Mediation

There is a lot of law surrounding leases. When things go wrong the natural response is to go to court to resolve the dispute.
As an agent we try to give the best advice to our client, the landlord, and to tell the tenant the legal position as we understand it. Very rarely things go wrong sufficiently badly for the parties involved to think about going to law. Because we act as agent for the landlord we have no option but to do as they instruct, so we cannot be even handed with respect to both parties. It is not that we dislike tenants - quite the reverse - but we are bound to act for our client and are bound by the agency agreement between us.
A party that can act independently is a mediator. This article explains the situations where it might be advantageous to use one as an alternative to going to law. It is by Martin Plowman and is available on the Landlord Law website, here.