The Ombudsman Services Independent Assessor - "Information would not advance your cause." (8)

       Dear Reader,

       Thank you for taking the time to read about our campaign for a

       public inquiry into the RICS and its, "appointed"  company Ombudsman

       Services:Property.

    In the hope of advancing the consumer's cause we sent the

    following email to following government Ministers:

    To the Leader of the House of Commons and

To the Business Secretary:

Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-up (7)

8) The Ombudsman Services Independent Assessor - "information would not advance your cause."

If the consumer goes to the Ombudsman Services website, clicks on "For consumers" then clicks on, "Complaints data" then drops down to, "Annual reports" and then clicks on, "annual report" they will read that, "In accordance with the Ombudsman Association's requirements to be open, transparent and accountable, the annual report has details about our performance, accounts and the complaints we have handled."

Only there is no annual report.

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, does this not confirm what we have been saying since 2010 that Ombudsman Services is not open, transparent or accountable and the details about its performance since the departure of DJS Research Ltd, have been virtually non-existent?

On the 17th August 2010 Roger Brown of Ombudsman Services wrote,

"In your email you say we have failed to inform you of the contact details for the lay members of our Council. It is not that we have refused rather that the provision of this information would not advance your cause any, as they, like me have no role to play in Ombudsman decisions."

Just as the Property Ombudsman hadn't, "refused" to answer our questions so Mr Brown didn't, "refuse" to provide us with the contact details we had requested. Either way - we didn't get any answers to our questions or the contact details of the Council members.

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, is this not a cover-up and if it isn't just exactly where is the transparency and accountability required of Ombudsman Services by the Ombudsman Association?

We contacted the Council of Ombudsman Services anyway

We didn't get a reply from them either yet in the their publication: Resolving complaints fairly is clearly states their job is to, "agree the appointment of the Ombudsman, keep the service independent review our performance and recommend any changes that might be made to the way we work."

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, when any criticism of the way the Ombudsman works was being kept from the Council how could the Council possibly do its job?

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, was this not a cover-up?

A member of the Council sat on the Member Board of Ombudsman Services.

The consumer is told that;

"Jane is a fellow of the RICS" and "Steven Gould is Director of Professional Regulation and Consumer Protection for the RICS."

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, how does having two RICS officials sitting on the Member Board possible satisfy the Ombudsman Association's requirement that this scheme's Ombudsman be - independent?

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, how can an Ombudsman who is having their performance monitored by two RICS officials possibly be independent?

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, is this what MoneySavingExperts mean when they say that ombudsmen schemes are, "farcical?"

The company's Member Board Minutes of the 9th meeting of the Member Board of the Surveying Ombudsman Service (now rebranded as Ombudsman Services:Property) show that on the 24th July 2008 they took place at RICS Offices 12 Great George Street, Westminster.

Q. Mrs Leadsom and Mr Clark, The RICS who can't force their Members or (Un)Regulated Firms to follow their Rules and Regulations and who have, as a consequence, developed practices that do not work in their customer's interests, have, "appointed" Ombudsman Services:Property to appoint an Ombudsman who arrives at decisions in an illogical manner, which apparently meets all of the Ombudsman Association's requirements and whose, "performance" is mulled over at RICS headquarters - all goes to set a worldwide gold standard in regulatory excellence and integrity. Can this possibly be true?

This is the state of pre-Brexit private ADR a landscape where information doesn't advance the consumer's cause. If it's farcical now one dreads to think what it'll be once we've escaped Brussels's regulatory red-tape.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458

The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com and www.facebook.com Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent