What proportion of the property owners that you currently deal with would you be likely to recommend?

The minority of occupiers are likely to recommend all or most of the landlords they deal with	We have good relationships with all our landlords. They are all reasonable. 'We're on very good terms with most of the landlords we deal with and the majority of them will accept our recommendations and apply common sense. A few are less obliging.'
The majority feel able to recommend only half or less than half of the landlords they deal with	'I would only recommend one or two. This is our second highest cost in the company and we don't have any satisfaction from it.' 'I would recommend only 10% of those that I deal with. We deal mainly with private landlords and I would not recommend them.'
Many occupiers cite the lack of a working relationship as their main reason for not recommending a landlord	'A huge proportion of property owners that we deal with are anonymous to us. We have no relationship with them at all. Overall I would say that I would recommend only 10%.' 'I think that only a few take the relationship between landlord and tenant seriously.' 'Regarding professional landlords I could recommend a handful, but with investment landlords it is difficult to build relationships.' 'I've got over a thousand different landlords. This is a difficult question to answer. I would probably say only a very few. I only hear from them when they want the rent or service charge paid.'
Some would recommend only larger landlords	'I would recommend about half of the landlords, mainly the larger ones with good in-house management departments.' 'The ones I would recommend tend to be the larger ones, who have "preferred landlord" status within our group.'
However, some view the larger, institutional landlords as primarily sales led	'Some of the very large ones are the worst. They need a sea change in their approach. It's too sales-led. They are unconcerned with corporate occupiers once they have closed the deal.' 'I don't believe that we have a very symbiotic relationship especially with the large institutional landlord. They don't really care for their customers unless it's a threat to their income stream.'
Some occupiers report favourably on smaller landlords	'It's a mixture. A host of small landlords, who just have one or two industrial sheds, can be much more reasonable than the institutions.'
Some respondents feel that it is difficult to recommend a landlord because they have no choice over the matter	'You can really only recommend if you have a choice. If you want a property in a particular location you are forced to accept the landlord, warts and all.' 'In general, you don't have a choice about your landlord. If you want to move onto a particular retail park, you take whoever the landlord is.' 'It's not a pre-arranged marriage. An investment organisation has acquired or produced something and you wish to occupy a pitch in it to trade your wares. You're not selecting a partner; it's a lucky dip with an unknown entity.'