Estate agent or private landlord.

[secondchances]

May have to move. Problems with neighbour. Currently with private landlord but what would be the better choice? Estate agents or private landlord?

Sorry to hear that.

Ime agents are great as they ensure landlords do repairs and maintenance stuff on time. Landlords can't get away with taking the piss and if your heating suddenly stops working the agents come round the same day.

However agents won't be flexible about late rent like a private ll might. In my contract if I was 21 days late with rent it was grounds for eviction. When I left agents withheld £240 from deposit for professional cleaning (wasn't needed IMO ) as I treated the house like my own.

I'd go with agents as they protect you against unscrupulous lls.

We always go with an estate agent just because we like having an office to hound if something goes wrong. We lived in a house where the agent only found the property then had nothing to do with the let (we didn't know this until money had been paid) and it was a nightmare. Waited a week with no downstairs lighting in winter because he couldn't get in touch with the electrician to do mates rates and just ignored our calls. And when we had the massive rat because he'd not blocked a massive hole under the sink it took threatening to leave for him to get rent a kill in.
I've also lived in a house with a massive damp problem that ruined everything, I was on the phone to the agent pretty much every week for 6 months with various problems that in the end they moved us because the LL wouldn't make improvements and they were sick of us. If the LL had been a private one we'd have been in a much worse position because he wasn't willing to fix anything and we'd have nobody to harass.
On the other hand my MIL is a private LL, sorts everything out quickly, leaves you alone the rest of the time and let's you do what you want decor wise to the house and I'm sure there are lots more like her out there, but I'd be very careful in picking one.

A good landlord is better than an agency. An agency is better than a bad landlord. It depends how you want to gamble.

Agencies are ripoffs, IMO.
We're moving next week and the best place we found came with the trap of an agency - we had to find an extra £350 quid for them to send us some forms and then look them over. And now they're whining because our guarantor doesn't earn £18k a year (despite their own minimum requirement being a LOT less) when we live in an area where pretty much everyone is either retired or a min wage worker

A lot of new landlords will go with an agency though for their own safety, and technically yours. If you want to have that bit more security, at the risk of stricter rules and extra fees, then go with an agency.

Personally I've had better experiences with private landlords. Agencies are extortionate and are always sending people round to check things. If you get a good landlord they just leave you alone.

A good landlord is better than an agency. An agency is better than a bad landlord. It depends how you want to gamble.

^^
This.

Look at both - see if you see a house that you like, in the area that you want, within your budget.

We've never been in a position where this has been the deciding factor.

We've never been in a position where this has been the deciding factor.

I agree. If there's not much choice on the market, you will "choose" what there is. Some areas are LL/agents' markets. I've only been in a tenants' market in 2009 (credit crunch), and even then, the first attempt with an accidental LL came unstuck because he got cold feet from our attempts to negotiate, and cancelled the deal!

Simples.
Good private landlord over good estate agent. Acceptable estate agent over OK private landlord. Wouldn't rent with a shit estate agent or private landlord although that's not 100% straight forward to spot. ;-)

My private landlord was fabulous - it was his house so if anything was wrong, he sorted it straight away. I had proper cover for everything (British Gas, Dyno Rod etc)

The agents I rented from subsequently were awful. They managed my house (a private rental) and those either side (local authority). They left me with no heating for the entire winter after something went wrong and caused my boiler and the houses either side to stop working. They replaced my neighbours as there was a legal requirement as the houses had local authority tenants, but refused to do mine. There was also no cover - any problem, they just sent some random person from their offices - so if I had a problem at the weekend I had to wait until Monday.