What are your tenants saying about your property?

A new website has been set up which allows tenants to rate rental property. AskTenants.co.uk allows tenants to rate specific properties which can then be searched for by inputting the address.

Tenants can rate the property for leaks, condensation, flooring, brightness, noise pollution, rodents, induction, parking, neighbourhood and safety, energy efficiency, traffic, landlord responsiveness and the deposit refund process. Unlike other rating websites, there is no free text field in which to write comments. The website was set up by a tenant who claims she and her family had to live in a damp, insect-infested flat. A spokesperson for the site told Landlord Today the aim of the site is to make AskTenants.co.uk fair to both landlords and tenants. They also sent Landlord Today a full statement about how the site works. It said:

 

“During AskTenants.co.uk property rating process, tenants are asked a few questions – answers to these questions are preselected to best answers in favour of property/landlord. If tenants do not agree with best answer they need to manually change the answer. In cases like mould, boiler, leaks and condensation a follow up question is then activated asking tenants if the problem is now fixed. If problem is resolved there is no negative scoring against the property. The rating process is very fair and defaulted in favour of property not having issues.

“Secondly, the questions are not only about property but parking, aircraft/traffic noise, safety in the area, traffic and other general questions nothing to do with landlord. We focus on property and area to help tenant with renting decision – not just on landlord. We have just one question out of 14 on landlord responsiveness. The way questions are phrased, a responsive landlord who deals with genuine requests of tenants will score well on ratings. 65% of properties rated on our website have a score above 7/11 and 38% have scores over 9/11.

“If a landlord does not agree with the rating or thinks that rating is not genuine they can ‘report the rating’. We take all reports very seriously. On receipt of the report we will contact the tenant on the registered email address and give them three days to respond.

“If landlord claims the tenant is not genuine we may request an image of a tenancy agreement or proof of addresses. If the landlord claims that property did not have problems called out by tenants we may request copies of correspondence with the landlord or/and images. If we do not receive the response we will exercise our discretion and take down or hide the rating so that it is no longer visible. We may decide to hide/take down the rating sooner if we find it suspicious. We aim to complete investigation and respond to landlords’ reports within seven days. The process is documented in terms of use policy on the website.

“Like all other review websites, ratings are views expressed by other users on our site. They do not represent our views or values. We will not be responsible or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any reviews, ratings or other content posted any user of our site.”

http://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/news_features/What-are-your-tenants-saying-about-your-property