New section 23A: Redress Schemes
220.Subsection (1) of new section 23A gives the Secretary of State a power to make an order requiring persons who engage in estate agency work in relation to residential property to join an approved redress scheme. Such an order may apply to all who engage in estate agency work, or only to specified descriptions of them, and may exclude certain types of estate agency work. Subsection (3) provides for an order to limit the types of complaint that may be made under a redress scheme, including doing so by reference to the types of people who can make a complaint. This order will be subject to the negative resolution procedure (subsection (5)).
221.New subsection (4) means that an order cannot require individual employees to join a scheme. The duty will be that of their employer (who may, for example, be a body corporate or a partnership).
222.New subsection (6) provides that before making an order the Secretary of State must be satisfied that everyone who will be required to join an approved scheme will be eligible to do so – but for this purpose he will not have to take account of people who are not permitted to carry out estate agency work, for example because they have been prohibited from acting as an estate agent by the OFT.
223.New subsection (7) clarifies that approved redress schemes may be open to people other than estate agents if they wish to join, may deal with a wider range of complaints than those to which the duty imposed by the order applies, and may exclude certain types of complaint e.g. complaints made after a long period of time.
224.New subsection (8) defines terms used in this section. An approved redress scheme is a scheme which is approved by the OFT under Schedule 3 or a scheme administered by or on behalf of the Secretary of State and designated by him as an approved redress scheme for the purposes of the new section 23A.
225.This section also introduces the new Schedule 3 to be inserted into the 1979 Act.