Written by
Emma Collins
Published on
Jan 3, 2026
Most letting agents don’t struggle because they get too many repair requests. They struggle because those requests arrive in too many places — emails, WhatsApp messages, phone calls — with no single view of what’s happening.
When tracking breaks down, even simple questions become hard to answer: Has this been logged? Is it urgent? Who’s dealing with it? Is it finished? The issue isn’t effort. It’s visibility.
How tenant repair requests actually arrive
In most UK letting agencies, repair requests come in through three main channels.
Email
Often detailed and easy to forward, but slow to process and easy to lose in busy inboxes.
WhatsApp
Fast and convenient for tenants, but unstructured. Key details end up scattered across message threads.
Phone calls
Useful for urgent issues, but unless they’re logged immediately, they leave no record at all.
None of these channels are wrong. The problem starts when each one becomes its own system.
Why tracking breaks down so quickly
Once repair requests live across multiple channels, a few things happen:
There’s no single source of truth
Important details are missing or buried
Updates live in private inboxes or chats
It’s hard to see what’s open, overdue, or completed
Over time, agents end up relying on memory, sticky notes, or informal updates — which doesn’t scale.
What good repair tracking actually looks like
Good tracking isn’t about complex reports or dashboards. It’s about clarity.
At a minimum, it should give you:
One place to see all repair requests
Clear status for each issue
A full history of what’s been reported and done
Easy handover between team members
If someone new joins the team, they should be able to understand what’s going on without chasing messages.
Common approaches (and where they fall down)
Most agencies try a few familiar methods before things improve.
Shared inboxes
Helpful for visibility, but requests are still free text and easy to misinterpret.
Spreadsheets
Simple at first, but quickly outdated and manually maintained.
Maintenance portals
Structured, but often ignored by tenants who prefer quicker channels.
WhatsApp-only workflows
Fast, but impossible to track properly once volumes increase.
Each approach helps a little — none solve the whole problem on their own.
Centralising requests without forcing tenants into forms
Tenants value convenience. Agents need structure.
The best systems don’t force tenants to change how they communicate. Instead, they:
Accept requests through familiar channels
Collect missing details automatically
Bring everything into one shared view
Structure should sit behind the scenes, not in front of the tenant.
A simple, scalable way to track repairs across channels
A workable approach looks like this:
Tenants report issues via email or WhatsApp
Key details are captured automatically
All issues appear in one place for the team
Status updates are visible without manual chasing
Agents spend less time organising information and more time managing outcomes.
Mistakes that make tracking harder than it needs to be
Tracking problems usually get worse when:
Updates live in individual inboxes
Spreadsheets are treated as systems
WhatsApp is used as the sole record
Logging is delayed until “later”
These shortcuts work briefly, then quietly fail.
Where Lanten fits
Lanten is designed to help letting agents track tenant repair requests without changing how tenants communicate.
Lanten:
Captures repair requests from WhatsApp and email
Automatically structures each issue
Gives teams a single, shared view of all repairs
Reduces duplication, chasing, and missed updates
Fits alongside existing systems like Reapit, Arthur, and Alto
If repair tracking feels harder than it should be, the problem usually isn’t volume — it’s structure. Lanten is built to fix that.
