A landlord approached TDS Resolution, a mid-tenancy mediation and conciliation service, to seek assistance in resolving rent arrears issues with their tenants during their ongoing tenancy.

The claim

A TDS Resolution Coordinator contacted the landlord to discuss their rent arrears enquiry and discovered the landlord also required confirmation of who was living at the property.

Additionally, he also needed to arrange a date to conduct an inspection; Firstly, to see if any repairs or maintenance were required, and secondly, after a gas safety engineer visited, they raised concerns over items that were being left on top of the cooker and clutter throughout the property.

Both the landlord and tenant provided consent to TDS Resolution, and mediation was arranged.

The landlord attended mediation very unhopeful of a successful outcome but still wanted to try what they could to help improve communication with their tenant and resolve the mid-tenancy issues.

The mediation session

The session took around two hours. The mediator took on a facilitator role to ensure both parties remained on the right track and focused on the task in hand. Both the tenant and landlord were keen to resolve the dispute and work towards building a better relationship, especially as they lived next door to each other.

The session was held via Microsoft Teams in a three-way video call. Each party made their representations and expressed their desired outcomes from the session.

The landlord wanted a written agreement that would include a payment plan so that the rent arrears could be cleared, access to the property for an inspection to take place so that they could address any maintenance works required, the tenant to agree to keep the property uncluttered/clean, and provide to the landlord full names and contact details for who was residing at the property.

Further issues arose during mediation that were not previously mentioned, but were also addressed during the session.

The compromise agreement

After discussions, the parties came to a compromise.

• An apology was made to each other over what the tenant felt was forced access into the property, the landlord insisted that they did not let themselves in as they knocked before entering and the door was opened for them.

• Rent arrears would be split over the next three months to clear the arrears.

• Agreement for an inspection to be carried out by an independent inventory company within the next 4 weeks.

• The landlord would lend garden trimmers to the tenant, for the tenant and grandson to maintain the hedges in the front garden.

• Agreement to provide to the landlord the full names and contact details of the tenant’s adult children living at the property.

• It was found that the tenant also kept a cat without prior permission. However, the landlord compromised and agreed that as long as the house was kept clean and uncluttered the cat could stay.

The parties agreed to the compromise resulting in a successful mediation and a mutual understanding demonstrating the importance of communication.

Sanam Khan is head of resolution operations at the The Dispute Service