Most tenant issues are quickly resolved by landlords

More than half of renters have faced problems with their housing in the past six months – and 78% of agents and landlords quickly resolved them, a survey reveals.

The findings from TDS Foundation, which interviewed more than 2,000 renters, found that only 40% of tenants had no issues with their rented homes, while the rest encountered one or more problems.

The most common problems reported by the renters were leaks or plumbing issues (21%), difficulty heating their homes (20%), lack of repairs (18%), damp or mould (16%) and damage to external doors, walls, roofs or windows (16%).

‘Landlords are addressing the problems reported by renters’

The head of policy and research at TDS Group, Dr Jennifer Harris, said: “It is encouraging that landlords are addressing the problems reported by renters in most cases.

“However, it is concerning that more than one in 10 renters who had problems did not report them.”

She added: “The Government’s plans to reform the rental sector, including setting a Decent Homes Standard for private rented housing, need to ensure that renters feel confident to report problems where their homes meet all required standards.”

The problem was fully or partly resolved

Most of the renters (85%) who had problems with their rented home notified their landlords or letting agents, and 78% of them said the problem was fully or partly resolved.

However, some renters (15%) did not report the problems to their landlords or letting agents, believing that reporting issues was ineffective (30%), too much hassle (27%), or they feared being a bad tenant (23%) and worrying about rent hikes (22%).