We sent the following email to the Leader of the House of Commons,
To the Leader of the House of Commons:
Ombudsman Services - Issue 1: Asking Questions (4)
4. Is This Government A Customer Of Ombudsman Services?
Dear Mrs Leadsom,
The Prime Minister said in the House of Commons yesterday that the Government was a customer of Carillion and not that Carillion was a customer of the Government - which would surely have been a more constitutionally appropriate arrangement.
Theresa May seems to be implying that she and her ministers are just the temporary office staff for the people who really matter and who actually run the country - the RICS, the large corporations and the multi-nationals.
A society regulated by a private sense of justice.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, is the Government also a customer of Ombudsman Services?It would appear that this government has sub-contracted out justice - what it is and how it should be doled out - to private contractors. These private contractors - Ombudsmen - despite ever worsening performance warnings, have continued extracting a profit of sorts for their fee-paying Members in the form of ever diminishing so-called, "financial awards" to their clients - the pre-Brexit consumer.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, why didn't the government monitors of this government contracted-out justice scheme intervene the moment its Ombudsman began slash financial awards to property complainants?
Clearly, the RICS fee-paying Members of this RICS appointed scheme - the company's shareholders - benefit greatly from the current arrangement.
"Financial awards" to ripped-off clients are a burdensome tax on their profits. Far better to dream up a scheme that transfers the cost of failure from the company to the consumer. And so, for the price of a case fee this scheme shifts the burden from the culprit - the RICS Member Firm - to their client and victim, the consumer.
This system insures incompetent RICS surveyors against future failure.
For two years, and in contravention of OFT criteria for the scheme's approval, Ombudsman Services:Property failed to produce a report on its performance in handling property complaints.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, why didn't the government monitors monitoring this scheme intervene to protect the consumer during these two years ?Q. Mrs Leadsom, as there was nothing to actually monitor what were the government monitors monitoring?MoneySavingExperts have used the "F" word to describe ombudsmen - "farcical."
We believe they should have used the, "C" word - "colluding."
The Ombudsman Services:Property Ombudsman's, "financial awards" have plummeted from an average of £1.511.75p in 2010 (which was even then considered far too low by DJS Research) to £50 today.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, in a world in which Carillion executives' bonuses and its shareholders' dividend went up, dissatisfied clients of RICS surveyors' practices that did not work in the customers' interests, went down. Does this not define the reality behind the economics of free market capitalism for the average citizen in England and Wales today - that the taxpayer and consumer will always bail out incompetent companies and their incompetent executives?
The RICS are proud to announce that,"We are one of a number of professions operating under a self-regulation model, which means our members aren't regulated by government but are internally monitored and inspected. Our self-established standards of regulation meet, and in some cases surpass, the Government's own principles of better regulation."
And yet The RICS also say the can't award compensation or force their Members and Regulated Firms to do anything or refrain from doing anything even if that means they are in breach of RICS Rules and Regulations.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, when the RICS can't enforce their own Rules and Regulations and their Property Ombudsman will not report his/her fee-paying RICS surveyors to the RICS Regulatory Board, where is the pre-Brexit protection for the consumer?
RICS also say,"The continued demand for Royal Charters, which may seem an antiquated concept, shows they retain their cachet in the modern professional world as a, "gold standard" of excellence and integrity."
This is the same RICS which can't even persuade its Members and Regulated Firms to keep something as basic as a Case File. By any standards - gold or otherwise - this is extraordinarily inept.
When teachers and nurses are stressed to breaking point and quitting the treadmill of their respective record keeping regimes in droves, surveyors have no such worry. No such paper work for them. No such accountability or transparency.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, when there is no record keeping by RICS surveyors what evidence are The RICS internal monitors and inspectors actually basing their inspections and monitoring on?Q. Mrs Leadsom, why - as is the case with Ofsted - aren't these inspection reports published and why isn't there a league table of RICS surveyors so that consumers could have an informed choice of who to employ?
The RICS is overseen by the Privy Council.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, what are the Privy Council monitoring and inspecting?
As of today The RICS' Ombudsman Services:Property are back to their old ways - there is no Annual Report for the whole of 2017.
They would appear to have come off the Gold Standard for private redress.The RICS have the cachet of their own motto - "Est modus in rebus - there is measure in all things"
All things except the measurement of their surveyors' performance and their ombudsman's performance in resolving consumers' expensive and complex property disputes.
Yours sincerely,Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com and www.facebook.com Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.
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