The Property Ombudsman Reviews 393

I was advised by a District Judge that I have a worthy court case about damp, disrepair, unfair contracts, being mislead about property conditions etc. I was asked if I wanted to take it forward (the cost would be thousands of pounds, which at the time I was not in a financial position to provide). I opted for TPO services believing they could help. To be clear, TPO's default settings are to throw out your case immediately, unless you can contest it has worth. Adjudicators treat Complainants as bringing problems. Summarising the process, I have major concerns with TPO's service and do not find it fit for purpose. The evidence review process was biased and ineffective as a vehicle of justice. As these reviews (collectively) confirm, it's an Ombudsman that rarely looks after tenant/consumer interests. They like to describe themselves as impartial, in practice they are nowhere close to being. Their decisions fail tenants - enabling Letting Agents continuing scope to offer poor services, unfair terms and dodgy practices. They don't hold agents accountable. Many initial decisions have been made without looking at Tenant evidence. This consumer went on to appeal and waited further time. The responses I got were so ridiculously weighted towards estate agent narrative (which is non-sensical with evidence to the contrary). I felt there was little effort to understand my concerns (most of which weren't itemised in reviews). This leaves no doubt where TPO's main concerns lie - with those who pay them. TPO do not follow their own platitudes detailed online. They make people wait extraordinary amounts of time just to be assigned. Then adjudicators make decisions as quickly as possible and ask for Complainant's to agree in a narrow timeframe. Corners are cut - e.g. cherry-picking what they want to respond to (if you have a large evidence file, expect them to pick one/two areas out of it and ignore the rest), major areas where there is a call for justice are not responded to, your evidence can be clear, but watch everything become reduced. There have been points where I have felt thoroughly gaslit. After being at Senior Adjudication level, the vast majority of my complaints raised with Letting Agent in-house remain unanswered/uninvestigated. The first adjudicator made it clear that TPO's (condescending) stance is that you have little right to complain if you have had a response to in-house complaints (I think the idea is that you should blindly accept, even if you are living in building about to be condemned by env. health; whilst the Letting Agent is still playing games). There are additional, limiting factors that are introduced mid-process that are not made transparent from the outset- these made legitimate concerns appear irrelevant. I feel that the company should be honest with Tenants upfront about limiting the scope of complaints, what they can/can't do (so that people can make an informed decision whether to apply for/wait for service or take directly to legal/other bodies). The main intent in my case was to defend the initial review; and to only look at the evidence that could confirm that. It's a miscarriage of service.

To repeat, the ethical message behind decisions made gives Letting Agents full scope to deliver poor quality, illegal or unfair services. TPO bias actively enables that. TPO frequently stated the limitations in their authority to affect change

How many more generic responses are TPO going to send to Consumers before they start being honest with themselves about systemic issues?

I had a problem complete the on-line form,
several members of staff, assisted in guiding me in the right direction.

I have ongoing issues with a lettings agent and have now escalated my complaint to The Property Ombudsman. My case has only recently been accepted, so I appreciate there may still be a long way to go before a final decision.

However, I wanted to leave a review based on my experience with the TPO team so far. Every person I’ve spoken with, most recently Louise G, has been patient, professional, and clear in their explanations. They have taken the time to guide me through the process and answer my questions, which has been really reassuring during what is a very stressful situation.

I feel confident that my complaint is being handled properly and fairly.

Complaint accepted. 9 months and countless emails later, zero communication from them. I phoned to ask what is happening, only to be told that they are waiting to assign an adjudicator, and they cant give me the contact of the colleague who is responsible for this case.

I submitted a formal complaint to The Property Ombudsman regarding an estate agent’s handling of my case, expecting a fair and independent review. Unfortunately, my experience has left me deeply disappointed.

Despite raising concerns about the initial decision, my escalation was handled by the same Resolution Officer who made the original determination. This undermined the principle of impartiality and gave the impression that the process was more about defending the initial outcome than genuinely reconsidering the evidence. I specifically requested that a different officer review the case, but this was refused without explanation.

Key points and supporting evidence were not addressed in the final response, and I was advised that there was no further route of escalation within the service. The tone of communication felt dismissive, and the process lacked transparency. While TPO is promoted as a consumer redress scheme, my experience felt weighted in favour of the estate agent, with little accountability or procedural oversight.

I have since raised a formal Service Complaint and will be escalating the matter to relevant regulatory bodies. I expected better from a government-approved scheme tasked with protecting consumer interests. Given that The Property Ombudsman is funded entirely by estate agents and property businesses fee, I believe this raises legitimate concerns about impartiality and whether consumer interests are being prioritised. I will be sharing my experience and this review with my local MP, with the intention of raising the matter in Westminster. A government-approved redress scheme must be held to the highest standards — and where those standards are consistently unmet, its continued approval should be reconsidered.

