On 1 May 2009 the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA) will be renamed The Property Ombudsman (TPO). It marks a change of identity for the Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme and reflects the broader scope of our organization.

The new identity will make it clearer that we now deal with more issues than just residential sales, since more and more agents are bringing lettings and property management into their businesses and shortly we will be including commercial agents and UK agents selling property abroad within our jurisdiction.

As clear leaders in the field of property redress, consumers have come to recognise the value of the OEA being available to them and we want them to be aware of and understand this change, and to assure the public that our procedures will not change and that they can expect the same high standards of service.

Our new logos are now colour coded; (see attached information sheet) blue for sales offices and green for lettings, and the change is being made with the aim of least disruption and cost. Over time the style of all guides, leaflets and codes will be aligned under the new brand.

The content of our website will not change although there will need to be some ‘freshening up’ to remove references to OEA etc. There will be a new website address but anyone looking up www.oea.co.uk will be automatically re-directed to the new site at www.tpos.co.uk.