Figures released in the annual report of The Property Redress Scheme – one of three government-licensed schemes for resolving disputes between renters and letting agents–show complaints rising by 40% in a single year.
Objections about tenancy deposits are the second-most-common complaint – making up 27% of the overall total.
Letting Agent Fees – set to be banned in England and Wales under new legislation announced in June’s Queen’s Speech – were the least complained about issue, making up just 6% of the total number of complaints.
The PRS attributes the overall growth in complaints to an “upward trend in consumer awareness of the complaint process”.
Research from deposit reform campaigner Ajay Jagota of Dlighted in 2014 revealed that only 1 in 200 tenants were aware of the existence of the letting agent redress scheme.
An investigation from Citizen’s Advice also uncovered that one in five letting agents had not joined a redress scheme more than six months after it became mandatory.
The scheme compels letting agents to join one of three government-licensed independent bodies – also including the Property Ombudsman and Ombudsman Services Property – to whom tenants, landlords and leaseholders can take complaints relating to a tenancy.
The three schemes assess the complaints and can award compensation where appropriate – with the PRS last year awarding a total of £152,819 of compensation to in the region of 400 complainants.
Renting reform campaigner Ajay Jagota, founder of North East -based deposit-free renting solution Dlighted, responded to the figures.
He said:
“A recent Parliament briefing document makes it clear that change is in the air when it comes to renting in the UK, noting as it does that the current tenancy deposit system is open to loopholes and abuse.
“The Property Redress Scheme figures suggest that the government’s priorities for reforming renting may not be the same as Britain’s renters however – with tenants almost five times more likely to complain about deposits than they are about letting agent’s fees
“It’s reassuring to hear the PRS believes the tidal wave of complaints it has experienced this year – a significant number of which relate to the out-dated tenancy deposit system- are at least in part due to increasing awareness about redress schemes, not least as research we carried out in the early days of the schemes suggested 99.5% of renters were unaware of their existence.
“I’m sure things are much-improved from the days when it was easy to find firms who simply hadn’t joined these supposedly mandatory schemes with five minutes on Google.”
