Estate agent disputes decline

The Property Ombudsman has found disputes between estate agents and their clients have begun to mirror the property market's downward trend.

Christopher Hamer, the Property Ombudsman, said he has seen a significant fall in the number of disputes involving property sales during the first quarter of 2009, but disputes involving lettings agents have shown a slight rise.

The figures show a decrease of 38 per cent in the number of disputes compared to the last quarter of 2008, with a three per cent rise this quarter in the number of disputes against letting agents. This was down significantly from the 200 per cent rise over the whole of last year as many more lettings agents joined the redress scheme.

"As in 2008, the most prominent reasons for disputes arising from lettings related to the standards of referencing carried out by agents, whether or not inspection visits had taken place and, to a lesser extent, administration of the deposit," reported Mr Hamer.

During the first quarter of 2009, Mr Hamer received 3,157 enquiries from the public regarding estate agents, both for sales and lettings, up from 3,011 in the last quarter of 2008.