Two more agents expelled from The Property Ombudsman for 2 years.

Two more agents, A S Moon & Partners, a sales and letting agent based in Northumberland, and CityWest.co.uk Limited, a sales and letting agent based in Hounslow, have been expelled from membership of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) for a minimum of two years. Both had failed to comply with parts of the TPO Codes of Practice, failed to co-operate fully with the Ombudsman’s investigations following complaints and failed to pay awards made.

The decision to expel CityWest from TPO membership arose following a complaint from a potential buyer who paid the agent £2,500 for what he maintained was a deposit, but the agent said was a fee for speaking to mortgage lenders and arranging suitable solicitors. Ultimately the Ombudsman did not accept that the fee had been a deposit.

When the purchase fell through the fee was not refunded. The Ombudsman criticised CityWest’s failure to explain when the fee would be retained or returned. He also considered that the taking of the fee was an unfair business practice, as the buyer was not made aware that this was not standard industry practice. The buyer’s first language was not English and he was purchasing for the first time. Despite the agent claiming that they “charged him accordingly” for their time, the complainant was billed before any work had been carried out.  The Ombudsman also upheld in part a complaint about poor communication. The award he made was a refund of most (but not all) the fee and compensation for aggravation to the complainant, which had been made worse by the agent’s failure to provide documentation to the Ombudsman when it was requested.

The decision to expel A S Moon from voluntary TPO membership arose following a complaint from a landlord of two properties.  On the first, the complainant said the agent returned a deposit to his tenant in full despite there being damage to the property and without checking whether the landlord wished to claim against it. On the second property, the landlord complained about not receiving rent and failure to carry out a check-out inventory, despite the agent providing a managed service to the landlord. The landlord also complained that A S Moon failed to respond to his complaint. The Ombudsman upheld all the complaints to varying degrees and made the award.

Gerry Fitzjohn, Vice Chairman of the TPO Board, commented “The role of the Property Ombudsman is to impartially review complaints made by members of the public against agents based on the evidence that is submitted. The Ombudsman aims to promote a resolution in full and final settlement of a complaint, and will determine appropriate redress where satisfied that the actions of an agent have disadvantaged a complainant.

“In these cases, both agents have failed to co-operate fully and both have failed to pay awards made: In the case of A S Moon & Partners the sum of £750 and in the case of CityWest the sum of £2,800.  I would like to remind agents of their obligation to co-operate with any investigations by TPO, The Ombudsman requires any evidence they can provide and that is their chance to put across their side of the story. While the vast majority of agents do co-operate, the small number who do not do so, put themselves at greater risk of having a complaint upheld, when The Ombudsman has only the consumer’s evidence to consider. Agents must comply with any award and/or direction made by The Ombudsman against them and pay the Complainant the amount of any such award within the required period for payment.   Cases of non-compliance are taken very seriously and are dealt with by the Disciplinary and Standards Committee (DSC) of the TPO Council.”

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

Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove asks government to carefully consider property tax changes

The UK’s largest property platform Rightmove is asking the government to carefully consider the impact of any changes to property taxation to avoid unintended consequences which would risk stalling parts of the market. Key data National property tax Just under a third (30%) of homes for sale in England are priced at over £500,000, and…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Get Fast and Reliable Basement Flood Cleaning Services

Having water in your basement is awful. It could be because of a storm, busted pipe, or bad sump pump. Whatever the reason, water damage in your basement has disastrous effects if not dealt with. Basement Flood Cleaning Services are what you need. They will dry it out, disinfect the floor, and have your basement…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 21/08/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Providing comprehensive, predictive operational intelligence across all aspects of building operations  JLL (NYSE: JLL) this week introduced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are now available as an add-on to Prism, its award-winning building operations platform. As part of JLL’s property management technology ecosystem powered by…
Read More
Breaking News

UK House Price Index summary: June 2025

The average monthly rate of house price growth in June was 1.4%. The average annual rate of house price growth in June was 3.7%, up from 2.7% in May. As a result, the average UK house price remains at £269,000.   CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented: “June’s figures reflect a market that is steadily…
Read More
Breaking News

Private rent and house prices, UK: August 2025

Average UK monthly private rents increased by 5.9%, to £1,343, in the 12 months to July 2025 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is down from 6.7% in the 12 months to June 2025. Average rents increased to £1,398 (6.0%) in England, £807 (7.9%) in Wales, and £999 (3.6%) in Scotland, in the 12 months…
Read More
Breaking News

Industry response to latest inflation figures

Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, comments: “Unfortunately, any increase seen within the rate of inflation does brings very justified concerns to consumers, many of whom are still struggling with the cost of living, which has been steadily rising over the past few years. “Although there is more work to be done to help ensure inflation…
Read More