Complaints Procedure

In-House Complaints Handling Procedure

We are committed to providing you with the highest standards of service. However, there may be occasions when our service falls short of your expectations. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Tell us what part of our service or procedure you are unhappy about and what you would like us to do to resolve the matter. Putting your complaint in writing helps us to ensure we have understood all your issues and concerns, which in turn ensures we investigate them all fully and fairly.

You can do this by emailing: Complaints@rmsestateagents.co.uk
or in writing to the following address:

RMS Estate Agents Ltd
Newcastle House, Albany Court
Newcastle Business Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 7YB

What will happen next?

Within 3 working days we will send you an acknowledgement letter confirming who will be investigating your complaint. Our Estate Agency complaints and feedback team work independently from our branch teams, which ensures an impartial investigation into your concerns.

A formal response will be shared with you within 15 working days of us receiving your complaint. If further time is required, you will receive a written explanation for any delay during the fifteen working day timeframe.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to appeal, and a different member of the Estate Agency complaints and feedback team will again review this and provide you with a further response within 15 working days of receiving your appeal. We expect that all complaint issues will have been raised and addressed at this stage and so our second response will be our final viewpoint.

We are committed to ensuring all complaints are fully and fairly addressed. We respect your right to take any unresolved complaint to an appropriate third party for dispute resolution. Therefore, in our final letter to you we will always confirm when a ‘deadlock’ situation has been reached, which signals that we have come to the end of our internal complaints procedure and that you may now progress your issues to our Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) entity which is The Property Ombudsman.

Their details are as follows:

The Property Ombudsman
The Property Ombudsman Unit 159756,
PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL
T 01722 333 306
E admin@tpos.co.uk
W www.tpos.co.uk

You will need to submit your complaint to The Property Ombudsman within 12 months of receiving our final viewpoint letter, including any evidence to support your case. The Property Ombudsman requires that all complaints are addressed through this in-house complaints procedure, before being submitted for an independent review.

Financial Services Complaint

Tell us what part of our service or procedure you are unhappy about and what you would like us to do to resolve the matter. You can do this by writing to:

Customer Relations Department
Rook Matthews Sayer
Cumbria House
16-20 Hockliffe Street
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire LU7 1GN

Alternatively you may forward details of your dissatisfaction by email to:
CustomerRelations@rookmatthewssayer.co.uk
Customer relations phone number: 01525 244 504

A written acknowledgement will be issued promptly and in any event no later than five working days after receiving your complaint. Your complaint will be fully investigated by a member of the Customer Relations Mortgage Services Department.  Regulations allow us 8 weeks in which to issue you with our final response, however we will aim to respond to you much sooner than this. However, if we are still unable to respond within 4 weeks of your initial complaint, we will keep you informed as to the reason for this.

What happens next?
If you find you are unhappy with our final response, you have the option to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The contact details for the FOS are as follows:

Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
Harbour Exchange Square
London E14 9SR
T: 0800 0234 567 (calls to this number are now free on mobile phones and landlines)
0300 1239 123 (calls to this number cost no more than calls to 01 and 02 numbers)

W: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us You are about to leave the website of Rook Matthews Sayer and view the content of an external website.  Rook Matthews Sayer cannot be held responsible for the content of external websites.

Please note
You should refer your complaint to the Ombudsman within 6 months of the date of our final response. You will also need to complete our internal complaints procedure, before you raise your concerns with the Ombudsman.

Survey and Valuation
For survey and valuation services we are members of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

We can help

Tell us what part of our service or procedure you are unhappy about and what you would like us to do to resolve the matter.
You can do this in person by arranging an appointment with Andrew Toes, our Valuation and Survey Manager who is based at Head Office at the address below, or alternatively you can call him on 0191 286 9231 to discuss your complaint.

You can also email or write to the survey department at valuations@rookmatthewssayer.co.uk

Putting your complaint in writing helps us to ensure we have understood all your issues and concerns, which in turn ensures we investigate them fully and fairly. Regardless of how we receive your complaint we will acknowledge receipt in writing within three working days.

If you are not satisfied with how this has been handled, please confirm your complaint in writing to:

Connells
Valuation Management Centre
Cumbria House
16-20 Hockliffe Street
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
LU7 1GN

They will acknowledge receipt of your written complaint within 7 days of receiving it.

If you are happy with the outcome of the Valuation Management Centre’s investigation into your complaint, the matter will conclude.

We will consider your complaint as quickly as possible. We will provide you with a full response, or if that’s not possible, an update on what is happening with your complaint, within 28 days.

In the event that our internal complaints handling procedures have been exhausted without resolution being achieved, you should note that the appropriate Alternative Dispute Resolution entity for Survey and Valuation complaints is;

RICS Dispute Resolution Service
55 Colmore Road
Birmingham
B3 2AA
Tel: 020 7334 3806
Email: drs@rics.org

The company welcomes constructive feedback from customers as a way of continually improving its service.