Office of Fair trading - Snap Audit

Office of Fair trading - Snap Audit Ward Real Estate - 13 SEP 2021

We had a spot visit from the Office of Fair Trading this week.

The office of fair trading is responsible for checking that real estate agencies are doing the right thing with their paperwork and trust accounts. They even carry a badge :). They conduct what would best be described as a mini audit.

They told us that they would be at least 2 or 3 hours to do the inspection. Sue provided them with a random selection of sales and rental files. I watched a little nervously as they open the first file, I overheard the comment when viewing the first file, oooh colour coded.

Just over an hour later they left saying this was one of the best real estate office's they have seen for being organised & systematized. They said it did not take as long because of how well it was all set up. They mentioned one minor thing that had slipped through a crack and offered some advice on alternative ways on wording on some of our forms that removed any ambiguity or misinterpretation in the future. They were nice people, doing what I guess sometimes is a tough job.

Once they left, we conducted an internal audit of all files probably before they had even reached their car and am very happy to say nothing more was found.

This result is from Sues endless pursuit of excellence in ensuring that both our property management & sale’s paperwork, filing, trust accounts and general accounts are perfect.

The back-end systems & procedures can make or break any business and they are only as good as the people managing them. It means not only our business is better protected, but our clients also.

It may sound like an odd thing to say, but we are all very proud of this result.

John Ward