Nearly every landlord in the country will have had the experience of their tenant ringing them up to say that they need to call out an electrician or other tradesman to fix a device that has gone wrong.

It can be a pain for the property owner to sort out issues with the electrics in a property, but it is fair enough for the person living there to pass the responsibility on to the landlord.

As well as it being important to stay within the law in terms of fixing problems in a house or flat, there is another reason why it could be a wise move by property letters to act promptly when something like this happens.

By calling a 24 hour electrician straight away, you are cementing a solid relationship with the tenant, which is a very important thing to consider, according to David Lawrenson, private rented sector expert at LettingFocus.com.

He said: "I don't think you should be their friend, but you should have a proactive business relationship with them and sort things out quickly when things go wrong - that is a key thing to do."

His comments were made following the release of a report by the National Landlords Association (NLA), which indicated that the majority of property letters have a good relationship with tenants.

The study found just one per cent said their relationship was poor, three per cent described it as adequate, while 34 per cent and 61 per cent lauded it as good and very good respectively.

Mr Lawrenson noted that this figure may be slightly generous compared with the national average since the organisation only spoke to landlords that are associated with the NLA.

In his opinion, the landlord-tenant relationship is not generally as bad as people tend to think, but is probably slightly worse than these latest figures suggest.