To the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary.
For Clarity - Attempt 564.
564) The Civil Service. Neutral? Or A Crumbling Cornerstone Of UK Democracy?
Dear Mr Clark,
In our previous blog we saw the remarkable ease with which the RICS Parliamentary Affairs Team drove home their need to control the lettings market to civil servants, MPs and Ministers.
The RICS were outraged,
"currently there is a clear potential for rogue lettings agents to cash in on the current rental boom due to a combination of consumers' low expectations and a total lack of effective regulation."
Rogue agents? A total lack of effective regulation?
Q. Mr Clark, wasn't it the RICS' very own total lack of effective regulation which led Consumer Focus to warn government about RICS' rogue Members and rogue (Un)Regulated Firms developing practices which did not work in their client's interests?
Peter Bolton King, RICS Global Residential Director, carried on driving home to civil servants, MPs and Ministers his no-nonsense message for change,
"...there are too many corrupt agents that do not belong to any professional body who are taking advantage of the current gap in regulation, putting consumers at risk,"
whilst conveniently overlooking the corrupt Members and corrupt (Un)Regulated Firms belonging to his professional body who gleefully take advantage of RICS' corrupt and scandalous failure to adequately regulate them thereby saddling their clients with massive bills to put right their incompetence.
That's some title to have on your business card.
It's, "Global Campaigning Director Of The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign" from now on. Only we can't afford business cards.
The RICS Global Residential Director wasn't finished,
"...choosing the wrong agent can result in tenants encountering all sorts of problems such as lost deposits, broken agreements and excessive charges. What we would like to see is the government taking direct action on this and introducing a single regulatory and redress system for both sales and lettings agents to make sure they are fully accountable."
(www.arla.co.uk./news/november-2012/rics-issue-press-release-on-regulation-of-lettings-agents)
What the Ombudsmans61percent Campaign would like to see is the government taking direct action and ordering a public inquiry into how it came to be that an entire market in surveying developed practices that did not work in their client's interests, why the RICS fail to adequately regulate their Members, how it is that their appointed ombudsman arrives at decisions in an illogical manner, and why their appointed company's executives maladminister consumers' complaints.
Q. Mr Clark, why have the neutral civil servants who monitor this government approved redress scheme permitted taxpayers to take their complaints to an ombudsman who arrives at decisions in an illogical manner and to executives who maladminister those self-same complaints?
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert - The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment