The Property Redress Reviews 

Although the PRS allow themselves up to 10 days to respond to any enquiry, they only allow 4 days for a complainant to submit the required evidence, otherwise they dismiss the enquiry/complaint. I found this a unfair, as this is usually a new process for most customers to understand.

PRS have been dealing with my complaints towards a letting agent I employed. I have submitted 3 complaints. The agent has not complied so one of e complaints is due to non compliance. Surly if the ruling allows non compliance, what is its value. What is the point of PRS ? What, if any, power do they really have

No matter what proof you gave them, they are here to support their members—Letting agent. This company refused to take any action against one of their members who has cheated us and robed £15000. They are shambles in the name of redresses.

Complaint Reference: PRSC109940

Dreadful experience.
This Property Redress Scheme has been invented to just waste people’s time. Of course it is the Union of the agents that I am complaining about. Why would the government appoint the agents union to investigate complaints against one of their members. This entity has completely refused to investigate my complaint where one of its members has just robbed us of over £17,000.00

I should have read these reviews first before bothering with this farce. I would have saved a lot of wasted time. My property has now suffered tens of thousands of pounds worth of loss caused by the Tenancy Application Fraud that was carried out by Jordan Fishwick Lettings to assist the rouge tenant with getting my property. Property Redress Scheme provided a defense for the letting agents and not a balanced decision since a balanced decision would not be in keeping with the funds they get. Despite the fact that I provided evidence that the agents Jordan Fishwick had created a landlord that did not exist including retrospectively changing the terms of its agreement (A fraudulent offence} the PRS defended this illegal and unethical practices by saying the agreement was not signed. So, there you have it. corruption and unethical practices abound. I reported the fact that the agents also accepted a NHS survey letter as a proof of address, which the agents justified as being because the applicant didn't have anything else. I also reported that the agents used the same NI and payroll number for the tenant as they did for the financial referee and the PRS found zero wrongdoing. All of these things were carried out by the agents without my knowledge or my consent. Charlotte of the PRS also cleverly hoodwinked me into believing i had a choice to go through the early resolution process and that my case would be decided by an independent investigator, but she did neither and it was nothing more than a deliberate rouse to get me to the finish line with their predetermined decision which contained plenty of bias after i complained about the first investigator who wrote and told me my claim might get compensation of 50.00 and that was before the PRS had even carried out an investigation. Below is my response letter to Charlotte. And I challenged anyone to claim that anything in this statement is fabricated and untrue.

Dear Charlotte
I have received your response to my complaint against Jordan Fishwick. Unfortunately, I have not been able to discern any balanced or rational evaluation worthy of crediting your response as a decision.

What you provided amounted to no more than a very transparent and candid defense of Jordan Fishwick and its failure to act in compliance with regulatory requirements, not only in the interest of myself as a landlord, but as a matter of the greater public interest at large and this is very concerning.

For this reason, I do not wish to waste any further time with the PRS. Your response also arises against the backdrop of the prejudice and bias that was candidly shown by the PRS right at the beginning of your receipt of my complaint which I highlighted with immediate effect.

As you are aware this backdrop refers to the compensation amount and preliminary bias that was offered without request, also in the absence of the PRS full receipt of all documentation of the complaint necessary to conduct a balanced investigation for the purpose of compensation.

Sadly, your decision reads more like a proposed and highly unsubstantiated defense of the professional negligence, breach of contract and application fraud carried out by Jordan Fishwick. This was also illuminated by your feeble attempt to negate the legal obligations of Jordan Fishwick by submitting a defense that the terms of agreement were not signed.

Given that I was advised that the PRS do not deal with breach of contract I found this defense to be a wholly irrational attempt to negate all obligations owed by Jordan Fishwick to the Landlord as completely devoid of any rational sound judgement on the issue of legality.

I will not waste any further time. The only efficiency I identified was in your ability to blindside yourself from the fraud, non compliance of regulatory procedures and practices, and deceptive practices of Jordan Fishwick that were clearly and succinctly brought to your attention.

1. As evidenced by your letter of 2nd November you have failed as promised, to assign an independent investigator.

2. You also misled me by offering a decision under the guise of a proposal on the issue of whether I wished to skip the initial stage.

Clearly, just as with Jordan Fishwick, the PRS can neither be trusted to do as they say, and this must be highlighted.

Again, all of these practices along with your candid defense of Jordan Fishwick are very concerning for a regulator who is supposed to be protecting the public at large.
For this reason, I have no interest in wasting any further time with your farcical process.

Absolute Sham.
Yet another corrupt ombudsman funded by the industry. They never work.
My case is worth a fortune as a £30,000 item is missing or stolen and Jane Wetherop Ltd can't even find the keys for the property it was stored in. Tenants have caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to two properties, well in excess of the £25k PRS limit.
PRS = £750!!!!!!
PRS refuse to follow the DPA/GDPR. I've had to report that to the ICO.
Conveniently the PRS don't publish any complaints procedure.
HF Resolution Ltd are a set of clowns. Shame on the Department of Housing for awarding contracts to clowns who don't follow basic law.
Their companies house record is out of date!
Close them down.

Delighted with the helpful service from all staff at this Company. I was left severely out of pocket by Stobart & Hurrell Estate Agents when they failed to correctly advertise a property for sale, and did not include the major factor there was a restriction on the property. Having spent on survey and solicitors fees to get to this point, the Estate Agent felt they were in no way at all responsible for this failing, and offered me a "Goodwill Gesture" of approx one fifth of the money I had lost!
I contacted the PRS Scheme immediately, and after submitting all my evidence, they agreed I should be re-imbursed the full amount.
Once Stobart & Hurrell were informed of this decision, they paid in full.
I would have lost over £1,000 but for the service of this Company, for something that was not my fault, and I am very grateful to them for their intervention on my behalf.

We had a shocking service from Winkworth estate agents that put us £1000s out of pocket. The PRS went through a very long and painful process, but their outcomes and rationale was so one-sided to the the estate agent we were staggered. That is when we found out that the PRS is funded by the estate agents! WHAT'S THE POINT OF THIS ORGANISATION?

After reading the other negative reviews, I am somewhat relieved to know that my terrible experience with the PRS is not an isolated incident.

If you read the other reviews, there is a common theme with consumers stating that the PRS DO NOT act in an impartial manner and they are very biased towards their fee-paying members.

I agree and share this sentiment completely as this was demonstrated in my case.

Throughout my complaint, it became quite apparent that the staff members responding to the emails were highly incompetent and lacked the competency required to handle the situation.

Staff members at the PRS seem to have less knowledge on relevant topics, matters, guidelines, and laws than a complainant.

At times I felt they were being deliberately obtuse.

My case assessor made a compensation award based on their own PRS guidelines ( a point I was told on several occasions at the start).

I agreed to the amount however the agent not only told PRS that he did not agree, but also that he was not going to comply with their decision and pay me anything.

The agent was given a deadline to agree or it would be escalated.

The agent did not agree to the deadline.

The case assessor then escalated the matter to the case officer and this is where things became more biased in favor of the agent.

I was told that the Case Officers decision would be in line with the Case Assessors.

The case officer claimed that the amount awarded to me by the case officer was “too high and incorrect “ ( considering that this earlier decision was based on their own guidelines along with the evidence presented).

So the Case Officer amended the amount to a much lower amount and proposals were sent to both parties.

Suddenly the agent was ok with this much lower amount and agreed to it ( after previously rejecting the initial amount)
I then submitted a review request on the grounds of mistakes being made regarding the law and administration.

My request to provide supporting evidence was denied multiple times. Another agent came across my request in the inbox and agreed to my request.

I provided evidence in relation to the law, and legislation and enough evidence that would have made an experienced Barrister proud.
In the end, it did not matter at all or make any difference.

The final overall response I received from the PRS was a very autocratic one. Along the lines of “ we do not believe we have made any mistake. We are powerless to do anything regarding the agent so they can continue to break the laws and cause inconvenience. This is our final decision and you can not request another review. If you don’t accept it or like it within the deadline then go to court”.

• I was given hard deadlines. Yet when the agent failed to respond to the same deadlines, they were given additional time and extensions.
• My initial compensation amount awarded was amended to a much lower amount as there had been some internal “mistake”
• My request to provide supporting evidence was denied several times. Finally accepted and still rejected.
• I provided A LOT of evidence and document but it was clear that they only used what was relevant to show favoritism and being biased towards the agent. An example of this is WhatsApp communications.
• Staff seem to lack to skills and competency to handle cases effectively.
• I was told to resubmit another complaint. Meaning I would have to go through this entire process again and most likely get the same result.
• To many staff members responding to my emails with mixed information or a biased answer toward the agent

I wasted 5 months on this case truly believing they would/can help. This is time I cannot get back.

