Gerry Fitzjohn appointed Board Chairman of The Property Ombudsman.

After thirteen successful years with The Property Ombudsman (TPO), twelve years as Board Chairman of TPO, Bill McClintock will be officially standing down on 1st January 2016, and Gerry Fitzjohn, currently Vice Chairman of the Board, has been appointed to take up the position.

Bill, who has over 50 years experience in estate agency, joined TPO as Chief Operating Officer in January 2003. He was appointed Board Chairman in January 2004, where his role was to manage the business of the Company, raise sufficient funds from member agents to administer the scheme, recruit new members and represent the member agents.

Bill McClintock says: “When I joined, there were 769 firms with 4,251 offices registered with TPO. Figures now sit at around 14,400 sales offices and 13,500 lettings offices, so there has been a significant change during my time and the scheme has grown tremendously. One of my main achievements was encouraging the government to enact the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, which required all estate agents to register with an Ombudsman Scheme and to get the TPO Scheme approved by the Office of Fair Trading, both of which were considerable developments within the industry.”

Bill will continue as a Director of The Guild of Professional Estate Agents and Fine & Country, as well as continuing with interests outside work including his role as Church Warden at St John’s, Lockerley, which he has now carried out for 24 years.

Bill continues: “I have really enjoyed my time with TPO and shall miss meeting so many connected to the industry. I hope to have made a difference in some way, but now I’m looking forward to taking some time out. I would like to wish my successor and friend Gerry Fitzjohn every success going forward.”

Gerry Fitzjohn began serving on the TPO Board in 2000 during his impressive career in the estate agency business, starting from a Sales Negotiator for Taylors Estate Agents in Stony Stratford in 1974 to Director of Countrywide Assured PLC and Countrywide PLC where he was National Sales Director until 2010. Part of his role here included being responsible for acquiring estate agents throughout the UK. In 2004, Gerry and his team brought the Countrywide branch total to over 1,100 and increased the number of financial consultants to approximately 750.

Gerry was appointed Vice Chairman of the TPO Board in November 2010 and he also became the Board representative on the TPO Disciplinary and Standards Committee.

Gerry Fitzjohn says: “I’m honoured and thrilled to be appointed Board Chairman of The Property Ombudsman. I look forward to building on Bill McClintock’s achievements and am determined to promote the scheme to the maximum and further improve the image of sales and letting agents throughout the UK as well as the standards in our industry.”

Currently a member of the Board and Group Managing Director of Martin and Co, Michael Stoop has been appointed as the new Non Executive Vice Chairman.

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

You May Also Enjoy

Estate Agent Talk

Commonhold White Paper – Thoughts from the Industry

The sale of new leasehold flats in England and Wales is to be banned under Labour’s plan to end the  ‘feudal’ system. Labour wants to switch to Scotland’s commonhold system There are around 5 million leaseholders in England and Wales. Under commonhold, each flat owner would own the freehold of their home, but also have…
Read More
Breaking News

Greenpeace Ruling Exposes UK Government Policy

In January 2025, Greenpeace brought a collective action against the Dutch state for failing to comply with a 2018 European Court of Justice ruling on nutrient neutrality. An appeal is expected: however, as the UK Government has adopted the same ‘tax builders for pollution others cause’ approach to reducing nutrient pollution, it may find itself…
Read More
Love or Hate Rightmove
Breaking News

Rightmove commentary on mortgage market + weekly tracker

Commenting on the mortgage market, Rightmove’s expert Matt Smith said: “The market has settled after the unexpectedly high inflation figure. Average mortgage rates on many products have trickled downwards, and we’ve even seen the return of some eye-grabbing sub-4% mortgage rates for those with the biggest deposits. It shows that mortgage lenders are still keen to…
Read More
Breaking News

Government plans to ban new leasehold flats

With the Government’s plans to ban new leasehold flats, an expert says the system must be ready to cope. With the news that Government is to outline plans to ban new leasehold flats and adopt commonhold, with draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill to be published later this year, Scott Goldstein, Partner, Payne Hicks Beach,…
Read More
bank of england interest rate
Breaking News

Bank of England Money and Credit Report – January 2025

Overview These monthly statistics on the amount of, and interest rates on, borrowing and deposits by households and businesses are used by the Bank’s policy committees to understand economic trends and developments in the UK banking system. Key points: Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals rose by £0.9 billion, to £4.2 billion in January.…
Read More
Breaking News

Right to Manage: changes to legislation come into effect on Monday

On Monday 3 March further provisions within the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 come into force, including Section 49 which concerns the change of non-residential limit on Right to Manage (RTM) claims. This secondary legislation will mean that residential leaseholders within a mixed-use scheme will qualify for RTM when the commercial element of a…
Read More