TDS Resolution, a mediation and conciliation service for landlords and tenants, is expanding the scope of its offer to include lettings agents.

The free mediation and conciliation service, which offers fair, impartial mid-tenancy dispute resolution between landlords and tenants in England and Wales.

Steve Harriott, group CEO of TDS, said: “TDS Resolution is a key part of our work, enabling landlords and tenants to work with our staff to reach a mutual agreement over in-tenancy disputes and hopefully prevent tenancies from being brought to an end. It’s one element of our strategic purpose of trying to make life easier for landlords and tenants.

“Up until now, we have only taken referrals from either tenants or landlords. We’re now opening that up to TDS member letting agents to refer potential disputes to us.”

TDS Resolution’s service is free of charge. It provides landlords, tenants and now TDS member agents with an independent and impartial means of resolving mid tenancy disputes in England and Wales.

The service helps with disputes over:

• Property standards

• Repairs

• Entry rights

• Rent arrears

• Threatened evictions

• Breach of tenancy terms

• Noise/Anti-social behaviour (except serious anti-social activity)

Sanam Khan, head of resolution operations, said: “TDS Resolution is helping to sustain tenancies by providing a resolution and conciliation service that allows parties to reach agreements quickly and easily. Through this service, parties can avoid the need to go through costly and lengthy court proceedings, allowing tenancies to continue without interruption.

“We are delighted to be able to extend our services to our TDS member agents, allowing them to use us to help resolve mid tenancy disputes promptly and efficiently. We have a team of experienced staff who can work with landlords and tenants to identify whether a mutually agreed resolution to the issue can be found.”

To begin the process with TDS Resolution, fill out the Resolution Referral Form on our website. Agents will need to be members of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and receive consent from the landlord to act on their behalf.

Within five working days, TDS Resolution will get in touch to let you know if they will take your case forward. If the other party is willing to engage, TDS Resolution will contact them and then either arrange an online or telephone mediation or speak to each party to resolve the matter within 10 working days.

The mediation will be tailored to the needs of the parties, and if a satisfactory resolution is achieved, both parties will receive a settlement agreement. If the mediation is not successful, both parties can request a certificate noting the attempt to mediate.