Member Article

33% of landlords “refuse to carry out repairs”

New research suggests as many as one in three renters has had a landlord or letting agent refuse to carry out repairs on their home – with one property expert believing the figures prove the industry needs to rethink the way it carries out repairs.

A study commissioned by PropertyLetByUs found 50% of tenants surveyed felt they had also suffered “unreasonable” delays in getting repair work done, with the most common causes of complaint broken boilers, leaky roofs, faulty showers, condensation and pest infestation.

North East-based sales and lettings firm KIS were the first letting agents in the UK to abolish deposits, replacing them with a unique insurance policy offering both legal assistance and 24-7, 365-days-a-year home repairs run by a third party.

Founder and Managing Director Ajay Jagota is also the co-creator of Dlighted, an insurance backed deposit-free renting solution which also protects renters, agents and landlords against property damage.

Ajay said: “There’s no way of knowing how many of these requests were genuine or truly necessary, but it’s alarming to think of any renters being left without hot water or heating because of their landlord or letting agent’s laziness – I certainly wouldn’t allow it in any property my company was managing.

“This is exactly why at KIS we do things differently. Not only are our repairs carried out around the clock every single day of the year, the decisions as to whether or not those repairs are urgent or necessary is made by someone neutral.

“It’s important to remember too that earlier research from the same company found that 90% of tenants have admitted trying to hide damage from their landlord and that one in ten admitted to causing more than £500 worth of damage to their rented home. Our system means landlords are covered for every eventuality too.

“We genuinely have 100% satisfaction from renters and landlords alike – and this research suggests that is far from the case for other companies. With the recently-introduced redress scheme designed to deal with disputes like this clearly having a very limited impact perhaps it’s time the industry followed our lead and rethought repairs.”

Since October 2014 letting agents have been required by law to sign up to one of three government-approved redress schemes designed to give the people they rent homes to a recognised independent place to take complaints – including those related to unreasonable repair delays.

The schemes - run by the Property Ombudsman, Ombudsman Services Property and the Property Redress Scheme – assess the complaints and can award compensation where appropriate. It is a criminal offence for a letting agent not to be a member of a redress scheme, and local councils can issue fines of up to £5000 to agencies which have not signed up.

Earlier research by KIS showed that 99.5% of tenants were unaware of the redress scheme’s existence and that not a single one of the five Tyne and Wear Councils had made use of the powers.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ajay Jagota .