Independent Complaints Reviewer for Land Registry

Citation

(1998), "Independent Complaints Reviewer for Land Registry", Property Management, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1998.11316cab.016

Independent Complaints Reviewer for Land Registry

Independent Complaints Reviewer for Land Registry

HM Land Registry has made a further significant improvement in its standards of customer service, by appointing an Independent Complaints Reviewer (ICR) to investigate complaints of maladministration and of failure to meet the Registry's well-established standards of service, published in its Statement of Charter Standards.

Mrs Jodi Berg, a solicitor, took up her new office 16 February 1998. Currently Chairman of an NHS Trust in South East London, Mrs Berg has a community-oriented background and has been instrumental in introducing complaints systems within the Health Service over the last four years.

Commenting on her appointment, Mrs Berg said: "For most of us property transactions are a hugely important event in our lives. We require the purchase or lease of our homes to be straightforward and trouble free. HM Land Registry plays an important part in the process by providing a guaranteed register of title and ready access to information on land and property.

"Members of the public must be able to trust the Land Registry to get it right and where mistakes are made to learn from them in order to improve the service to its customers.

"The introduction of an Independent Complaints Review process is fundamental to ensuring public confidence in the openness and accountability of the Land Registry when occasionally, as even in the best run organisations, things go wrong."

The Land Registry was re-awarded its Charter Mark in 1995, in recognition of the excellence of its service to the public and has applied for a third Charter Mark this year. The appointment of an ICR is a very important factor in ensuring that the excellent standards which have been established continue to rise.

Mrs Berg continued: "My top priority is to ensure that members of the public and their advisors have full confidence in the fairness and impartiality of the new independent review system for the Land Registry. In introducing the new system the Land Registry has demonstrated a commitment to raising standards of customer care and satisfaction and I look forward to playing my part in this ongoing process."

Complaints may be made to the ICR by, or on behalf of, any person, firm or company who has been affected by the actions of HM Land Registry. The ICR has the right to access all documents and information held by HM Land Registry which the ICR considers to be relevant to the complaint and to recommend action to remedy the complaint, including the payment of compensation up to £5,000 in any one case.

The ICR will not investigate and adjudicate complaints which:

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  have not been pursued through the Agency's internal complaints procedure;

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  concern the content of decisions based on the statutory provisions under which HM Land Registry operates, although complaints about the way in which those complaints were made will be within the ICR's remit;

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  have become the subject of legal proceedings.

Guidance material will be issued to prospective complainants or their advisers making them aware of the ICR service, its scope and limitations, and the procedures which apply to the making and investigating of complaints.

The Trust in which capacity she has taken an active interest in the introduction of the new NHS complaints procedure. She is married to a GP and has two children now at university.