One in five landlords has returned early from a holiday to help tenants

On average, landlords visited their property three times in the last 12 months to carry out repairs

Two bedroom flat to rent at Beaufort Court, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff CF10. On with Northwood UK at £650 pcm (£150 pw)

Seven out of ten claim to have drastically changed their plans in the past year to help out a tenant with a household repair, claims a new report

The research from AA Home Membership shows that in the past year 20 per cent of the 200 landlords questioned had returned from a holiday early. Eighteen per cent said they had taken time off work and 16 per cent had left a wedding or other special event. However, around 30 per cent said they had done none of these.

"Being a landlord is time-consuming," said Helen Brooker, Head of AA Home Membership, "especially as they’re ‘on-call’ twenty-four hours a day. Landlords often get a bad reputation for not helping out their tenants when they’re needed, but our research shows that’s often not the case."

A separate survey of 2,000 tenants showed that only 27 per cent say they know who to contact in their landlord’s absence.

On average, landlords had to visit their property three times in the past year to carry out repairs which cost an average of £296.

The research also highlights the trend of ‘accidental landlords’ - including people who have moved and had difficulty selling their home, so rent it out instead - showing that just a quarter always intended to ‘buy to let’.