What landlords want from their letting agents

Times are challenging for letting agents.

The rise of online agents like OpenRent has made it simple for landlords to advertise directly on Rightmove and Zoopla, bypassing traditional agents. OpenRent are the biggest letting agent in the UK, with almost 13% of the lettings market in 2023, and they’re still growing. I’m one of their customers.

In fact, according to raw data from TwentyEa analysed by Chris Watkin, 51.2% of OpenRent’s listings in 2023 were last listed with a high street letting agent. This means that high street letting agents lost over 81,000 private rental properties to OpenRent in 2023 – that’s 6.6% of all UK lettings listings in 2023.

Adding to increased competition is the the ongoing fallout from the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which resulted in landlords being charged many of the fees that tenants previously paid. This is all at a time when the restriction on mortgage tax relief and increased mortgage costs have cut into landlords’ margins, making them question if they’re getting value from their letting agents.

What can letting agents do to grow their businesses, and have more landlords on the books, in these difficult times?

Why are so many landlords choosing to use the likes of OpenRent?

Letting agents may focus on wonderful branding and marketing to win more landlords. However, if they don’t concentrate on providing what landlords actually want, the time and money they spend on marketing will be like running a big bath without putting in the plug.

If agents do provide landlords with what they want, they’re less likely to leave, and the bath will fill up with water, with the overflow being natural churn.

In this blog post, I discuss what landlords want from letting agents and why so many have become dissatisfied with the service provided by agents. I start with my own experience, and supplement this with comments from landlords in The Independent Landlord Community Facebook Group about what they want from letting agents.

If letting agents focus on offering a service so great that landlords want to stay, they’ll find their customers also become their biggest evangelists.

Note: I wrote this blog post in August 2024, when renewals and renewal fees still existed. I closed my Facebook group in August 2025 when I set up my membership, The Independent Landlord Hub. I’ve left this blog post as a snapshot of what landlords were saying about agents in 2024, but updated the OpenRent charges so they are accurate as of 13 July 2026.

My experience of using high street letting agents

When I was an accidental landlord in 2019, it didn’t occur to me to find tenants myself. I simply called up the agent with the most amount of boards in the area. They found good tenants for me, sorted out the compliance, and I took on the management. (I have never seen the value in paying someone to manage my properties – even this one that was over 100 miles from my home).

The service was fine, although I winced at the cost. They charged me £2,040, including the inventory and the deposit fee. The rent was £1,495 pcm, so I was well into my second month before the rent had paid for the agent’s fees. They also charged me £240 for the tenancy “renewal” when the fixed term expired, even though the rent didn’t increase (this was during the pandemic).

Roll forward to 2021, and my fourth experience of using high street letting agents on what was then a portfolio of three properties. I had become very dissatisfied with the agents. The service was extremely slow: they didn’t return calls, we waited 3 weeks for the tenancy agreement, the referencing was slow and they didn’t pass important information about the refurb onto applicants. There was no floor plan and the amateur photos were dreadful.

To top it all, the lettings manager didn’t brief the junior who did the viewings properly. This was despite the fact I’d prepared a note in a word document for them to give him.

Everything was filtered through an unqualified, inexperienced agent, and I got fed up. My chosen tenant was stressed, as she was wanting to have the tenancy agreement signed before she could serve notice.

I began to wonder why I was paying for a premium service, when I wasn’t getting it.

It was my tenant (who is still with me) who suggested I use OpenRent another time. She told me it would be less hassle and save me a lot of money. She was right. I haven’t looked back. And this experience led me to set up this blog.

The rise of online letting agents

The launch in 2012 of OpenRent has been a real game-changer for landlords, as it enabled landlords like myself to advertise their properties on Rightmove for a mere £20 in 2012. Even today, OpenRent’s basic advertising package is only £29, plus £70 for Rightmove.

Their more expensive (£129) RentNow package (including Rightmove) takes care of the compliance, tenancy agreement, holding deposit, deposit receipt and registration, and the first month’s rent.

It’s extraordinarily good value, and I actually find it less hassle than using conventional agents as I’m not continually chasing them. It’s also good for my bank balance.

It’s no wonder that landlords are using OpenRent and similar providers such as Hello Neighbour in ever increasing numbers.

That said, many landlords don’t have the time or inclination to use online agents, and there will always be landlords who want agents to find tenants and manage their property for them. It’s this group of landlords that letting agents need to understand and target with a service that matches the marketing.

What percentage of landlords use high street letting agents?

There are no accurate figures for the percentage of landlords who use high street letting agents, and those who don’t.

The 2021 English Private Landlord Survey states that only 18% use an agent for property management services, with 82% doing it themselves. They say that 54% of landlords don’t use agents for letting services.

However, these figures aren’t reliable because the sample they use for the figures is skewed.

Buried in the footnotes of the EPLS is the statement that these figures were based on questions to “landlords who registered deposits themselves – figures for landlords whose agents registered deposits are not included in this analysis”.

