Task 1 General · Semi-formal letter · Housing
Repairs a landlord has not carried out
A semi-formal letter to a named landlord — the register that trips candidates up most, because it is neither a complaint to a stranger nor a note to a friend.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Mr Aldridge,
You have reported repairs to your landlord several times and nothing has been done. Write a letter to your landlord, Mr Aldridge, about the situation.
- Explain what repairs are needed and how long they have been outstanding
- Describe the effect the situation is having on you
- Say what you would like your landlord to do
A 150-word letter in a formal, semi-formal or personal register. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The semi-formal register only works when firmness and goodwill sit in the same sentence; the 6.5 letter has neither, the 7.5 has the firmness, and the 9 has both.
The three answers
Band 6.5
168 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
Dear Mr Aldridge,
I am writing this letter to remind you about the repairs in the flat which I have reported to you several times but until now nothing has been done about them.
As you know, the boiler is not working properly since the beginning of November2, so we have hot water only sometimes. I reported this problem to you on 3 November and again on 18 November. There is also a leak under the kitchen sink which I told you about in the same phone call, and the cupboard floor is now damaged because of the water.
This situation is really making my life difficult. In the mornings there is often no hot water and it's not nice for my family.3 I hope you can understand my situation.
Could you please send a plumber as soon as possible to fix these problems? I am at home in the afternoons so it is not a problem for me4. Thank you for your understanding.
Yours faithfully, A. Bergström1
What an examiner notices
1. Lexical resource
“Yours faithfully, A. Bergström”
The letter opens 'Dear Mr Aldridge' and closes 'Yours faithfully'. A named recipient takes 'Yours sincerely' — a small convention, but examiners notice it immediately.
2. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the boiler is not working properly since the beginning of November”
'Has not been working' is needed for a situation continuing from a past point to now. The meaning survives, which is characteristic of this band.
3. Task achievement
“In the mornings there is often no hot water and it's not nice for my family.”
This is the whole of the second bullet. 'Not nice' gives the landlord no sense of the disruption and no reason to prioritise the repair.
4. Lexical resource
“I am at home in the afternoons so it is not a problem for me”
'Problem' used for the third time in two paragraphs, and here in a different sense from the two before it.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 General · Semi-formal letter
Asking a tutor for an assignment extension
A request rather than a complaint, where the band 9 letter wins by making the extension easy to grant instead of hard to refuse.
- Task 1 General · Formal letter
Complaint to a delivery company about a damaged item
A formal complaint where the band 6.5 letter keeps slipping into the tone of a text message, and the band 9 letter gets angry without ever sounding it.
- Task 1 General · Formal letter
Objecting to a development on public land
A formal objection to a local council, where the difference between bands is the difference between saying you are unhappy and giving an official something they can act on.