I had my suspicions about the Ombudsman being biased towards the estate agent, until I read the reviews I am certain they are!
I believe the estate agents have wind of this as well, because when i mentioned i would escalate the matter to the Ombudsman they did not seem to care at all, I felt they knew it would be a waste of time.
The Ombudsman rejected my complaint twice, the first time they suggested to escalate the complaint to the next stage to which i did, the second time they said they couldnt accept my complaint because the agent hasnt given me their "final response" I literally mentioned on my (next stage) complaint that I am requesting a final response because the Ombudsman wanted one, the agent gave me their final viewpoint (final response) but because the agent didnt use the words "this is our final response" the Ombudsman refused to accept my complaint! Anyone with a tiny bit of common sense would know that! It is pretty clear the Ombudsman do not care. Also their online form to submit the complaint does not work! I had to hand write it all, waste of time.

What a waste of time!
All of the reviews on here pretty much sum up TPO.
They don’t even read your complaints I don’t think.
They say they have huge case load and unsurprisingly, as Estate Agents are just so bad. Even worse than back in the day.
This organisation is just like many government agencies these days, where everyone just covers the backsides of each others.
My case was accepted in March and I’ve just got their stupid decision this week -August 25.
I just believe we are living in the Wild West with all of the Ombudsman’s as all the review pages read alike this very one.
I just wish we had laws in this country to protect us, as these so called “governing bodies” just protect the bad guys!
These people here yet again don’t give a damn about the general public suffering.
If I could give 0 I would.

The quicker you no longer exist the better.

Pointless organisation. It’s just an added layer of bureaucracy to disguise the true extent of how vile estate agents can be. No real consequences for agents that are found ”breaching the code of conduct”. My complaint was accepted in May 2023 and concluded in August 2025. That is a much more realistic time frame than the 90days they claim on their website.

7 months to get a reply and then they expect you to make your decision in 7 days!!
Deadline date and time changed a couple of times incredibly till I asked for clarification.
Three different staff, no transparency of process, not able to send evidence .
Emails keep saying do not send any evidence other than that which they have asked for. I have not seen what the estate agent sent in though will ask as he lied to me so I expect him to lie to everyone. So how can that be fair and proper. One eided evidence does not make a fair decision.
Emails not replied to. My deadline came before I had received replies to my email queries.
They record all conversations but folk on the other are NOT permitted to record.
( how sure how they police that one?)
They said they could not make a decion on my case because it was a guaranteed rent contract so why take 7 months to establish that.
If the property ombudsman is really busy at all perhaps it could document on their web pages and screen incoming complaints to see if they can actually provide answers to them.
It does seem a bit of a shambles to be honest. It needs tightening up big time. DO COMPLAIN about the ombudsman process if you have found it to be as bad as this to. Frankly it seems to be biased in favour of estate agents - so landlords and indeed tenants don’t build you hopes up. Go to the courts.

The property ombudsman is a complete waste of time. My case took 15 months. In that time I constantly had go chase them.

After approximately 12 months of nothing happening except acknowledging that I had a good case , they then handed the case to an Adjudicator. She basically ignored most of the evidence and sided with the crooked Estate agent Peter Alan.
At the end of the email the Adjudicator sent me it state that your case will be closed in two days and you can not reply to this email.

Save yourself the time from form filling and either let it go of go to a proper solicitor.
Believe me one star is generous. I had a very simple one sided case.

I can't put down the proper date of my experience as it will only go back one year, and chances are you will be waiting longer than that.

This service really isn't fit for purpose and should be shut down.

The TPO scheme is underpinned by estate agents ,letting agents and managing agents so you really can't expect much as they really seem to protect who they work for.

You only have to Google the the estate agent to see how many times they have done the same thing to load of other people. In fact BBC panarama even recently covered what was happening in one if their programs.
I really wish I could put up just a couple of links on here so people can see that the property ombudsman is also ignoring what is going on and I would say even complicit.

They should should shut down this whole unit and replace it with something else. It seems another toothless regulatory body which is similar to Ofwat with the addition of the fact that it is industry-funded so their impartiality is questionable. You know from the start that they dont want to investigate your case, they will say there is not enough evidence and rather than ask you supplement- they will ask you to resubmit the whole thing- presumably they have some sort of targets and by asking you to resubmit, it works in their favour. Provided a whole bunch of evidence to one 'Mr CT' and what he arranged was a £25 goodwill gesture from the agent. Meanwhile I was thousands of pounds down due to wrong information being told to me by the agent. They didnt even ask the agent to give a written response to my complaint- which is contravention of statutory customer service legislation. I would seriously not waste your time with these people. Either forget about it, or if your case is strong enough, go the legal route.

