A new survey, which set out to gain a better understanding of the main issues when using a letting agent, claims to reveal deep unhappiness with service from letting agents.

From communication to confusing jargon, the survey asked both landlords and tenants across the UK whether they used an agent and what issues, if any, they encountered when using one.

Mashroom extrapolates a figure of 1.7 million landlords in the UK encountering problems with their letting agent, although it fails to state how many landlords took the survey and their distribution around the country.

The survey, undertaken by the online platform Mashroom, also asked renters and landlords what other issues they faced when renting to shed light on how renting relationships can be improved.

The majority (66%) of the landlords and tenants surveyed claimed they have experienced issues when using a letting agent. Following on, 26% of landlords and 22% of tenants said they would choose to rent privately in the future, though it isn’t clear if the two questions were related.

The survey found that the most common issue for both parties, which 54% of tenants and 77% of landlords highlighted, was poor communication with their letting agent. Over a quarter of landlords also stated that they were confused by the jargon the agent used.

59% of landlords and tenants also said that their letting agent failed to keep them up to date with their rights and legal changes.”

In their release to the press, Mashroom did not provide the questions which were posed in the survey so it is not possible to determine whether the survey was unbiased or negative in its framing of questions or whether the questions were leading.

Mashroom presents itself as “an online letting platform which provides landlords and tenants with all the tools for renting a property and collecting rent”, thus circumventing the need for letting agents.

Glasgow letting agents are ‘worst’

According to the findings, Mashroom says landlords and tenants in Glasgow experienced the worst communication with letting agents out of all UK cities. Manchester ranked second, with 31% of respondents experiencing poor communication with their agents, followed by Birmingham (29%).

The survey also looked at the most common issues that landlords and tenants experience in general to gain a better understanding of the wider renting relationship and what can be improved to better this.

The main issue which nearly half of landlords (49%) experienced was that money was not received at the correct time from their tenants. On the other hand, the main issue which nearly two-thirds of tenants experienced was a lack of repairs for property issues.

Letting agents failed to repair household fixtures for 40% of the surveyed tenants.”

The research also revealed that letting agents failed to repair household fixtures for 40% of the surveyed tenants, and one renter from Bristol has shared her experience of this.

A survey respondent, ‘Kathryn’, who was renting in Bristol at the time, claims her letting agents failed to notify her of serious work happening to her building. “When we signed the agreements the letting agents failed to mention that another floor was being added to our building – we were the top floor at that point. As a result, we experienced a multitude of issues for the whole year of our tenancy. Our roof was completely taken out at one point, we had no secure WiFi or natural light, water was running down the walls, and there was constant standing water in the kitchen which we had to wade through. Eventually, after filing a complaint we managed to get a quarter of the annual rent back.”

The full research is available here.