More than 200 complaints made about property agents last year

More than 200 complaints were reported about estate agents, auctioneers, letting agents or property management agents last year, the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) has said.

The authority said the most common complaint was from people who were dissatisfied with the service an agent had provided.

Others included people complaining about a failure of duty to clients, the retention of money, and issues around advertising.

The authority received 205 complaints last year, 60 per cent of which were closed without the need to appoint an inspector to investigate the case following an initial assessment.

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The PSRA annual report, published on Thursday, said this represented a drop of about a fifth on the 255 complaints reported in 2021.

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In 46 cases last year the regulator ruled there had been improper conduct by agents or auctioneers, which resulted in minor sanctions.

In four of these cases the agents were reprimanded over issues such as delays paying client’s money into accounts, failures to return a booking deposit and a failure to transfer a client’s money within a certain time frame.

In two cases the State agency issued major sanctions following investigations, it said.

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More than half of the 66 investigations completed last year related to complaints about property agents over alleged breaches of new regulations introduced in late 2020.

These regulations include prohibitions on property agents seeking financial inducements to provide services, as well as agents holding multiple booking deposits for the same sale of land.

The PSRA said at the end of last year it had 95 open complaints, about two-thirds of which it was currently investigating.

The authority separately rejected 11 property service providers applications to renew their licences.

Some 500 applications for new licences were made last year, with 21 refused as the applicant often did not meet minimum qualification requirements.

The PSRA was set up 10 years ago to regulate property services and is chaired by Michael Quinlan, a solicitor and former president of the Law Society.