Home » Uncategorised »
Alarming number of tenants don’t trust agents
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
Concerning statistics from a recent investigation have indicated that a large number of tenants do not trust letting agents to protect their assets.
According to a survey by The Tenant’s Voice, the UK’s biggest online tenant portal, a very large 47% of tenants have stated that they are not comfortable in letting agents deal with their interests.[1]
Just as much of a concern was that 52% of people surveyed said that they felt letting agents do the absolute minimum to provide necessary services. 28% said that letting agents do not provide an adequate amount of care.[1]
Alarming
The survey, of 1,100 tenants, revealed that almost two-thirds (64%) would prefer to rent directly from a private landlord. Further alarming statistics from the survey included 32% of tenants revealing that they had not even heard of the main letting agent schemes founded to protect vulnerable renters. 27% said that they were unsure how to recognise an established letting agent.[1]
Alarming number of tenants don’t trust agents
The Ombudsman Services were found to have the strongest awareness of tenants with 21%, while the National Approved Letting Scheme had the least with 3%. More of a concern was that only 12% of tenants had heard of ARLA and only 9% had knowledge of RICS.[1]
Take Notice
More positively, 73% of respondents to the survey had the opinion that the correct letting agent could improve the overall renting experience. Founder of The Tenants’ Voice, Glenn Nickols, believes that the main feature, ‘clearly lacking in the relationship between tenants and letting agents is trust.’ He went on to say that as the number of renters continues to grow,’ the fact that nearly half do not feel like their interests are being protected by agents should make the industry sit up.’[1]
Nickols also feels that, ‘more needs to be done to drive awareness of the various schemes that exist to protect tenants’ interests.’ He thinks that, ‘many tenants are having to find their way in the dark and the industry often appears happy for them to do so.’[1]
[1-6] http://www.readyrentals.co.uk/news/article/1447/letting-agents-letting-tenants-down-according-to-survey
