KEY WORDS: scrutiny, professional regulation, efficient, effective, honest, transparency and accountability.
Dear Reader,
We saw in the previous blog that in seeking to avoid any meaningful "scrutiny" of their woeful performance in resolving property disputes and the pitiful "financial awards" they grudgingly doled out to bewildered complainants the Chair, Dame Janet Finch and her team of executives led by Lewis Shand Smith; replaced DJS Research, changed the way Customer Satisfaction Reports were conducted, removed the company's minutes from its website, didn't report on the property sector for two years, introduced MAS (Mutually Accepted Settlements) and further dramatically reduced the level of so-called financial awards.
The government "monitors" of this government approved scheme found nothing wrong with any of the above.
This is not our reading of what EU Directive 2013/11/EU had intended from ombudsman schemes. At:,
"17....Such internal complaint handling procedures can constitute an
effective means for resolving consumer disputes at an early stage."
They can but in the case of Ombudsman Services:Property they don't. Why? Because one only has to look at the sharp rise in the number of cases being referred by RICS surveyors to their "appointed" ombudsman. An ombudsman whose salary was paid for by her fee-paying members.
We suggested to the Chair, the CEO and Chief Ombudsman and Independent Assessor that this was an obvious conflict of interest especially as RICS had a MoU with their "appointed" firm, had their Director of Professional Regulation and Consumer Protection sitting on the Board and monitored it for what it determined to be the, "effective resolution of disputes."
We didn't get a reply.
There is absolutely no incentive for RICS surveyors to resolve disputes with clients at "an early stage." Especially when they knew that their appointed ombudsman had developed the habit of, "arriving at decisions in an illogical manner." (DJS Research)
This is clearly, "efficient" and "effective" for RICS's fee-paying members - but totally unjust for their clients.
The company's minutes for 15th December 2009 state at 5.8:
"The Chief Executive noted that there had been some concern over the
"The Chief Executive noted that there had been some concern over the
apparent increases in the levels of recent awards."
The OS:Property ombudsman acted accordingly. The following year she reduced the level of award dramatically. Thereby suggesting that the purported "independence" of The RICS appointed and RICS monitored property ombudsman was a myth.
She could have followed the independent recommendations of DJS Research and raised the levels of award but chose not to. DJS Research were duly replaced.
Unfortunately, you can no longer examine the data on how, "efficiently" and "effectively" Ombudsman Services:Property handled (or more accurately - mishandled) property complaints because it is no longer there. So the consumer can no longer judge for themselves whether Lewis Shand Smith's, "Superb model of ADR" was all it was cracked up to be.
And of course it wasn't. We once knew that because the then Chair, Dame Janet Finch said as much in her Foreword to the Annual Report of 2011. She wondered:
"But are we delivering the excellent service to which we aspire? Asserting
our commitment to to excellence is not the same as delivering this in
practice. This year the Board has supported the CO, Lewis Shand Smith
in taking a close and honest look at what we are actually achieving. We
are doing pretty well but we were not completely satisfied."
It seems the only people with 2020 vision were DJS Research and as a reward for their insightful research their services were dispensed with.
By 2016 the consumer no longer knew what the levels and range of financial awards were because they were no longer reported. And they no longer knew how many complainants were "dissatisfied" with the judgement they'd received at the hands of The RICS "appointed" ombudsman.
NEXT TIME: Reform and New Roles.
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is seeking:
1. Answers from Lewis Shand Smith, former CEO and Chief Ombudsman/Chair of the Ombudsman Association, Dame Janet Finch former Chair of Ombudsman Services, Jonathan May former Director of the OFT, Steven Gould RICS Director of Professional Regulation/Consumer Protection and OS Board Member, Vince Cable, Jo Swinson, Grant Shapps, Dame Julie Mellor former Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, Yvonne Fovargue Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Consumer Protection, Dame Helena Kennedy former Chair of the EU Justice Sub-Committee, Luke pollard MP Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.
2. A public inquiry into Ombudsman Services:Property and the role played by The RICS in determining the "effective resolution of complaints.
3. Compensation for the victims of the executive's maladministration and the Property Ombudsman's illogical Final Decisions.
4. The setting up of a state-run, fair, independent, transparent and accountable system of ADR.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Gilbert - The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign.
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