I wish I'd read these reviews before I went down the route of contacting TPO. Just had a reply - sent 28 pages of indisputable evidence and they have ruled in favour of the estate agent, ignoring every piece of evidence submitted. I have been told as they are now not supporting the claim, they don't need to take into account that the person accused of wrong doing actually carried out the investigation on themself. The TPO have actually REFUSED to let me submit the evidence that the agent illegally deleted and altered entries on a SAR report which formed the key evidence to my case. They have asked for my comments on their "proposed" decision and to let them know if there is any new evidence - perhaps I am missing something here, but if they won't accept the existing evidence and make a ruling when the know the agents investigation and therefore response is not impartial - what is the point? As some reviewers have pointed out, the TPO announced they were about to decide on the case at the start without giving me an opportunity to submit evidence, so in my opinion they had already decided the case before it even started. I think WHICH consumer magazine needs to know about this. Can I advise anyone that has been treated in the same way to raise a complaint with Trading Standards - if enough people file a complaint, the TPO will have to be looked into. It may also be worth contacting Watchdog. Good luck everyone.

Took an age to get any response, finally went to solicitor to take agent to court. The agent had underpaid me rent and had tenants money as well. He refused to do reply to me or my accountant who had checked the figures before i confronted him.I found out I had insurance to take the agent to court, but this didn't cover my tenants, 2 of whom were vulnerable adults with learning difficulties, he owed them £2,500 between them. I sent them all the proof of the previous agent paying into their account but when I finally got a response from the property ombudsman, the name itself is a joke, they told me it was over the time limit for them to do anything, even though I'd sent numerous emails with evidence of their wrongdoing. I'm now looking at other ways I can get my tenants money back. Absolute joke!!

Pitiful organisation - was sold a house in which the previous occupant committed suicide and took my complaint to this bunch of clowns. They arrived at a decision WITHOUT seeking evidence from me - I awaited 7 months for a response, assuming from these reviews they were just clueless, only to discover that they had viewed my case without seeking the evidence that I has and was awaiting to provide

Raised a case with them in 2023, finally got a decision two years later. They rejected my case despite clear and supporting evidence against the agent. Asked them to review the decision and they awarded peanuts. Then the agent didn’t pay the award and the Ombudsman won’t do anything about it when the award is meant to be binding. Their response times are ridiculously slow and they are clearly biased towards agents yet they call themselves independent!!! Don’t bother with these guys - they are a disgrace! I believe they want people to give them bad reviews to deter people from using them and make their life easier. Far from fair and independent from a consumer perspective! I had to raise a complaint due to their poor handling of the matter and still waiting despite them saying they would respond by a certain date.

I’d leave no stars but unfortunately that’s not possible.
An absolute horrible, obstructive and grossly bias organisation. Clearly set up to protect corrupt Property Management companies.
Apathetic to serious concerns both health/otherwise and unsurprisingly they are not gouverned do essentially ‘mark their own home work’ when you complain.
A grim set up in desperate need of scrutiny and reform.
Slow,obstructive, pride themselves on being as unhelpful as possible, ignoring unethical possibly boardering on the wrong side of legal actions of corrupt management companies, shrug their shoulders about serious issues whilst also trying to absolve themselves of any responsibility.

I spoke to Liz today about an issue with my estate agent in the initial enquiries team. Very calm and patience, lots of information and recommended agencies I can contact for help. Really nice to know there is someone there to help tenants in a difficult situation.

After 18 month wait I have been given a report from them with two different outcomes. One with a refund of admin fee the other without. They lost my file and made me go back to the bottom of the list. The second investigation awarded me nothing. The whole thing investigated and written with my name incorrect. When I asked about that they’re not interested. My opinion is that they allow estate agents to rip us off and get away with it. Having read all the other negative reviews I totally agree. It’s worse than incompetent

Ps. Note reply from the property ombudsman. I don’t need help with the outcome as it is completely invalid and a false unreliable outcome. It was investigated and written with the wrong legal name. Poor shoddy service. Don’t bother submitting a notification they don’t care what your name is the investigate blindly !

We had a frustrating wait of about 7 months, but once the case was allocated, our experience was positive. Sarah paid attention to the details of our complaint, answered our questions, and represented our views to the letting agent - all promptly. Although the compensation we received was less than we'd hoped, Sarah took the trouble to explain this (burden of proof regarding the letting agent's apparent negligence in relation to damage from a roof leak) and discuss the different elements of compensation that could be awarded. After going through a traumatic experience with our letting agent, we felt heard and supported by TPO. We would have given 5 stars but for the initial delay.