The majority of Britain’s renters are fond of their landlord, according to new research.
Saga Home Insurance’s poll found that 77% of tenants rated their current landlord as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, with just 8% giving a ‘poor’ rating.
The research also discovered the top gripes experienced by both tenants and landlords, with tenants most likely to complain about hard-to-reach landlords (23%), poor quality tradesmen used for repairs (21%) and refusal to fix broken items (17%).
Landlords, meanwhile, were more likely to complain about late rent payments (38%), damage to property (32%) and tenants who vacated with little or no notice (20%).
Despite 72% of landlords believing they are always ethical, 56% of tenants said that their landlord should do more to help them.
Many landlords understand the value of responding to tenant enquiries more quickly (55%), or having home emergency cover that the tenant can call upon 24/7 (32%). However, just 19% believed they should provide alternative accommodation when a property is made uninhabitable by an insured event such as flooding or fire.
Sue Green, Saga’s head of home insurance, said: “Disagreements between landlords and their tenants are well documented so it is refreshing to see that landlords are, for the large part, ethical and well-liked by their tenants. During what has been a tough economic climate, landlords’ reputations have suffered and as our research shows, unfairly so.
“This doesn’t mean that more cannot be done which is why we have released our guide providing practical advice to landlords to help them improve their ethical credentials. Anyone who is a landlord should consider whether there might be more that they could do to make things easier for their tenants, which will be beneficial to all involved.”
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