Survey reveals just 10% of tenants are not happy with their home

It might go against the media narrative that landlords offer poor housing, but a survey of tenants has revealed that just 10% of them are unhappy with their rented home.

The findings from the TDS Charitable Foundation also show that 67.7% are happy and 22.3% of renters were neither dissatisfied nor satisfied with their property – that could be read as 90% of tenants are not unhappy with their rented property.

Indeed, the survey of 2,000 tenants mirror the same satisfaction levels that are in the English Housing Survey, which found that 63% of renters are satisfied with their home.

TDS Charitable Foundation survey

The TDS Charitable Foundation survey, which aims to help the trustees of the foundation deliver their objectives, also found:

• 4% of tenants say they understand their rights and responsibilities – 14.2% disagree
• Most respondents (41.6%) say they can easily afford their rent – 12.6% said they found it difficult
• 9% of tenants say they can pay their utility bills on a regular basis
• 5% of tenants say their landlord could improve their home’s energy efficiency but 21.6% said there was nothing more the landlord could do
• 6% of tenants say they have a pet in their rented home – but 47.9% of renters admit they are allowed a pet under their tenancy agreement.

63.5% of tenants are satisfied with their landlord

In good news for landlords, the survey reveals that 63.5% of tenants are satisfied with their letting agent/landlord, with 13.6% expressing dissatisfaction.

When questioned about communication, 67.7% of renters say they find it is easy to communicate with their agent or landlord, but 15.7% find it challenging.

Landlords may not be surprised that 60.2% of tenants confessed they had not heard about the Rental Reform White Paper – but 25.9% had heard of it though they did not know what it is proposing.

The survey dug deeper into this and found that 69.3% of tenants agree that rental sector reform is long overdue, but 43.6% say the reforms would change very little. 64.7% of tenants felt that the reform will improve their rights.

Giving tenants important documentation

However, it appears that landlords may not be fulfilling their obligations when it comes to giving tenants important documentation.

Tenants in England and Wales were asked if they were familiar with the important documents that should form part of their rental agreement.

Just 34.6% of tenants say they have a copy of the Government’s ‘How to Rent Guide’, and 43.5% say they haven’t been given a copy.

When asked about their deposit protection certificate, 54.8% of renters say they have a copy – but 26.5% say they haven’t. 18.7% of respondents who weren’t sure.

The Gas Safety certificate has been handed to 63.5% of tenants with 23.7% saying they don’t have one, and the Energy Performance Certificate has been handed to 51.3% of tenants with 29.8% saying they haven’t received it.

However, 82.6% of renters say they have a copy of the tenancy agreement, with a worrying 10% saying they don’t have a copy and 7.4% saying they aren’t sure.

The TDS says: “Given it is likely that in most cases all of these documents will have been supplied to tenants, the challenge for landlords is to ensure that tenants are fully aware, and therefore will later recall, the importance of each of these documents to them as a tenant.”

Tenants say they are finding it difficult to pay rent

While 12.6% of tenants say they are finding it difficult to pay rent, 41.6% say they can pay easily every month and 41.6 are ‘somewhere in between’.

The survey shows that affordability varies by region with the figures for those struggling to pay rising to more than 20% for renters in the South, the South East, the North East, Midlands and Greater London.

When tenants were asked about their home’s condition and whether any improvements were needed, 61.3% of renters rated their property to be in a good overall condition, with 19.9% rating their property as poor.

And when questioned about outstanding repairs, 64.6% of tenants confirmed there were no outstanding repairs that exceeded a four-week wait, but 35.4% reported they did have outstanding repairs to their property.

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