TPO backs 69% of complaints against letting agents

The Property Ombudsman has revealed that his redress scheme has supported 69 per cent of consumer complaints lodged against letting agents in a three month period.

TPO is the largest of three government-approved redress schemes and claims to have more than 85 per cent of UK letting agents registered.

In the three months since October 1, from which date letting agents were obliged to be in one of the redress schemes, 2,246 tenants and landlords contacted TPO with disputes concerning rental deposits, lettings fees, property viewings, rent collection, tenancy agreements, inventories and reference checks.

TPO's breakdown of its contacts over the final quarter of the year is as follows:

- 2,246 lettings enquiries (which represented 57 per cent of the 3,962 enquiries raised overall, covering lettings, sales and other property disputes);

- 64 per cent (1,444) of enquiries were raised by tenants, while 36 per cent (802) were made by landlords requesting TPO's dispute resolution service;

- 368 formal lettings complaints (which represented 57 per cent of the 644 property complaints reviewed by TPO, covering lettings, sales and other property disputes)

- 69 per cent of lettings complaints investigated were supported by the Ombudsman.

The core of the issues raised by tenants and landlords were:

- communication failure (23 per cent)

- repairs and maintenance including inventories (16 per cent)

- deposit handling, including holding deposits (12 per cent)

- rent (nine per cent)

- duty of care, such as failure to meet contract pre-conditions (nine per cent).