A semi-formal letter to your landlord
Semi-formal with something at stake: firm about the problems, warm enough to keep the relationship. Written online against the clock, self-assessed against the four criteria, beside the Band 7.5+ model I wrote.
How to use this. Write the letter in the box below in about twenty minutes, at least 150 words, as in the real test. Cover all three bullet points and hold a consistent register throughout. When you've finished, open Self-assessment to mark your own work against the four criteria and read the Band 7.5+ model letter I wrote for it. You can download a copy to keep. For a person to mark your writing against the criteria, the first lesson includes a full assessment. New to the letter? Start with the GT Writing: the letter guide. The same register: paper 03, the request to a manager.
Write the letter.
Recommended 20 minutes · at least 150 words
You rent a flat and several things in it need repairing. You have already mentioned them to your landlord once. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter:
- describe the problems that need repairing
- explain how they are affecting your daily life
- say what you would like your landlord to do, and by when
Write at least 150 words. You do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter Dear ...,
Mark your own work.
Be honest with yourself against the four criteria, the same four an examiner uses on the letter. Then read the model letter and see exactly what a Band 7.5+ answer does.
Task Achievement
Coherence & Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The model letter I wrote for this task
Dear Mrs Okafor,
Thank you for arranging the boiler service last month. I am writing, as I mentioned briefly on the phone, because three problems in the flat now need proper attention.
First, the bathroom extractor fan has stopped working, and mould has started to appear on the ceiling as a result. Second, the kitchen tap drips constantly, which is beginning to show in the water bill. Third, the latch on the balcony door no longer locks, which worries me from a security point of view.
Together these are making the flat harder to live in than it should be: I am cleaning mould off the ceiling every week, and I do not feel comfortable leaving the flat with the balcony unsecured.
Could I ask you to send a contractor within the next two weeks? I am home most evenings and happy to give access at whatever time suits them, and I can send photographs of all three problems in advance if that helps.
Thank you for dealing with this.
Kind regards,
Leila Haddad
Why it scores. The middle register is held throughout: first-name warmth is avoided, legal chill is avoided. The three problems arrive numbered and concrete, the effect on daily life is shown rather than declared, and the request carries both a deadline and an offer of cooperation, which completes the third bullet properly.
Where a letter like this usually loses marks. Sliding to either pole: the letter that begins I hereby request that remedial works be undertaken, or the one that begins Hi, the flat is falling apart. The subtler loss is the missing deadline: please fix them soon leaves the third bullet half-covered.
This is a model letter I wrote for this task, not a marked student submission. For a person to mark a letter of yours against the four criteria, the first lesson is a full assessment.
Take your work with you.
Download your letter alongside the model, so you can revise it later or bring it to a lesson.
First time writing a letter? Work through the GT Writing: the letter guide, then write this one against the clock.
Send a task. Get it back marked.
A model shows you the target. It can’t tell you why your own letter sits below it.
Write the letter above and send it to me. I’ll mark it in detail against the four assessment criteria and return it to you annotated, line by line, so you can see exactly where the band is sitting and what is holding it down. Written work is handled this way around the lessons, sent over and returned marked between sessions, which keeps the fifty minutes themselves free for speaking. The first lesson is a full assessment. Regular lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English.