As most agents register the deposit for the landlord, the vast majority of landlords who use agents won’t be reflected in the numbers.

Consequently, it’s highly likely the figure of 18% understates the number of landlords who use agents for property management.

What do landlords expect from their letting agents?

If letting agents want to retain landlords, they need to understand what landlords expect.

Pretty much every letting agent will talk about “trust”, “peace of mind”, “expertise”, “compliance” and even “reducing stress”. But how many actually deliver on these generic promises?

I asked members of my landlord-only Facebook group, The Independent Landlord Community, what they expect from letting agents. Here’s a sample of the comments, grouped into headings, which should be required reading for all letting agents:

1. Competence, reliability and efficiency

• “I would love a ‘John Lewis’ style agent – fair price (not necessarily cheap but good value), great customer service, trustworthy, quality, ethical, reliable. All the things my last agent wasn’t! “
• “I’d love an agent who is competent, and knows what they’re doing.”
• “Organise repairs quickly”.
• “If the agent is able to perform the job like what private landlord would do themself, I think it’s already worth the cost as it saves me time”.
• ‘Reliability, for instance, not needing me to continually remind them that the gas safety certificate is due”.
• “I would really like them to use their own initiative & common sense”.
• “The recurring theme has been that they haven’t carried out the basic actions set out in their contract – regular inspections, addressing maintenance problems and keeping landlords informed of any issues”.
• “I would like agents to accept that we want to look after our houses and keep our tenants but that we are not here to accede to each and every whim”.
• “Do what they say they’re going to do”.
• “I would want them to carry out thorough inspections and let me know of any changes, breakages, suspected breaches of contract. I guess for them to really represent me they would need to treat my property as if it were their own”.
• “I want rents to land in my bank the day they are paid”.
• “I’ve used two different lettings agents, the first is never on top of renewing tenancies, we have to chase them for gas safety certificates etc. The other proactively discusses lease renewals 2 months before expiry. Like chalk and cheese”.
• “In the past I have always used an agent to find a tenant only but I’ve always ended up having to ask the agent to find out more information about the tenants to see if they are suitable. In my opinion they don’t vet the potential tenants as much as I would as I guess they haven’t the same vested interest”.
• “They over promise, over charge and generally under deliver…”
• “Have a whole department that deals with regulatory compliance like gas certificates and EICRs”.

2. Care and attention

• “Letting agents are awful. They don’t care about the tenant or landlord as they have zero reason to. All my properties are managed by myself as I clearly have a vested interest in the quality of the tenant that moves into the property. You cannot beat self managing your own properties and it also saves you fortune if you have a large portfolio”.
• “Take care of the property as if it’s their own”.
• “While it is understandable they landlord would generally take more care on their property and tenant, I would still like the property manager can also perform the similar level of services to the tenant and the landlord so that I don’t need to crosscheck their work”.
• “Agents never take care of your investment as well as you will”.

3. Good communication skills

• “I don’t want an agent to behave like a messaging service when l give them full management. Often this is the case, passing the messages between landlord and tenant. I do want them to use their common sense, probe more in resolving problems. Most of the time l have to pick up the phone and call the tenant directly to find out more about the issue”.
• “Respond to the tenant’s reasonable requests, good communication, be compliant, be honest etc”.
• “I’m fed up with constantly having to chase up and follow up on emails when they should be proactive”.
• “I would also like them to notify us on the day, or at least the day after, when a tenant is late paying”.
• “Return my calls and emails promptly”.

4. Transparency and fair charges

• “They should charge a fair fee for doing a proper job, without secret extra charges (eg kickbacks from contractors), and including all of their costs in the fee (ie no renewals/rent increase, inspection charges etc)”.
• “I would want agents to be honest and transparent with me, to keep me in the loop about what is going on with tenants and convey any issues”.
• “I don’t find their pricing structure for finding tenants or maintenance transparent”.
• “We pay for fully managed and as such should not be charged a trades surcharge of 10% on any invoice for repairs even though it’s hidden in the price trades pay to the agents”.
• “Don’t add any mark up onto repairs. Jobs issues to contractors once quotes are accepted”.
• “Fixed fee per month management no renewal fees etc”.

5. Accountability

• “All the time it’ll be me that has to chase through courts for arrears, and it’ll be me that gets fined for not protecting deposits properly, and it’ll be me that gets jailed for endangering occupiers, there seems little enticement to engage an agent who can just walk away from the above”.
• “Not fob me off when something goes wrong”.

It all comes down to good old-fashioned service from people who know what they’re doing.

>> Related Post: How landlords can get the best from letting agents

What makes landlords leave letting agents?

Letting agents need to spend more time understanding why landlords leave. It’s easy to put it down to cost savings, and often that will be part of the reason. But it won’t be the only reason.

Landlords leave agents because they feel they aren’t getting what they were promised, and what they are paying for.

