With more people renting a home privately than ever before, new research has revealed a high level of dissatisfaction amongst tenants with the service they receive.
A survey conducted on behalf of mortgage broker Ocean Finance has revealed that half (49 per cent) of people who rent privately feel they have been ‘ripped off’ by either their landlord or letting agent.
The most popular gripes were repair-related. Around half of tenants had experienced a delay in repairs and around half of tenants had seen repairs not completed at all.
Other complaints voiced by unhappy tenants included non-refund of the tenancy deposit (37 per cent); unreasonable deductions from the deposit (25 per cent); unreasonable increases in rent (23 per cent) and unreasonable fees or charges to begin the tenancy (22 per cent).
Ocean Finance spokesman Ian Williams said more people seemed happy to rent, with private renting hitting a peak of four million and almost doubling since the 1980s.
However the survey suggested that “at certain points in time we can be less than happy with the service provided by landlords and their agents”.
“The biggest driver of dissatisfaction is the failure or timeliness of getting repairs done – if you are left without heating or hot water, for example, you have every right to expect the landlord or their agent to get it fixed promptly.”
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