Complaints against property service providers up by a third, report finds

The number of complaints made against property service providers increased by more than a third last year, according to a new report.

On Friday the Property Services Regulatory Authority, which supervises and regulates auctioneers, estate agents, letting agents and management agents, published its 2021 annual report.

According to the report, 255 complaints were received by the authority last year, an increase of 36.36 on the 187 lodged in 2020.

Of the complaints received in 2021, 155 (60.8 per cent) were concluded without the need for the appointment of an inspector to conduct an investigation and 12 were withdrawn by the complainant.

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The most common reason for declining to investigate a complaint was that the subject matter of the complaint did not fall within the definition of “improper conduct” as defined in the Act.

The majority of complaints received last year (162) related to complainants being dissatisfied with the service provided, while 37 complaints were received relating to the retention of money by the property service provider.

In 2021, 43 complaints were concluded after an investigation, with no improper conduct being found in 18 of these cases. In 22 of the cases (51.16 per cent) improper conduct was found and a minor sanction was imposed, and in three cases improper conduct was found and a large sanction was imposed.

The three cases in which large sanctions were imposed resulted in the permanent revocation of the provider’s licence, and the licensees were required to pay a financial penalty to the authority of €5,000, €25,000 and €100,000, respectively.

In one case, the licensee was directed to pay a sum of €20,552 to the authority for the cost of the investigation, while in another, the provider was directed to pay €50,000 into the property services compensation fund.

The authority investigated one case in which an employee of a licensed property services provider misappropriated funds from a client account to a personal bank account held by the employee.

The authority found the employee had committed improper conduct under the Act, and was no longer fit and proper to conduct property services.

“The inspector’s report found that in respect of the licensed employer that it had not committed improper conduct as they were not aware of the misappropriation when it had occurred and had acted correctly when the matter came to their attention,” the authority said.