Guides
Handling tenant complaints, properly.
Practical guides for letting agents and property managers in England. Each one links to the legislation or guidance it relies on and says which is which.
The complaint process
- How to respond to a tenant complaint: a process for letting agents
A step-by-step process for handling tenant complaints in England, from acknowledging receipt to a final response a redress scheme would accept.
- Separating the issues in a tenant complaint
How to break a long tenant complaint into distinct issues so every point gets an answer and nothing is missed or repeated.
- Checking legal claims in a tenant complaint
How to check whether the law a tenant cites actually says what they say it does: finding the provision, extent, commencement, and law versus guidance.
- Records to gather before you reply to a tenant complaint
A checklist of the records letting agents typically need for repair, damp, safety, deposit, fee and handling complaints in England.
- Writing the final response to a tenant complaint
A structure for complaint responses that answers every point, cites the law accurately, and tells the tenant how to escalate to your redress scheme.
- Letting agent redress schemes and tenant complaints
What membership of The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme means for how you handle tenant complaints in England.
By type of complaint
What the law says, and the records you’ll need
- Repair complaints and section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985
What the landlord's repairing duty under section 11 covers, what it doesn't, and the records you need to answer a repair complaint in England.
- Responding to damp and mould complaints from tenants
The fitness for human habitation duty, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and what to check and record when a tenant complains about damp or mould in England.
- Tenancy deposit complaints: protection and prescribed information
What the Housing Act 2004 requires for protecting a tenancy deposit, the consequences of getting it wrong, and how to respond to a deposit complaint in England.
- Tenant fee complaints and the Tenant Fees Act 2019
Which payments landlords and letting agents in England can take from tenants, which are banned, and how to respond when a tenant says a charge was unlawful.
- Gas safety complaints: the landlord's duties under regulation 36
What the Gas Safety Regulations 1998 require of landlords, from annual checks to giving tenants the record, and how to answer a gas safety complaint.
- Electrical safety complaints in private rented homes
What the 2020 electrical safety regulations require of private landlords in England: five-yearly inspections, giving tenants the report, and remedial work.
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm complaints
What the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended in 2022, require of private landlords, and how to respond to an alarm complaint.
- Complaints alleging harassment or unlawful eviction
What the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 makes an offence, why these complaints need careful handling, and when to take legal advice.
- Rent increase complaints and section 13 notices
How rent increases work for assured periodic tenancies under section 13 of the Housing Act 1988, what is changing, and how to answer a rent rise complaint.
- Tenant requests for the landlord's name and address
Tenants' rights to know who their landlord is and to have an address for serving notices, under the Landlord and Tenant Acts 1985 and 1987.
- Complaints about access and entry to a rented property
When landlords and agents in England can enter a tenant's home, the 24-hour notice rule for inspecting repairs, and how to handle complaints about visits.