Letting agents face new challenge as tenants turn to AI for complaints

6:59 AM, 12th August 2026, 4 hours ago

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Letting agents are being warned to watch out for AI-generated tenant complaints as the use of artificial intelligence continues to grow.

Propertymark is warning members that while AI presents opportunities for the lettings sector, it also brings several challenges, particularly when dealing with tenant complaints and disputes.

The warning comes as the government admits it has not assessed tenants’ use of AI in housing disputes.

Potential false sense of awareness

Greg Tsuman, a past President of ARLA Propertymark, has noticed that many AI programmes can generate a well-worded complaint that previously would have taken them a long time to compile.

He said: “With the rise of AI, we have seen a spike in complex and intricate complaints. We are now having to spend time and effort addressing multipart points and complaints that are sometimes without grounds.

“AI tends to be very much user-biased, it can tell you what you want to hear, and it can lead people into a potential false sense of awareness where the complaint might be without true merit.”

Mr Tsuman says it should be mandatory under The Property Ombudsman’s rules for any complainant to disclose if AI was used to construct the correspondence.

He adds: “AI shouldn’t prevent any complaint from going ahead because it may have assisted in making the communication clearer for the respondent to review.

“The aim would be to prevent potential spurious complaints that might be seen as a ‘scattergun’ approach, where tenants might potentially end up including details which aren’t correct or are taken out of context.”

Blow small situations out of proportion

Ben Stokes, president-elect of ARLA Propertymark and a Lettings Director, says he has seen tenants merge information from the internet about previous proposed government bills, such as the Renters’ Reform Bill, and use it to point people towards information that is no longer accurate.

He said: “It can be difficult to navigate AI complaints that someone has not written, especially when the legal stance is not correct. We check them carefully and respond in a way that points tenants in the right direction.

“The biggest thing we are finding is that AI tools are empowering people to complain about things and blow small situations out of proportion.”

AI can present opportunities

However, the industry body also said AI presents opportunities for letting agents, but warned they must be careful about how it is used.

Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, said: “For many property agents, AI can cut administration and enable agents to concentrate more on communication and customer service. However, such ambitions cannot be achieved if property agents are spending considerable time assessing whether specific complaints were written using AI tools or not.

“When it comes to the property profession, AI should always be deployed in a manner that enhances the consumer experience. It must always be used with honesty and fairness at the core of its intended use, with full human oversight and ongoing evaluation, review and scrutiny.”