Citizens Advice has provided further details of the research behind its claim that almost half of private renters have experienced rule-breaking behaviour by letting agents in the past three years, as some property professionals question how the findings were compiled.
The charity’s original report, published yesterday, stated that 48% of private renters who had dealt with a letting agent in the past three years had encountered behaviour that may have breached existing rules, equivalent to nearly four million renters nationally.
Following requests from readers for greater transparency around the research, Citizens Advice has shared the methodology and definitions used to arrive at its conclusions.
The findings are based on polling conducted by Yonder Data Solutions between 5 and 20 March 2026. A total of 4,017 private renters in England were surveyed, with separate sample groups used to examine different stages of the rental journey, including tenants currently living in agent-managed properties, those who had recently moved through a letting agent, and those who had moved out of a property managed by an agent within the past three years.
Citizens Advice said its headline figure was based on responses from tenants who currently live in a property managed by an agent, or who had engaged with a letting agent when moving into, living in, or moving out of a property during the previous three years.
The charity’s definition of “rule-breaking behaviour” extended beyond formal regulatory breaches and included a range of experiences reported by tenants. These included not being provided with key property information such as an Energy Performance Certificate, receiving incorrect or misleading information about a property, feeling pressured into taking a tenancy or a zero-deposit scheme, agents failing to provide appropriate notice before visits, concerns over the suitability of tradespeople sent to carry out repairs, and problems relating to the return of tenancy deposits.
The research relied on tenant self-reporting and Citizens Advice has not suggested that individual incidents were independently verified. Instead, the charity said the findings reflect renters’ reported experiences of dealing with letting agents.
To produce its estimate of nearly four million renters, Citizens Advice combined the survey findings with data from the English Housing Survey on the size of the private rented sector and average household composition. The charity also used polling data indicating that almost 73% of respondents had engaged with a letting agent in some capacity during the previous three years.
Separate findings from the research highlighted concerns over repairs and maintenance. Among renters living in agent-managed properties who had reported emergency disrepair issues, 68% said they waited more than 24 hours for an acknowledgement or response from their letting agent. Almost three in 10 said urgent or emergency repairs were never satisfactorily resolved.
The survey also examined the use of zero-deposit schemes. Of tenants who had used such a scheme, 51% said they were told it was required in order to secure the tenancy. Citizens Advice argues that requiring tenants to use a zero-deposit product as a condition of renting would be unlawful.
Financial pressures also featured heavily in the findings. The charity reported that 29% of renters had cut back on essentials such as food, heating or electricity to meet rental payments over the past year, while 32% said they had borrowed money or taken out credit to cover housing costs.
Deposit returns were another area highlighted by respondents. More than half of renters who had moved out of a property through a letting agent in the previous three years reported waiting longer than two weeks to receive all or part of their deposit back.
Citizens Advice said the findings underline the need for stronger protections and enforcement within the private rented sector, while the methodology provides further context around how the charity arrived at some of the headline figures that prompted debate across the industry.
