More and more people are reporting property disputes, according to the Ombudsman Christopher Hamer, who said this morning that the number of people calling up with complaints about estate agents had soared 79% in the past quarter.
This is indicative of both more awareness about the redress scheme's existence (after all it has only been compulsory since October last year) and of the market picking up.
Complaints about sales have shown some increase on last quarter but are still down by a third on last year - presumably because there are less sales going on.
Although it seems a little odd to celebrate more complaints in the market (and note that lettings agents are still not regulated in the same way), there can be no more important marker of the sector than its ability to regulate itself and deal with rogue elements.
