The Ombudsman is:-

Ronald Barham, LLM, PhD, FCIArb.

The Ombudsman Himself:

He is a Freeman of the City of London and an experienced Arbitrator who also sits as Chairman of a statutory Tribunal. He was formerly in practice as a chartered surveyor and consulting engineer [formerly a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and of the Rating & Valuation Association, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Architects & Surveyors Institute and the Construction Surveyors Institute as well as a Member of the International Real Estate Federation and the Society of Engineers, registered as a Professional Engineer (UK)]. He has experience as a consultant to, and director of, several industrial and commercial concerns. He is also a member of the arbitration panels of several professional and government bodies.

The Role of The Ombudsman:

The Ombudsman is totally independent of the Member organisations within the scheme. He has full autonomy and authority to provide a complaints and dispute resolution service between members of the scheme and its customers. Customers are offered and can take advantage of this process should the member's internal complaints handling procedures not resolve any complaints.

Every member of DGCOS has signed a legally binding agreement allowing the DGCOS and The Ombudsman to investigate any complaints involving its professional conduct to include installations carried out during its period of membership even if membership has lapsed when arbitration is requested. His decisions are final, legally binding and enforceable under the terms of The Arbitration Act 1996.

This affords customers a high level of protection, resolves and concludes disputes quickly and, in most cases, negates the need to involve solicitors or the courts (and therefore the associated costs).

This alternative system is very attractive to most customers because it usually saves time and money and is personally over viewed by The Ombudsman who not only has an extensive understanding of the law and arbitration but also has a wide knowledge of the construction and building industry. He is very experienced in resolving these type of disputes having personally carried out over 340 full arbitrations from 1996 in his role as The Quality Assurance Ombudsman.