The Ombudsman for Estate Agents has called on the industry's two main trade bodies to make it compulsory for their members to join its own scheme.

The move follows the Office of Fair Trading’s Report into Estate Agency published last month.

Ombudsman for Estate Agents, Stephen Carr-Smith urged the National Association of Estate Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to make it mandatory for their members to sign up to the OEA code of practice and complaints procedure.

Mr Carr-Smith said he thought the OEA scheme already in place provides “... precisely the framework that is necessary to achieve the OFT’s aims.”

Both RICS and NAEA already have their own codes of conduct and complaints procedures in place but their schemes do not offer financial compensation. The Ombudsman can provide compensation up to £25,000 but the highest awarded this year was £7,461 as a result of a fee dispute with two agents, both claiming the commission fee in full. Through conciliation by the Ombudsman’s Office, the two agents were persuaded to share the fee.

The Ombudsman said that during 2003 the number of complaints he received had fallen for the first time in the scheme's 14-year history.

Despite the reduced number of complaints, it is still important to have an Ombudsman Scheme, argues Carr-Smith, saying: “the house buying and selling public deserves to have an independent and impartial body that can listen to their complaints and provide financial compensation if appropriate.”

“There is now a new and improved Code of Practice, which gives even better consumer protection. I would urge sellers to find out whether an Agent belongs to the Scheme before they decide to do business with them.”