Here are some more comments from landlords in The Independent Landlord Community Facebook Group:

• “The recurring theme has been that they haven’t carried out the basic actions set out in their contract – regular inspections, addressing maintenance problems and keeping landlords informed of any issues”.
• ‘They have generally been unreliable for some time”.
• “My property is “fully managed” by a letting agent and I use the term loosely as it has come to light and I believe no inspections have been carried out due to the fact that when questioned I have been told that it has been done but cannot provide any records/dates or reports. There has been a leak from a dripping tap that the tenants reported months ago and nothing has been done about it. They didn’t tell us and now there’s a lot of damage. I want to sack them but they are saying I can’t terminate”.
• “I’m with an agency that broke a contract. The two main reasons are the lack of inspection, and the failure to renew the gas certificate… (9 month gap). I decided to take over the tenant myself. Yesterday the agency informed me that they don’t have a check in inventory, even though I paid for one… And they won’t let me leave”.
• “I want to share my deep frustration and fatigue with my agents. Consistently, I have raised serious concerns in previous correspondence regarding the lack of coherence between promises made by them and actual actions taken. They didn’t renew the gas safety certificate, and this poses significant risks not only to my tenant but also to the legal compliance of tenancy agreement. Yet they won’t let me terminate the agreement until the tenant leaves!!”

>> Related Post: How to terminate the management contract with your letting agents

How should letting agents keep landlords happy?

Reading the comments above, it is clear that focusing on the basics of letting and property management will go a long way to keeping landlords happy. Good communication, regular inspections, prompt and appropriate handling of repairs, making sure gas safety certificates are done on time. It’s not rocket science.

Letting agents also need to figure out who their target market is, and offer the right service levels and the right price point.

Does the letting agent offer a premium service with premium pricing? A Waitrose rather than an Aldi. If so, the service must match the price.

There’s nothing wrong with being an Aldi, so long as the agent invests in the IT needed to get economies of scale to offer low pricing. The service also needs to be compliant, and do what it says in the tin.

Any extras should be fair and transparently communicated to landlords. Agents shouldn’t receive kickbacks on repairs.

Finally, don’t use scare tactics to win or keep landlords. I roll my eyes whenever I get a call telling me about the number of regulations landlords have to comply with. Normally, asking them if they have a Level 3 qualification does the trick.

Landlords shouldn’t rely on agents for compliance. The buck stops with the landlord and “let and forget” is a myth. Landlords need to understand the rules themselves so that they can make sure their agent is doing the right thing. That’s not always a given. It’s why I recommend that landlords accompany agents on at least one inspection a year.

What should letting agents do if a landlord wants to leave?

If a landlord tells a letting agent that they want to leave, the agent should see this as a learning opportunity as to how to improve their service.

Just as good employers arrange exit interviews with a neutral person when an employee leaves, letting agents should set up a process where someone not involved in the management of the property speaks to the landlord to find out how they can improve their service.

This involves leaning into the feedback, and not dismissing it. The customer is always right after all.

A fair approach is to release landlords who have been with the agent for at least 12 months by asking them to serve one month’s notice.

Why letting agents should not try to lock landlords in

It is counter-productive for letting agents to try to stop landlords going by charging them high exit fees or requiring a long notice period.

Not only is this approach likely to be a breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or an unenforceable penalty, and will mean that the landlord leaves with a bad experience.

Landlords talk, and unhappy landlords talk even more. Here’s a flavour of what landlords talk about in Facebook groups:

• “Currently I have 3 properties being fully managed by [name of agent] (they are awful) for the past 3 years. I would like to stop using their services all together and take back the properties to manage myself. BUT they are being sneaky, as in their “Terms of Business” in order to stop using them, I had to pay a fee – it is a % of ALL the rental payment from the BEGINNING of the tenancy!”
• “Tenant has been there 6 years. [Name of agent] have given me cause to complain numerous times over that period, but final straw came when tenants contacted me directly to complain about agent. Agent’s response was that if I want to terminate the lettings agreement I’d have to evict the tenants – yes they literally said that! And agents wonder why they’ve got a bad rep “
• ‘Don’t go anywhere near [name of agent]. Not only are they useless, but they are trying to stop me leaving by relying on something in the small print.

>> Related Post: What to look out for in the small print of letting agent contracts

>> Related Resource: Hello Neighbour’s campaign to stop renewal fees

Final thoughts

For letting agents to build a sustainable business, they should put the needs of their customers (landlords) and their customers (tenants) at the heart of their business.

Plot the customer journey, and the services that need to be provided along that journey. Look at how to improve efficiencies, and improve the experience for landlords and tenants.

Be reliable, communicate well, and above all, be fair and reasonable.

Train your staff. Make a virtue of the fact your employees all have a Level 3 qualification. How can they advise landlords if they don’t understand the many laws that govern letting and property management?

Don’t try to lock in landlords aggressively with unfair terms. It’s shortsighted and isn’t in the best interests of anyone, including the letting agent.