Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 138
Currently, letting agents are required to belong to one of two government-approved ombudsman schemes, the...
Recommendation
Currently, letting agents are required to belong to one of two government-approved ombudsman schemes, the Property Redress Scheme or the Property Ombudsman, but membership for landlords is voluntary. The White Paper proposes the introduction of an ombudsman for all private landlords, regardless of whether they use an agent. The Government says a single scheme will mean a streamlined service for tenants and landlords and avoid the confusion and perverse incentives resulting from multiple schemes. On this basis, we do not understand why the Government is not proposing to replace the existing letting agent schemes with a single ombudsman covering all letting agents and landlords. A single ombudsman for the entire sector is the best way of avoiding the confusion the Government says it wants to avoid. We recommend that the Government introduce a single ombudsman for the whole of the private rented sector and that mediation be firmly embedded within its remit.
Government Response Summary
The government recognises the value of consolidating the housing redress system, but will address it through the Landlord Ombudsman service and does not think it is necessary to bring different elements of housing redress under a single legal framework.
Paragraph Reference:
138
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The government recognises the value of consolidating the housing redress system and delivering simpler services for tenants. Our primary focus in the Renters (Reform) Bill is to address the gap in housing redress in relation to private rented sector tenant complaints. The Bill provides flexibility for an existing or new redress provider to deliver the new private rented sector Landlord Ombudsman service (‘the Ombudsman’). An existing provider may run multiple redress schemes as a single streamlined service. With this flexibility, the government does not think it is necessary to bring different elements of housing redress under a single legal framework. Doing so for letting agents would require major reform of the agent redress landscape which would be legally and practically challenging to achieve. This is because the two existing agent redress schemes are approved for all property agents. If private letting agents were carved out from these schemes, the schemes would