Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-Up (60)
60) The EU Directive and Ombudsman Services' Broken Solution.
To the Chairman of the EU Justice Sub-Committee:
Dear Baroness Kennedy,
We would ask you to some time make the time to drive home the need for a public inquiry into: The RICS' catastrophic failing to adequately regulate its Members and (Un)Regulated Firms, the subsequent practices its Members and (Un)Regulated Firms have developed that do not work in their customers' interests and why its monitoring of, "the effective resolution of disputes" at its, "appointed" company - Ombudsman Services:Property - has resulted in a near 90% complainant dissatisfaction rate and what has been described by its CEO and Chief Ombudsman, Mr Shand Smith, as A Broken Solution in yet another Broken Market.
We feel sure a public inquiry will blow open the corruption, criminal incompetence, cronyism and total failure of private civil justice. The Broken Solution in a Broken Market.
The Witness Statement of the 4th July 2017 contained the following exchange:
The Chairman: What about other areas that will affect consumers very directly? I am thinking in particular of online purchasing. There are central distribution places in Europe for consumer items. What is going to happen in that area?
Lewis Shand Smith: That is where we need to look much more closely at the legislation and the directives to see whether they will be affected by the repeal Bill. On the directive and regulations from Europe, the ADR directive requires that wherever there is a contract for the sale of goods and services anywhere in the EU, member states must provide alternative dispute resolution for consumers if something goes wrong.
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign: What Mr Shand Smith hasn't addressed is what happens to consumers when the ADR they turn to has itself, "gone wrong." (Later to become Mr Shand Smith's Broken Solution)
The RICS Director of Regulation, Steven Gould, was also a Board member of Ombudsman Services and his views on regulation and its burden on business are as follows,
"Self regulation properly developed, implemented and effectively policed, provides the best and most effective means of ensuring consumer service and protection, without increasing the regulatory burden in business." (www.property18.com/new-call-for-government-to-regulate-letting-agents)
Between them the CEO and Chief Ombudsman of RICS, "appointed" company Ombudsman Services:Property and The RICS Director of Regulation and OS Board member have failed to:
1) Ensure that RICS Members and (Un)Regulated Firms keep and maintain a proper Case File.
2) Reverse the single most complained about grievance of RICS surveyors' clients - the quality of valuations and surveys.
Instead- under their watch at Ombudsman Services - the average so-called, "financial award" made by the Property Ombudsman to complainants fell from an average of £1.511.75p to £50 and self regulated RICS surveyors continued to pack their bewildered clients off to their Property Ombudsman in ever increasing numbers.
Clearly, the lack of regulation of RICS surveyors has become a burden for their clients - consumers.
Q. Baroness Kennedy, how does any of this meet any of the requirements of the EU Directive? Where is the protection consumers so desperately need?
DJS Research warned,
"Ombudsman Services:Property is different to OS:Energy and OS:Communications in that the financial implications of complaints are often much larger as they relate to expensive purchasing decisions. There remains a key issue with regards to complainants' perceptions of what recompense to expect (ie the scale of financial award they can expect from the complaint and what can actually be delivered) This should be looked at and either perceptions could be managed more tightly from the beginning of the claim, or the scale of the financial reward be increased to be more in line with the financial losses incurred by the complainant as a result of the problem." (DJS Research: Customer Satisfaction Report)
Q. Baroness Kennedy, why didn't the CEO and Chief Ombudsman, Mr Shand Smith, and the RICS Director of Regulation, Steve Gould, heed DJS Research's intervention on behalf of consumers and raise the level of financial awards but chose instead to: a) dispense with DJS Research's services and b) lower financial awards, "significantly?"
The EU Directive insists that those involved with the ADR scheme delivering justice to the consumer be independent from those they are investigating.
Q. Baroness Kennedy, how can having: a Board member who is also RICS Director of Regulation, a MoM between RICS and the appointed Ombudsman as to what are, or are not, the effective resolution of disputes and an Lead Ombudsman who is a RICS member possibly satisfy the EU Directive's insistence on - independence?
Q. Baroness Kennedy, the company's very own Terms of Reference, "preclude" the ombudsman from being a member of the organisation he/she is investigating. Why is the Ombudsman Services:Property Ombudsman a Member of RICS and how does this satisfy the EU Directive's insistence on - independence?
Mr Shand Smith refers to the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act of 2007.
When responding to our complaint about Ombudsman Services:Property, Shehan Saldin (Head of the Enquiries and responding Centre) wrote,
"I should also stress that the Consumers, Estate Agents and redress Act 2007, which is the legal basis for the OFT overseeing estate agent redress schemes, states that - ' the OFT may withdraw approval of a redress scheme.' This gives the OFT a power, rather than a duty, to withdraw the scheme leaving us an option to take other action to remedy problems should we feel this to be appropriate."
The number of dissatisfied consumers went up and their so-called financial redress went down. It was Good For Business.
Q. Baroness Kennedy, why didn't the OFT monitors of this OFT approved scheme withdraw its approval of this Broken Solution and thereby protect consumers?
Q. Baroness Kennedy, why didn't the OFT monitors realise the scheme was in fact Broken?
Consumers need protection government monitors who don't monitor and snake oil salesman with their talk of Broken Solutions. Isn't it time to fix the broken solutions?
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.
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