Complaints against landlords are at a record high, almost doubling over the past decade.
Freedom of Information responses from councils across the country show the average number of complaints made by private and social tenants per local authority rose to a record 1,200 in 2024 from 1,150 a year earlier, and compared to less than 700 ten years ago.
The situation is most pronounced in London, where the number of complaints about landlords and estate agencies has risen 173% in the past five years to 2,331 in 2024, according to FOI data from the Greater London Authority.
“A small minority of homes in the private rented sector are managed by rogue landlords who are not taking care of their properties, leading to complaints from tenants,” said Grainne Gilmore, head of research at Cluttons.
Some 28% of tenants in low-cost accommodation made a complaint about their landlord in roughly the year to June 2024, and only about a third of those were satisfied with the complaint’s handling, according to the latest National Tenant Survey.
The Housing Ombudsman said property conditions made up roughly two thirds of complaints in the first quarter of 2025, while complaints handling and anti-social behavior in the home made up roughly 15% each.
The rise in complaints “underlines the age of some homes in the social rented and private rented sectors,” with about half of those properties at least 60 years old, Gilmore added.
