, 10-days – Given the sums of money involved in such cases, reaching the right decision, must take precedence over the length of time the investigation takes in the best interest of both parties’*.

*92% of complaints received since April 2020 have been successfully resolved, without the need for further escalation by taking this approach.

Should the length of the investigation exceed the 8-week period then clients will be compensated in accordance with the TPO.

If you are still not satisfied with our final viewpoint (or more than 8 weeks has elapsed since the complaint was first made) you can request an independent review from The Property Ombudsman without charge.

The Property Ombudsman
Milford House
43-55 Milford Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP1 2BP
01722 333 306
admin@tpos.co.uk
www.tpos.co.uk