We would like to thank those customers who completed our on line survey when applying for the appointment of arbitrators or experts in rent disputes.

We do take note of your responses and are endeavouring to improve the service we provide based on your feedback. From the results so far, we recognise our need to improve communication to ensure that customers are kept informed during the appointment process.

With very few exceptions, the survey revealed a high level of satisfaction with the suitability of the dispute resolvers appointed.

With regard to the time taken to make appointments, most customers said they would like appointments to be made within four to six weeks of their applications. A number of replies commented on the improved speed of service; 73% of respondents regard the current time taken to make appointments as good or very good and a further 12.5% regard the time taken to be quite good.

We share our customers concern about delay in appointments in certain areas, particularly out of town retail warehouses and telecom sites where there is a shortage of specialist practitioners and frequent conflicts of interest. We are recruiting more panel members and following the recent arbitrator training course attended by a number of practitioners in these areas, we anticipate that the situation will improve over the next few months.