Letting-agent maintenance calls: triage without waking the whole office

Mostly routine, with a few that can't wait. A dripping tap, a sticking window and a broken oven are calls for the morning. No heating in winter, a leak coming through a ceiling or a front door that won't lock aren't.

GOV.UK's guidance on repairs in private rented homes says landlords are always responsible for repairs to the structure and exterior, sanitary fittings including pipes and drains, heating and hot water, gas appliances, pipes, flues and ventilation and electrical wiring, as well as fire safety. It says tenants should contact their landlord straight away about faults that could damage their health, and that the landlord should tell them when they can expect the repair to be done. The rules are different in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

If you manage properties for landlords, those calls come to you, and the way you answer them is part of the service the landlord pays for.

Answering a repair call isn't the same as sorting it. If two people take the same report and one logs it as routine while the other calls a contractor out, tenants and landlords both lose faith in you. Consistency comes from a list, not from whoever happens to pick up.

Use your own written list, agreed with your landlords, so that whoever answers follows the list rather than their own judgement. Here's an example to adapt. It's illustrative, not a legal definition.

Some calls depend on who's living there. No heating in a home with a baby or an elderly tenant may need to move up a category, so add questions about that to your list. Whatever you decide, write it down so every call is treated the same way.

The gas emergency number, straight away, before anything else. That call is for the gas emergency service, not your contractor.

Anyone who reports a smell of gas should be given the gas emergency number for where they are: 0800 111 999 in Great Britain (National Gas) or 0800 002 001 in Northern Ireland (nidirect).

Put this at the top of your list and in your out-of-hours greeting. After the tenant has made that call, your on-call person can follow up with the landlord and any repair needed.

Enough for a contractor to turn up with the right parts and get in without a second phone call.

1. 1The tenant's name, phone number and the property address.
2. 2What's wrong, in the tenant's own words, and when it started.
3. 3Where in the property it is, and whether it's getting worse.
4. 4Whether anyone is at risk, such as no heating with a baby or an elderly tenant at home.
5. 5Whether they've done anything already, such as turning off the water at the stopcock.
6. 6When the contractor can get in, and whether you can use your keys.
7. 7Photos, if the tenant can send them.

Photos save a wasted trip. A follow-up message after the call, asking the tenant to send pictures of the problem, often tells a contractor more than a description does.

The same way every time, with everything the contractor needs in one message.

1. 1Check the job against the landlord's instructions, such as a spending limit or a preferred contractor.
2. 2Send the contractor the address, the problem, the access details and the tenant's contact number.
3. 3Tell the tenant who is coming and roughly when.
4. 4Tell the landlord what's been reported and what's been arranged.
5. 5Log the job, and close it when the contractor confirms it's done.

Keep a short list of contractors who'll take emergency jobs out of hours, with their numbers, so the person on call isn't searching for someone at 11pm.

With one person on call for emergencies and something that answers every other call. That's the difference between one negotiator being woken up for a gas leak and the whole office being rung about a dripping tap.

Our guide to out-of-hours calls for estate and letting agents covers the sales side of the same evenings, and our general guide to out-of-hours call answering compares the options for any business. Our estate agent answering service guide covers what it costs.