You can make a complaint by email, letter, phone, or in person. To help us address your issue effectively, we recommend you put your complaint in writing, detailing what happened and what you feel went wrong. This ensures we fully understand your concerns.

Please address your complaint to our appointed Complaints Handling Officer:

If you tell us about a complaint by phone or in person, we will listen and make notes. We may ask you to also send a written summary via email or letter, so that we don't miss any details and our understanding is clear. We can assist you in writing this, if needed.

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 business days of receiving it. This acknowledgment will confirm that we're looking into the matters you raised. We will also include a copy of this Complaints Procedure (if you haven't already seen it) so you know the steps we will follow. In the acknowledgment, we'll state the person handling your complaint (name, position, and contact details) and the expected timeline for our investigation. Typically, we aim to provide a full response within 21 days of receiving your complaint.

A senior member of our team (usually the Managing Director or another Director) will investigate your complaint. This means we will review all relevant files, emails, and documents, and speak to any staff members involved. We approach every complaint with an open mind. Our goal is to understand exactly what happened and whether we could have done better. You will not be charged for the time or costs of this investigation — it's entirely part of our service commitment.

If our investigation is straightforward, you may receive our full response well before the 21-day target. If it turns out to be more complex (for example, we need to gather information from third parties or an involved staff member is temporarily unavailable), and we cannot send a final answer within 21 days, we will contact you to explain the delay. In that update, we'll let you know what progress has been made and give you a new estimated date of response. We will ensure you are not left wondering about the status of your complaint.

After investigating, we will send you a written Final Response. This will address each aspect of your complaint and tell you the outcome. Our response will include:

If you accept our response and any proposed resolution, we consider the matter resolved and will close the complaint. If we don't hear back from you within a few weeks of our final response, we may get in touch to confirm you consider it resolved. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you have the option to escalate to Stage Two (ADR). We'll consider a complaint closed once it's resolved to your satisfaction, or once you have pursued Stage Two and that process is concluded.

We hope to resolve all complaints internally, but if you are not satisfied with our final response, or if 8 weeks have passed since you made your complaint and it hasn't been resolved, you can seek independent redress. This is Stage Two of our process, involving an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider. ADR is a way of resolving disputes without going to court — it's typically faster, less formal, and free or low-cost for you.

As an alternative for business-to-business disputes, with your agreement, we could also use CEDR Solve — CEDR's commercial mediation service — or another suitable arbitration/ADR provider. The key point is that an independent, RICS-approved mechanism will be available to you.

We will remind you of these options in our final response letter. Should you decide to proceed, you generally need to contact the ADR provider directly (we can assist by providing any reference or case information needed). The provider will then get in touch with us to obtain our side of the story and any relevant documents. There may be time limits for referring a matter to ADR (for example, CEDR asks that you apply within a certain period after our final response, usually within 6–12 months). We advise acting promptly if you wish to use ADR, so your case remains fresh and eligible.

The ADR provider will examine the evidence from both sides. For adjudication (like CEDR), they will issue a written decision on the outcome and any remedial action. We are obligated to abide by that decision if you accept it. For mediation or arbitration (like via RICS DRS), the outcome could be an agreed settlement or an arbitrator's award. Using ADR does not prejudice your legal rights; it's an optional step meant to resolve the matter amicably.

We believe that offering these independent routes demonstrates our commitment to accountability. In practice, very few complaints ever need to go to Stage Two, but the option is there to give you peace of mind that an impartial body can review the situation if needed.