Our staff are working remotely from home so please do not post anything to the office, until further notice. However, any post that is sent in will be processed within 10 working days. If possible, customers are advised to email [email protected]com if they require advice or support. Alternatively, our call handlers are available to assist from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.  Please note that there may be some delays in the processing and resolution of cases. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

What is the ARMA Scheme?

What is the Scheme for?

The Scheme provides an informal and independent way of adjudicating complaints made against Members or Associates of ARMA by a Complainant by way of a non-binding adjudication process.

The adjudication will be undertaken by an independent adjudicator appointed by CEDR from its Adjudication Panel.

The appointed Adjudicator will make a decision on the complaint by considering the information received from the Complainant and from the Member. This decision will be either to make one or more recommendations that the ARMA Complaints Committee take action in relation to the Member or to make no recommendation.

It is the ARMA Complaints Committee who have final say as to whether the Member has to do anything. The adjudicator’s decision is a recommendation only.

No. The adjudicator’s decision will be sent to the ARMA Complaints Committee who will consider any recommendations made. It will then be the ARMA Complaints Committee who will provide a summary of the outcome of the complaint. It is this outcome that will be sent to you.

The recommendations the Adjudicator can make are limited to:

  • A letter of apology;
  • Training to be undertaken by the Member;
  • That the Member is suspended from ARMA for a specified period of time;  That the Member is expelled from ARMA.

Please note that the Adjudicator’s role is to decide whether or not the Member has breached ARMA’s Rules, and if so, whether it is appropriate to recommend disciplinary action.

The Adjudicator cannot recommend that you receive any direct remedy such as compensation. Further, the Adjudicator cannot reconsider any decision made by an Ombudsman, the Court, or other dispute resolution procedure.

The Adjudicator cannot recommend that you receive any direct remedy such as compensation. Further, the Adjudicator cannot reconsider any decision made by an Ombudsman, the Court, or other dispute resolution procedure.

It will be the ARMA Complaints Committee who have final say on the outcome of your complaint. They will consider the recommendations of the adjudicator and decide whether or not to implement any of the following actions:

  •  A letter of apology;
  • Training to be undertaken by the Member;
  • That the Member is suspended from ARMA for a specified period of time;
  • That the Member is expelled from ARMA.

The ARMA Complaints committee may decide to implement more or fewer recommendations than the adjudicator has made.

a.) You must have complained formally to the Member and attempted to resolve your complaint in accordance with this ARMA Complaints Guidance;

b.) Any and all appropriate independent cases and investigations in respect of your complaint, whether or not such cases or investigations have been initiated, must have been exhausted, including any ongoing cases and investigations by:

  • the Ombudsman (The Property Ombudsman or Property Redress Scheme);
  • the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber);
  • the Court;
  • the Police; and
  • other authorities e.g.: (i) Health & Safety Executive; (ii) Environment Agency; (iii) Local Authorities (e.g., section 21 and 22 LTA compliance); (iv) Information Commissioner’s Office; (v) Trading Standards; (vi) Financial Conduct Authority; (vii) Competition and Markets Authority (re. competition issues); or (viii) Local fire services.

  1. Where you have not attempted to resolve the complaint first as detailed at points a) and b) above;
  2. Where the most recent alleged incident to which your complaint relates happened more than 24 months ago;
  3. For a Member that has recently been granted membership or associate status by ARMA, the most recent alleged incident to which your complaint relates happened more than 12 months before the date on which the Member was granted membership or associate status by ARMA;
  4. Where the details of the complaint set out in your application form materially differ from the details that you provided when fulfilling points a) and b) above;
  5. Complaints that are frivolous and/or vexatious;
  6. Where dealing with your complaint would seriously impair the effective operation of CEDR.

To apply to use the Scheme, please provide your complaint details to ARMA marked clearly as ‘ARMA Adjudication Scheme’. You should also set out how you have fulfilled points a) and b) above.

You can do this by post to ARMA, 3rd Floor, 2-4 St George’s Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 4DP or by email to [email protected].

Your complaint details will be reviewed by ARMA to initially assess whether you have complied with the requirements detailed in points a) and b) above. If these requirements have been satisfied then your contact details will be passed to CEDR directly.

An application form will then be provided to you by CEDR, which you will need to complete and send back. If you require any special assistance with your application, you can contact CEDR and reasonable adjustments will be made in line with the CEDR reasonable adjustments policy, which can be found on the CEDR website at www.cedr.com.

  1. A description of the precise issues that form the nature of your complaint about the Member;
  2. A description of the precise conduct by the Member that you believe to be a breach of the ARMARules;
  3. A copy of the decision or outcome from the appropriate body set out in point b) above;
  4. Any supporting documents on which you wish to rely.

ARMA Scheme Downloads

Scheme Rules PDF Download (144KB)
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