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Some common letters of complaint in the IELTS test are to…
It’s important to get the tone right and remain polite, however angry you are.
Here’s a basic template you can follow.
Get the full lesson and worksheet in The Members Academy.
You are a student at an English language school in London and you have been experiencing some problems in the flat. Write a letter to the landlord. In your letter
This totally depends. I would guess that you know your landlord‘s (first?) name, but it’s probably safer to use Dear Mr/Mrs Smith.
The same goes for your neighbour – this could depend on age/how well you know them, so the rules are quite relaxed.
But for a bus company or shop, use ‘Dear Sir or Madam’.
You may also need to introduce yourself (see model – it’s a good time to use Present Perfect e.g. to say how long you’ve been renting).
Start by saying something positive if you want to, and then lead into the problem e.g.
I was extremely happy with the (phone/flat) when I (bought it/moved in). However, I soon started experiencing a number of problems.
You may not have any other complaints, but it’s good to give further evidence to justify your complaint.
Take great care when you start with ‘Not only‘ – it causes ‘inversion’ as you can see here.
Normal word order: IT WAS cold.
Inversion: Not only WAS IT cold,…
This is a whole other lesson (coming next), as there are many ways of reporting what you were told by the shop manager or by the bus driver.
Here are a few patterns you can use:
Notice the tense change from:
Direct speech: ‘I’ll fix it’.
Indirect speech: ‘You said you would fix it’.
Yours sincerely, … (you know the name of the person you are writing to)
Yours faithfully, ... (you don’t know the name)
Regards or Best regards is also totally acceptable.
Dear Mr Smith
I am one of the tenants at your property in Brick Lane, and am writing to complain about the fact that we do not have any hot water or heating in our house.
As you know, we have been living in this house since June, and have always paid our rent on time. However, we have now been without heating or hot water for two weeks. This is making our lives very uncomfortable, especially as it is the middle of winter.
Ten days ago you promised to send a workman to our house within 2 days but no one came. After calling many times, the workman eventually arrived at the house five days later. Unfortunately he said he could not fix the problem because the water heater was too old. We are now extremely unhappy about this situation.
We are unable to go on living in the house in these conditions and we would ask you to fix the problem as a matter of urgency. Unless the heater is fixed or replaced within the next 24 hours, we will be forced to look for alternative accommodation. We also request a 50% refund on our rent for the period we have been without any hot water or heating.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Fiona Wattam
My 28-Day General Training Writing Course is designed to help you develop your ability to write in both formal, informal and semi-formal styles.
It takes you step by step through both Task 1 and Task 2 with
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I am a beginner of ielts. I want to learn about GT all modules.
Hi Savitha. Well this is a great place to start! Just click on the ‘TABS’ or ‘CATEGORIES’ in the sidebar to find LOTS of useful material to help you with GT all modules.
Let me know if you need anything specific,
Best wishes
Fiona