Written by
Sarah Nguyen
Published on
Jan 9, 2026
Maintenance is the hardest part of letting agency operations to scale. It’s unpredictable, urgent, and constant — and as portfolios grow, the workload grows with them. What works for 20 properties quickly breaks at 200.
Automation isn’t about removing human judgement or control. It’s about removing the noise that forces teams to spend their time chasing information instead of managing outcomes.
Why maintenance is so difficult to scale
Unlike renewals or inspections, maintenance doesn’t follow a schedule. Issues arrive at all hours, vary in urgency, and often lack the information needed to act quickly.
As portfolios grow, this leads to:
Constant inbox monitoring
Repeated follow-up questions
Manual triage by experienced staff
Contractors receiving incomplete instructions
At a certain point, adding more people stops being effective.
What “automating maintenance” actually means (and what it doesn’t)
Automation is often misunderstood.
It does not mean:
Bots sending generic replies
Removing agents from decision-making
Ignoring nuance or edge cases
It does mean:
Collecting the right information upfront
Structuring requests consistently
Reducing repetitive admin
Letting humans focus on exceptions, not every message
Done well, automation increases control rather than reducing it.
Where maintenance requests usually go wrong
Most issues don’t start with the repair — they start with poor intake.
Common problems include:
Requests arriving via email, calls, and WhatsApp
Vague descriptions like “boiler broken”
Missing photos or videos
Staff asking the same follow-up questions repeatedly
Contractors starting jobs without full context
Each gap creates delay, frustration, and extra work.
The first step: centralising maintenance requests
Before automating anything, requests need a clear entry point.
This doesn’t mean forcing tenants into rigid systems. It means:
One place where issues are captured
Consistent questions asked every time
Clear ownership from the moment a request arrives
Some agents use forms, others rely on email or WhatsApp Business. The key is not the channel — it’s the structure behind it.
The real win: structuring and triaging requests automatically
This is where automation starts to matter.
Instead of treating every message as free text, modern systems:
Extract key details (issue type, location, urgency)
Identify risk factors (no heating, leaks, electrics)
Prioritise issues automatically
Flag when human review is required
The result is faster decisions with less manual effort — and fewer mistakes caused by missing information.
Automating contractor coordination (without losing relationships)
A common concern is that automation will damage contractor relationships. In practice, it often improves them.
Good automation:
Sends clear job details automatically
Includes photos, access notes, and contact info
Reduces back-and-forth messaging
Keeps agents in control of approvals and spend
Contractors benefit from clarity, and agents spend less time chasing updates.
What a good automated maintenance workflow looks like
In practice, a simple, effective workflow looks like this:
Tenant reports an issue
Details are collected automatically
The issue is categorised and prioritised
A contractor is contacted with full context
The agent only steps in when needed
The goal isn’t to remove people from the process — it’s to involve them only when their judgement adds value.
Common mistakes to avoid
Agencies often stumble by:
Over-engineering workflows too early
Automating before fixing intake
Choosing tools staff won’t actually use
Trying to replace every system at once
The biggest wins usually come from improving one area — maintenance — rather than attempting a full overhaul.
Where Lanten fits
Lanten is built specifically to automate tenant maintenance requests for UK letting agents and property managers.
Lanten:
Handles maintenance requests via WhatsApp and email
Automatically structures and triages issues using AI
Prioritises risk and urgency
Coordinates contractors with less chasing and admin
Works alongside systems like Reapit, Arthur, and Alto
If maintenance is the biggest drain on your team’s time, automation is the lever — and Lanten is designed to pull it.
