Owned and operated by The Dispute Service and in association with the National Residential Landlord’s Association (NRLA), TDS Resolution is a conciliation and mediation service that aims to facilitate a resolution between landlords and tenants without the need for further action.
The purpose of having a TDS mediator present is to help guide the negotiation in the right direction. TDS mediators will not impose a decision on anyone, their role is to help keep the parties on track and understand the landlord and tenant’s point of view, identifying a solution that can help them move forward amicably.
After extending the service a year ago to include further mid-tenancy issues such as repairs, entry rights and property standards, TDS shares the results and findings.
According to the data collected, TDS has found that the most common issues brought to the TDS Resolution service were rent arrears, breach of tenancy terms and repairs.
Percentage of requests by dispute areas
Property standards | 11.89% |
Repairs | 12.40% |
Entry rights | 7.24% |
Rent arrears | 36.95% |
Threatened evictions | 6.98% |
Breach of tenancy terms | 17.31% |
Noise/Anti-social behaviour (except serious anti-social activity) | 6.72% |
TDS Resolution is aimed at both TDS landlords and tenants. However, of all requests received, the majority of mid-tenancy requests have come from landlords with almost 74% over just 26% of tenants, a vast difference from our dispute resolution service that finds most complaints come from tenants at end of tenancy.
Landlords | 73.89% |
Tenants | 26.11% |
Tenants are telling us that the service is valuable to them and a useful tool to avoid eviction, come to an amicable agreement with their landlord, and sustain their tenancy. In light of this feedback, we're reaching out to further tenant support organisations so even more tenants are aware of this service.
TDS Resolution records the avenues we receive requests from in three categories. These include the Tenancy deposit scheme (TDS), NRLA and Other.
A breakdown of the results is as follows:
TDS | 36.59% |
NRLA | 38.67% |
Other | 24.74% |
“Other” has included internet searches, citizens advice, letting agents and word of mouth.
Arguably the most important statistic, is how successful TDS Resolution has been at providing a satisfactory mid-tenancy dispute resolution. Of the cases that have been within our remit, our success rate this year has been a very positive 85%
From our experience this past year, successful mediations with TDS Resolution occur where both parties are:
· Open and flexible during the process
· Willing to work closely with the mediator
· Clear as to what the desired outcome from the process is
· Prepared to make concessions
· Available
It is key that both parties engage in mediation as early as possible to nip disputes in the bud before issues escalate beyond repair.
You can find out more about how TDS Resolution works here.
