Letter Sample #8 – Letter to your landlord about the furniture

GT Writing Task 1 (Letter Writing) Sample # 8

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

You and your family are living in a rented accommodation in an English speaking country. You are not satisfied with the condition of some of the furniture.

Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter:

• introduce yourself
• explain what is wrong with the furniture
• say what action you would like the landlord to take

Write at least 150 words.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ……….,

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Model Answer 1:

Dear Mr Alfred,

I am Paul Hewson, a tenant at your Rasberry apartment on the Hudson street. I, along with my family, moved to your apartment last month and was very excited about the accommodation arrangement but disappointed with some of the furniture’s condition. I am hoping that you will replace them soon.

In relation to the specifics of the damaged furniture, the sofa set is torn out and have many rusty scratches. It is unusable. Dents on the wooden floor in the drawing room is quite visible and it needs some repair works. The cabinet in the kitchen has some broken drawers and finally, the dining table is missing a chair.

As a solution, and because I really like the apartment and its location, I would request you to inspect the furniture and either fix or replace them as early as possible.

Thank you for giving the matter your attention and I hope to hear your reply soon.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Hewson

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Sample Answer 2:

Dear Mr James,

I am Sarah Jerin and I moved into your apartment on Ranger street with my husband and daughter last Saturday. I am writing to bring your attention to some damaged furniture in the apartment.

The main issue is the kitchen cabinet which is partially broken. It needs immediate repair works. Moreover, the dining table is in poor condition and has uneven legs. Finally, the dining table is missing a chair and another one has a broken leg!

I would highly appreciate if you could replace the dining table and arrange two new chairs for it. You need to call a repairman to work on the kitchen cabinet as well. Perhaps, you can have a cup of tea with us next Sunday and look at the conditions of the faulty furniture yourself.

I hope you will make arrangments to have it resolved as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely,

Sarah Jerin

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Tips:
A letter to a landlord/landlady or a neighbour is a semi-formal letter. You should start the letter with the salutation “Dear Mr John” (replace “John” with any name you prefer). In British English, we use “Mr” while many Americans prefer to use “Mr.” (a dot after Mr).

The letter first gives you a scenario which in this case is “You and your family are living in a rented accommodation in an English speaking country. You are not satisfied with the condition of some of the furniture.”

Then it says whom to write the letter and what points you should highlight in your letter as instructions in three bullet points.

The first bullet point asks you to introduce yourself for which you say your full name and which apartment you reside in. You can also mention how long you have been living in this apartment with your family.

The second bullet point instructs you to talk about the poor conditions of the furniture which you are not satisfied with. You should be very specific here.

For the third and final bullet point, you are expected to explain what you want your landlord to do about the faulty furniture.

At the end of the letter, you can write “Thank you for giving the matter your attention and I hope to hear from you soon” and then sign off your letter.

Since this is a semi-formal letter, you should sign off as:

Yours sincerely,

Your full name (either your real name or a fictitious name).

Note: You should write a paragraph for each bullet point but your letter should not contain any bullet point.