The Tribunal is an independent body that considers Code complaints where the parties have not been able to reach agreement about a dispute.
The Chair of the Tribunal is notified of the complaint and makes a decision as to whether it should be referred to the Fast Track Tribunal or the Full Tribunal. In the interim, the Chair may decide to suspend an owner/agent from membership of the Code, pending a hearing of the Tribunal. This is referred to as Chair's Action.
THE FAST TRACK TRIBUNAL
This consists of the Chair and two Vice Chairs. The Fast Track Tribunal sets a meeting cycle annually, and meets every two months in order to minimise delays. To find out more about the membership of the Tribunal click here
The Fast Track Tribunal can itself decide to refer a complaint or parts of a complaint to the Full Tribunal.
The Full Tribunal
The Tribunal is designed to be the final resort in a serious dispute. It is expensive to administer and sits only when important. Tribunal hearings will be heard within eight working weeks of the procedure being triggered. If either the landlord/agent or the complainant/s cannot attend within eight working weeks then the hearing will take place in absentia of that party. To find out more about the membership of the Tribunal click here
The procedures of the Tribunal are clearly defined to ensure consistency and fairness. For more details of the procedures please click below:
Leeds Bradford Nottingham National Codes
The Tribunal makes a decision
The Tribunal can take one of four decisions:
- Request additional information and reconvene at a later date to consider the complaint
- Uphold the complaint
- Make a recommendation to other parties
- Reject the complaint
The Tribunal can make recommendations to all statutory bodies, educational institutions and all other appropriate parties. In the event that a complaint from a student was malicious a recommendation from the Tribunal to the institution in respect of its disciplinary procedures would be likely.
The Tribunal can recommend whatever they wish but generally this falls into the following categories:
- A warning letter to the relevant party
- The suspension of a landlord or owner from the Unipol Code for either a specified period of time or indefinitely (6 years), and conditions set for the lifting of that suspension. The suspension can be for an individual property or for any number of properties or for the owner / agent themselves
- The setting of conditions for continuing membership of the Code
- The suspension of a landlord/agent from using Unipol’s services
- The issuing of a press release detailing the complaint and its outcome
Any decision of the Tribunal will be confirmed in writing within five working days of the meeting and is made public on the Unipol website. For details of previous Tribunal decisions click here.