Ombudsman Services. The Broken Solution. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Failure To Regulate. (61)

Dear Reader - There is an urgent need for a public inquiry into: The RICS, its inability

    to adequately regulate it Members and (Un)Regulated Firms and the part it

    plays in Ombudsman Services' Broken Solution In A Broken Market. 

To the EU Justice Sub-Committee:

Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-Up (61)

61) Ombudsman Services. The Broken Solution. The Royal Institute Of Chartered Surveyors Failure To Regulate.

Dear Chairman,

The response of The RICS to the Grenfell Atrocity has been to mobilise against further, "prescription." This is an organisation that when given a Royal Charter were expected to advance the public good.

Lewis Shand Smith:

Customers must first complain to the person who supplied the goods. This is an area that is still very embryonic in the UK and throughout the European Union.

Your witness was careful to avoid  all mention of The RICS and its, "appointed" company - Ombudsman Services:Property.  RICS surveyors  - who can't be forced to follow RICS Rules and Regulations - have no incentive whatsoever in resolving their clients' complaints before escalating them to their Property Ombudsman.

Ours, Monk and Partners, kept us waiting 226 days before we entered their so-called, Complaints Handling Procedure. Once in it they refused to come to our home - although they did without our knowledge or consent to photograph it - and then packed us off to their Property Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, who saw nothing wrong with any of this.

According to the Property Ombudsman the explanation for the delay was due to a misunderstanding between Monk and Partners and the contractor.

No amount of complaining as to the absurdity of this explanation could persuade her to change her mind. It was a decision arrived at in illogical manner.

Q. Baroness Kennedy, of the Shaws, isn't there a logical explanation behind this illogical decision - the Property Ombudsman might be putting the interests of her fee-paying Member before that of the complainant?

We see that complaints about valuations and surveys have consistently topped the list of why consumers took - or were forced to take - their complaints to the surveyors' ombudsman.

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why has your witness - and his Board Member who is also The RICS Director of Regulation - failed so spectacularly to force, through some degree of effective prescription, to get RICS Member Firms to settle their disputes with their clients at the Complaints Handling Procedure stage?

The answer would seem to centre on money and Gillian Fleming's decision to reduce the financial awards paid to property complainants - significantly. It seems that the economic downturn impacted far more severely on her fee-paying Members than on their devastated clients. The Double Whammy Ombudsman Services-style.

At the moment, providers only need to signpost to an alternative dispute resolution procedure; they do not have to actually engage with it.

Lewis Shand Smith seems to be completely unaware of the herd-like mentality of his fee-paying RICS Members who are packing their dissatisfied clients off to their scheme - the one run by him - in ever increasing numbers.

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why was this fact over-looked by the CEO and Chief Ombudsman and is it not a key part of the Broken Solution he offers British consumers?

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, Shehan Saldin, Head of Enquiries and Reporting Centre informed us that the CEAR Act of 2007 stated that - "the OFT may withdraw approval of a redress scheme." Did they fail to withdraw that approval when it became Broken because a) their monitors weren't given the information by the Broken Solution b)ere asleep on the job or c) were part of The Full English Cover-Up?

There may perhaps be opportunities in this, and it is an area that needs to be looked at more closely to see whether the repeal Bill will apply to it.

It most certainly needs to be looked at more closely.

At the same time, the Government are looking at whether the effects of the regulations and the directive can be strengthened in the UK.

In, Ombudsman Services Part 3: Attempting To Be More Specific - "The Privy Council's Significant Control of The RICS' Internal Affairs" (347) we wrote to the Business Secretary asking if.... "both in the case of charities and professional bodies, incorporation by Charter should be in the public interest - This last consideration is important, since once incorporated by Royal Charter a body surrenders significant aspects of control of its internal affairs to the Privy Council"  (www.privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/royalcharters) 

why it was that Privy Councillors had permitted The RICS to a) control an entire market that had developed practices that did not work in the customer's interests and b) allow this to continue because of inadequate regulation?

Q. Baroness Kennedy, is this what Lewsi Shand Smith means when he talks of A Broken Solution In A Broken Market?

Q. Baroness Kennedy, we're told that The RICS' incorporation should be in the public interest. Does that not imply that its appointed company Ombudsman Services:Property is also part of that incorporation and should also act in the public interest?

Q. Baroness Kennedy, why has the Privy Council permitted the Ombudsman Services:Property Lead Property Ombudsman to hand the public decisions not arrived at in a logical manner?

Q. Baroness Kennedy, Lewis Shand Smith has told the Committee that Government is looking at whether regulations can be strengthened. Is The RICS and its failure to adequately regulate its Members and (Un)Regulated Firms and its regulation of Ombudsman Services:Property included in this review and if not why not?

That is part of what the Green Paper announced by the Chancellor last October is looking at.

For the good of the British public it's time to be prescriptive - there needs to be a public inquiry into The RICS, its inability to adequately regulate its Members and (Un)Regulated Firms and the key role it plays in Lewis Shand Smith's Broken Solution In A Broken Market.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.

The Ombudsmans61percent campaign is at: www.blogger.com and www.Facebook.com Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.