Tech tools are ‘empowering’ tenants but some claims ‘without merit’
AI is allowing detailed complaints to be made fast by tenants, but often with inaccurate information, meaning that property agents are being distracted when trying to deal with complainants, according to Greg Tsuman, a past president of ARLA Propertymark.
He is calling for it to be mandatory under The Property Ombudsman’s rules for any complainant to disclose if they used AI to construct their grievance.
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.”
Design complaints procedures for the AI world
Tsuman said his company has a complaints procedure designed for the AI world. “The first point would be for the relevant office to deal with the complaint and then it would get passed on to the department head, and finally the compliance team.”
His company is also using AI to speed up analysis of multi-page complaint documents, although the response is always human. “We don’t use AI to respond to complaints, but we use it to do the heavy lifting so that we can see the wood from the trees. We then rely on human expertise to make a response.”
“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,” he said.
Merging information to create inaccurate ‘facts’
Ben Stokes, president-elect of ARLA Propertymark and a lettings director, also said that AI was often providing inaccurate data, such as merging knowledge from the internet about previous proposed government bills, such as the Renters’ Reform Bill.
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.”
Phil Spencer, founder of Move iQ, said agents should be prepared. “It’s worth reviewing the processes you already have in place so your team can quickly identify what’s factually correct and what isn’t, without it becoming a distraction from the day-to-day job.”
