Flintons expelled from The Property Ombudsman and goes into liquidation

Buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords in East London (E3) are being warned that a local estate and letting agent, Flat Sharing Ltd (trading as Flintons and previously operating as Citiside Properties Ltd), has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman and is now in liquidation. A complaint was made by a tenant to The Property Ombudsman concerning the return of his security deposit, totalling £802.56. The tenant vacated the property on 11 June 2019, and on 24 July 2019 Flintons confirmed the deposit would be returned within 10 days. However, the tenant’s deposit was not returned until 24 October 2019. The Ombudsman did not consider that Flintons had met their obligations under Paragraph 16c of the TPO Code of Practice as the deposit was not returned within 10 days of the Tenancy Agreement ending/the tenant vacating the property. Furthermore, Flintons’ complaint response was not sent to the tenant within 15 working days of receipt of his initial complaint which, as well as not meeting their obligations as a TPO member, the Ombudsman deemed would have likely aggravated the matter further for the tenant. The Ombudsman considered that a goodwill gesture was merited in the circumstances, as the delay in returning the deposit appeared to have caused the tenant significant avoidable aggravation and inconvenience, given the sum of money due was of a significant amount. The Ombudsman approached Flintons with their findings and they in turn confirmed they would offer £250 as a gesture of goodwill to resolve the complaint. The Ombudsman relayed this offer to the tenant with their findings at the early resolution stage and the tenant accepted the offer proposed in full and final settlement. This was promptly forwarded to Flintons. Flintons failed to pay the goodwill gesture as agreed and The Ombudsman referred them to the scheme’s independent Compliance Committee, which ruled that Flintons should be expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme. Flintons is now going through liquidation - the complainant has been advised and papers have been provided to assist in alternative action. Gerry Fitzjohn, Non-Executive Director and Chairman of TPO’s Finance Committee: “As a member of TPO, agents are obliged to comply with awards made by the Ombudsman, which Flintons failed to do. The agent has gone into liquidation but their website still appears active so this is a warning to all consumers in the local area. They do not appear to be advertising properties on any of the main portals. We have been unable to verify whether Flintons is registered for Client Money Protection which is a legal requirement. "We would like to remind consumers to ensure they always use an agent which is a member of a redress scheme (The Property Ombudsman or The Property Redress Scheme) and holds Client Money Protection.” Every sales and lettings agent in England is required to register with a Government-approved redress scheme, which enables consumers to have their complaint reviewed independently in the event of a dispute arising that the consumer is unable to resolve with the agent directly. An agreement between the two Government-approved redress schemes (The Property Ombudsman and The Property Redress Scheme, means Flintons will not be able to register for any form of redress until the award is paid. Redress registration is required for the agents to trade legally.