Fortunately, I have sought legal advice from multiple firms and I have been advised I have a strong case and to pursue this through the courts.

Please Please Please do not make the same mistake as I did. Stay away from the PRS and just go straight to court or a tribunal.

PRS, How can you claim to operate in an impartial manner when you have a duty and responsibility first to your fee-paying members?

More stress and money lost than if I had done nothing. I had collected pages of evidence that were rejected, even though I had sought advice from a lawyer, from Shelter, from the government website, from PRS themselves as to whether my complaint had grounds before going forward. As I was sure of my standing, we went over everything. Every time I reminded them of a solid piece of proof e.g. an unenforcable contract that wasn't even signed by all parties, I would be put on hold only to be told that a nebulous colleague had said no (this happened multiple times). They will twist the interpretation even if you are reading the legal document while talking to them. It's pointless. If you are not a fee-paying agent, I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere such as first tier tribunal or small claims court. To add insult to injury, their long delay in getting back to me in the first place meant I missed the deadline for a 'goodwill' payment from the agent anyway. Their response? Get in touch with them. Ask the person who I'm complaining against if I can please have a tiny bit of the money they have unlawfully taken from me. Humiliating.
They do not accept complaints re: their service or conduct, so you're SOL when they inevitably do everything in their power to avoid paying compensation or even interacting with the agents who pay their bills.

I had a very bitter experience with my estate agency and had a few unpleasant encounters with them in sorting out the matter. I was running out of hope when someone referred me to the Property Redress Scheme.

I thought let me give it a try and to my surprise, I cannot explain how they came to me as saviours in getting my issues sorted within a short period of time and without spending any money. I strongly recommend everyone to utilise their services in sorting out matters with the Estate Agencies if there are any and please avoid to engage in direct confrontations etc and do not ever trespass the legal procedures.

The PRS are there for us and let us spread this word out as not many people are aware about The Property Redress Scheme. This is the best platform to sort out the estate agency and landlord matters. Mr Neil Pumfrey is a very polished professional who dealt with my case fairly and on merit.

I wish all the best to the entire team of PRS for doing such a great work and I pray they continue to deliver this much needed service.

Amazing and straightforward service! Thank you for the help provided (Charlotte, Niel and the whole The PRS Team). I had some issues with the agency (LPS) that took my holding deposit, I didn’t end up getting the property and they were refusing to refund my holding deposit. Thank you PRS for getting my holding deposit back!
All the best!

As a tiny property lettings business (our main business is elsewhere), we note that the annual fee has increased every single year except 1 since we joined in 2017, that the annual subscription period is 1 day short of a year, and that their telephone number is still tagged as GD Accommodation on Google which is presumably what they did before they got in to this. We have paid £654 over these 5 years for no interventions/enquiries/help etc etc. What a waste of money, would have been better shared between tenants and landlords and the problem agents and/or tenants be made to pay directly. The PRS should at least change their model so the annual subscription actually lasts a year. And stop increasing their prices every year - does the cost of their interventions increase yearly??

Excellent service. Reviewed and solved my complaint with in 3 weeks. Special Thanks to Mr Graham Duffy.

I have approached PRS to resolve a complaint about my property managing agent. The service received from PRS was fair and efficient, which produced a satisfactory outcome. I would like to thank the case assessor Graham Duffy for his courtesy, commitment and professionalism.

Complete and utter waste of time. Heavily biased in favour of their fee paying members. They will attempt to put you off by drowning you in legal jargon. They will not directly address genuine complaints. They will avoid paying you compensation at all costs. Their system is inflexible, dictatorial and will not give you an opportunity to discuss your case or question their decision. It’s also very slow, taking some six months of my life to get absolutely nowhere. I don’t want anyone else to go through this, so please take my advice, avoid these people and this organisation and take your issue direct to the small Claims Court.

So far so good. I am in the process of raising an issue against one of their members (withholding holding deposit) and am very happy with the quality of service. I have been working with Graham and have been very happy with the quality of information and advice offered so far.

Case number: PRSC107639
On the strength of the PRS Team, I got my holding deposit refund from the property agent.
Beforehand the property agent has just ignored their mistakes and ignored my complaint emails for two month.
Finally I made a complaint at theprs.co.uk and provided evidences to the PRS Team, the property agent returned my money proactively.
Without the PRS Team, I cannot get back my money, thank you.

