CALLS to have property businesses sign up to a “mandatory” redress scheme have been renewed after a letting agent was fined for failing to resolve long-term damp and mould issues for two separate tenants.
David Letto, director of PIOS Limited, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on behalf of the property firm on 5 July after pleading guilty to two statutory nuisance charges relating to flats 3a and 3b at 1 Balmoral Terrace in St Helier.
The former St Helier Centenier and managing director of estate agent Bull & Co was fined £3,000 for refusing to meet his “obligations” as the building’s leaseholder.
Crown Advocate Katie Ridley, prosecuting the case, read out a witness statement on behalf of the tenant of flat 3b, who said she had been raising concerns about damp and mould for over a decade.
“Since 2015 I have been highlighting and informing the landlords of the property to take action and ownership of all the issues of the damp and mould throughout my flat, which was ignored for years – even though I produced photographic evidence,” the tenant wrote.
“As the years have passed, the damp has progressively worsened,” she added. “There is a severe area above my bed that has now developed a crack, and has swollen to such an extent that I am worried it may fall on my head during the night whilst I am asleep.”
PIOS Limited was eventually charged for failing to comply with two abatement notices relating to water ingress at the two neighbouring flats.
Advocate Ian Jones, representing PIOS Limited, said in court that his client had been unable to address the water ingress due to being “insolvent on a cash-flow basis for the better part of a decade”.
He contended that this was down to the property firm not receiving the rents owed to them.
The complex court proceedings have prompted The Property Ombudsman – an independent and impartial dispute resolution service for consumers and property businesses – to call for increased regulation across the sector in Jersey.
As of October 2025, only two-in-five Jersey estate agents are signed up to the Property Ombudsman Scheme (TPO), despite the Assembly passing a proposition in January 2024 to have estate agents sign up to the regulator on a “mandatory” basis.
In a statement, the UK’s Chief Property Ombudsman Lesley Horton told the JEP: “It was pleasing to see that in 2023 there was discussion at the Assembly about registration of a redress scheme becoming mandatory for estate and letting agents.
“Making redress registration for Jersey agents mandatory would bring it into line with the consumer protection that those on the mainland have had for many years.
“We are therefore extremely supportive of any regulatory steps the Assembly may take and stand ready to assist them in that process.”
John Quemard, President of the Jersey Estate Agents’ Association, added that he called “for all local agents to become part of a redress scheme such as TPO” on “several occasions”.
He added: “Members of the JEAA are automatically affiliated with Propertymark and The Property Ombudsman Scheme.
“I am happy to re-affirm the need for all estate agents to become members of the JEAA, an Association that was founded more than 60 years ago in 1965.
“This will give the people of Jersey reassurance that their local estate agent is working to a recognised code of practice.”
