ARLA Propertymark Reviews 

This week we had an audit with Darren Kitchenside. The term "audit" throws up all kinds of negative connotations but I found this audit to not only be thorough but also informative. Darren was great at asking the kind of questions which make you think about your processes from a practical point of view. It's easy to look compliant but actually diving into examples of where compliance has been important opened up conversations about situations that we have dealt with in the past and how we dealt with them. Darren followed up very quickly with notes from the audit and he also provided handy documentation to help add to our existing business forms and public facing information. This audit is something that we would consider doing once a year.

We recently had the absolute pleasure of Darren Kitchenside attend our office to conduct a compliance site visit and it turned out to be a truly invaluable, useful and thoroughly enjoyable exercise (which sounds like a total oxymoron, but this is the absolute truth!).

Not only was Darren extremely knowledgeable, thorough and helpful in pointing out areas of (oblivious) oversights and aspects requiring changes/updating, the approach was very friendly and the overall demeanour exceptional! And if there was anything Darren was unsure of, he was super expedient in getting you the answers the very next day (the pre-report was issued the very same evening at c. 8:30pm).

Do not feel daunted in any way by these “audit visits” (esp. if you’re lucky enough to get Darren) as Darren was very reassuring in making the meeting all about ensuring you are up to date with compliance in a constructive manner, in order to protect you and the business.

Compared to previous audit visits , this particular one stood out as the best as it made a real difference in terms of highlighting certain factors that we were oblivious to (some that had been long standing so should have been picked up previously) but with Darren’s expertise and knowledge, we were able to correct any and all shortcomings/omissions.

Thank you Darren for a constructive day and wonderful experience - myself the team really enjoyed your company!

Keep up the good work as you are a true asset to Propertymark!

just had a virtual Audit, with Darren. got to say it was as enjoyable as an audit could be. questions were straight forward and the advice given was both helpful and informative.
thanks Darren hopefully we we wont speak again too soon ;)

Darren Kitchenside, the Compliance Auditor, arrived on Monday morning as scheduled and proceeded to go through all the issues and questions to ensure that we are compliant. We have done an annual audit, originally our accountant reported and then more recently the Health Checks, for many years, but this felt the most useful. Darren was thorough, appreciative of all the efforts we make to remain fully compliant and extremely helpful with advice. The whole process took a couple of hours but gave Darren a thorough knowledge of our compliance and gave us pointers to a couple of areas where we can do even better.

By reference to my experience from the letting agents in Cambridge, who are ARLA registered, and the number of complaints that have been registered against its registrants, I have a very simple question to ask this "alleged" regulator. Is it alive and monitoring the conduct of its registrants and also dealing with its mostly arrogant, ignorant, incompetent, lying registrants, to the total dis-satisfaction of the user of its services??

Poor service complaint took 3 mths of persistent communication through emails from myself for a conclusion which was not satisfactory or fair in my opinion, this was a complaint about an auction house and I myself am a landlord of numerous properties but I certainly would not contemplate using this organisation as my experience does not inspire any confidence at all.

On the Property Mark website it says, “Our members operate to professional standards far higher than the law demands and we campaign for greater regulation in this growing and increasingly important sector of the property market. By using an ARLA Propertymark Protected agent, consumers have the peace of mind their agent will provide a professional service and their money is safeguarded by Propertymark’s Client Money Protection scheme”.

I was the victim of an aggravated fraud by one of their members. I sent them the details and evidence. I got a two line email back saying they don’t get involved in legal issues. They clearly aren’t providing consumers with any protection. To claim their members operate to standards far higher than the law demands is incredibly dishonest. They aren't even bothered about one of their members going around one of the UK’s most deprived communities committing aggravated frauds. It's very shameful.

In the past we have felt government Ombudsman services have provided careful and fair decision when they have been in favour or against us!

I was contemplating use The Property Ombudsman Service until I found that 92% of their reviews on Trust Pilot were "BAD" but see they are not an independent Government body.

Agent A and Agent B are both members of ARLA

Would ARLA be able to provide statistics concerning the number of cases where they have found in favour of the customer against those where they have found in favour of the member?

Wonder if ARLA might be have some input into our dispute. Here is a copy of the censored information posted in my review of The Property Ombudsman Service but we can send you the full information by email if that would be helpful.
************************************************************************
With so many bad reviews is this a fair and independent service?
The number of "BAD" reviews here discourage me from using The Property Ombudsman service.
Here is a copy of the email concerning our problem but with sensitive information removed.
We hope The Property Ombudsman may be able to assure both ourselves and other Trust Pilot reviewers that these are matters on which they could give a decision and provide here the statistical information I have requested.
*****************************************************************
To:-The Property Ombudsman Ltd, Milford House, 43-45 Milford Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 2BP

We are [name and address deleted] [address of property deleted]

You will see from this forwarded email that there is a dispute between two of your members concerning the loss of a keyset for our property and also actions contributing to the failure to relet the property until January 28th 2020 . Our property was vacated by [agent A's] tenant on 19th June 2019 . The successful letting was arranged by a different agent [agent C] that were given instructions on 30th October after the breakdown in trust with the builder associated with an approved [Agent B] contractor.

1. [Agent B]
2 [Agent A]

It seems to us that [Agent B] are progressing forward to give us a final answer and are discussing goodwill compensation but [Agent A] have not provided a satisfactory response to explain in full issues raised in these various email messages.

We wonder if you may agree [Agent A] need to provide a full and detailed explanation for their failing to relet and/or ensure completion of agreed works between 19th June and 4th September 2019.

We have read the reviews of The Property Ombudsman service on Trust Pilot [initially provided an incorrect link]

There are currently [incorrect total from original link] reviews of which 92% are of the lowest rating BAD.

Do you have statistics concerning the annual figures where you have found in favour of the customer balance against those in which you have found in favour of your member?

This will help us decide if the service is a truly independent one and likely to resolve our case fairly.

In the meantime, and without prejudice to whether or not we make formal complaint to your organisation, we wonder if you could request [Agent A] and [Agent B] to provide their full and final decisions in this matter to be sent to you and ourselves?