PRS acts as a company that is untouchable and omnipotent. I am a modest new Rent 2 Rent agent that at the beginning of the pandemic, I made the mistake of trusting an Oxford Landlord, who out of the blue had 8 empty 5-8 rooms HMO properties. I signed a 5-year contract and, although I would not make much money until the pandemic was over, I could benefit in years 2-5 from the houses while helping him. The deal entitled us to pay per filled room, only in proportion to the agreed guaranteed rent, during the length of the pandemic. And when things would improve, I would pay full rents.
In the first months during the first lockdown, I did refurbish, repaired, maintained, cleaned regularly, gardened, made all safety certificates, paid all the bills, and even HMO license costs in retrospect. And each month I would pay as tenants would start living in. The landlord was very happy at first, accepting those proportions of payments until he realized that the pandemic was going to be much longer than the end of 1st lockdown and that all the refurbishments and maintenance were done. After that, around May or June 2020 he became a different person: Harassing, bullying, threats, coercive manipulation, even I realized he has been faking docs, forging invoices, and falsifying Gas and electrical safety certificates. I did not want the houses anymore due to his pressure, but I wanted at least £8,000 for the money invested in a refurbishment that I would have not done if I knew he was going to turn a landlord from hell and take the houses in the first year. The landlord who is rich and has multiple houses in Oxford and is in his 60's with plenty of experience, pretends to make people believe that it is acceptable for my agency to pay for money into his pocket for empty rooms that were not able to be rented, due to the unprecedented COVID-19. He and his son went to PRS to complain that we owed him £44K for all the empty rooms from the beginning of the pandemic. I even provided evidence from lawyers that helped me through my insurance confirming the landlord was wrong in their claims.
As ridiculous as it sounds, PRS sided with him ignoring all the evidence that showed me as the victim and all the wrongdoings that showed him as a landlord from hell and a criminal. Not only he was in breach of contract for many interferences, after months of psychological torture, moving house as I was afraid of him, and sending pages and pages to PRS proving overwhelming evidence, BUT father and son, on the 14th April 2021, demanded to hand the keys of the 8 houses, in an hour, to a local letting agency Leaders. Surely this was illegal as officially, the pandemic finished on the 18th July 2021, and evictions were banned.
Leaders only stay with this landlord for 3 months, and the story repeats its self: Calling the police after threats, bullying, harassment, extortion, faking of documents, etc. The landlord goes into his houses whenever pleases him, smoking, threatening tenants, and some of them have to call the police. Despite presenting that extra evidence from his criminal offenses, PRS still agrees with the landlord. And the final decision is that I have to pay the maxim of their penalties: £25k to the landlord.
I complained to the Oxford City Council, Oxford MPs, National Trading Standards. PRS, due to the pressure, it is convened an extraordinary APPEAL meeting (PRS does not have a normal procedure for APPEALS as a court would have) neither they consider my evidence again because it is irrelevant to the matter raised in the complaint. When asked what they did to prove the landlord was saying the truth in his claims, I was replied that it was not their job to police his claims. They never invited us to a hearing in person, neither they could discuss openly and transparently the outcome of the 'APPEAL'meeting. But even then they decided they made no mistake and I owed £25 k to the landlord, who received £150,000 from me in rents of occupied rooms, and had nothing to pay since day 1 of the pandemic when he handed the keys to me. The miscarriage of justice is abominable.
As I could not afford to pay the £25k and he would not accept installments, t I am expelled from PRS and out of a trade. Despite PRS and Council receiving calls and emails from the rest of my landlords commending us for our work and wanting us to continue trading.PRS who is supposed to mediate and be fair with both sides and protect agents in particular (It is thanks to our subscriptions that they exist) not only did not care at all, they did not bother to apply normal standards of justice. I question their practices on mediation and justice when they are incapable of showing impartiality and balance. There is a huge loophole in the system for decent agents and easy ground for financial abuse by greedy landlords & PRS discriminatory system.

Similar experience to other reviewers.
The PRS are very keen to close cases and not at all helpful in progressing them to a resolution.
I have resubmitted my complaint to the agent (who had been trading without membership of a redress scheme). The original complaint had been issued to 2 parties as I didn't know who would join the PRS and there were 2 possible candidates. This failing made my complaint invalid according to the PRS. At least my agent is now a member.