A letting agent in St. Leonards-On-Sea has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman

Tenants and landlords in St. Leonards-On-Sea are being warned that a local letting agent, Foremost Lettings Ltd (trading as Foremost Lettings), has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman and is no longer trading. A Facebook post from December 2019 states that the company has been bought out by The Property Café, which do not appear to hold any common directors with Foremost Lettings. The Property Ombudsman received a complaint from a tenant who complained that Foremost Lettings did not provide sufficient information regarding the requirements for Guarantors, and so was not able to provide a suitable person to fulfil this role and the proposed let did not go ahead. The complainant wished to receive a full refund for the pre-tenancy payments made. The Ombudsman supported this complaint to the extent that no referencing of a guarantor had been carried out and the agent's proposal to refund the guarantor fee of £90 was reasonable in the circumstances. Foremost Lettings retained the rest of the pre-tenancy payment as they had carried out work in preparation for the tenancy. A complaint was also raised about complaints handling, which the Ombudsman supported as there was no evidence that the tenant was provided with a copy of the agent's internal complaints procedure when they had first raised their complaint. An award of £50 was made for the shortcoming making the total award owed to the tenant by the agent £140. Foremost Lettings Ltd failed to pay the award and The Ombudsman referred them to the scheme’s independent Compliance Committee, which ruled that they should be expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme. Foremost Lettings Ltd is no longer trading, their website is no longer active, and they do not appear to be members of any professional bodies or be actively advertising properties on any of the main portals. As part of TPO’s process, notification of all expulsions are shared with any relevant bodies, including both Local and National Trading Standards 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 Foremost Lettings Ltd failed to do. It appears that this agent is no longer trading, which is frustrating for the tenant who is owed outstanding monies. 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.