Written by
Emma Collins
Published on
Jan 6, 2026
Maintenance rarely feels like one big job. It feels like a constant stream of interruptions — a message here, a call there, a quick question that turns into a longer task. Individually, each issue seems small. Collectively, they consume more time than almost anything else in a letting agency.
The reason isn’t volume. It’s friction.
Maintenance is constant, not cyclical
Most parts of a letting agent’s role follow some kind of rhythm. Renewals, inspections, onboarding, and marketing can be planned. Maintenance can’t.
Issues arrive:
At any time of day
In unpredictable bursts
With varying levels of urgency
That constant context-switching is mentally expensive, even when the work itself isn’t complex.
The hidden work behind every maintenance request
A single maintenance issue usually triggers far more work than it appears to.
Behind “the boiler isn’t working” sits:
Reading and interpreting the request
Asking follow-up questions
Deciding urgency and responsibility
Finding the right contractor
Chasing availability and updates
Updating landlords
Recording outcomes for future reference
None of this is difficult in isolation. It’s the repetition that drains time and energy.
Why experience gets pulled into low-value work
Maintenance tends to pull in your most experienced staff.
Why?
They’re best at judging urgency
They know which contractors to trust
They understand landlord expectations
They spot risk quickly
As a result, senior team members end up triaging inboxes instead of doing higher-value work — not because junior staff aren’t capable, but because the information isn’t structured.
Why adding staff doesn’t fix the problem
When maintenance becomes overwhelming, the instinct is often to add headcount. That rarely solves the underlying issue.
More people usually means:
More handovers
More inboxes to monitor
More duplicated work
Less clarity over ownership
The workload spreads, but the friction remains.
What most agencies try first
Before anything improves, most agencies experiment with:
Additional spreadsheets
More internal rules
Checklists and templates
Dedicated WhatsApp groups
These steps help for a while. But as volumes grow, they quietly collapse under their own weight.
What actually reduces time spent on maintenance
The biggest gains don’t come from working faster — they come from working differently.
What makes the difference:
Better intake of maintenance requests
Clear structure from the start
Fewer decisions per issue
Only escalating exceptions to humans
When information arrives structured, the rest of the process becomes lighter.
What a low-friction maintenance operation looks like
In a well-run setup:
Issues arrive with the right details
Urgency is obvious without manual triage
Contractors receive clear instructions
Agents step in only when needed
Maintenance still happens — it just doesn’t dominate the day.
Where Lanten fits
Lanten is built to reduce the hidden work that makes maintenance so time-consuming.
Lanten:
Structures tenant maintenance requests automatically
Handles triage and prioritisation using AI
Reduces inbox monitoring and repetitive questions
Helps teams manage by exception, not interruption
Fits alongside systems like Reapit, Arthur, and Alto
Maintenance doesn’t need to disappear. It just needs less attention — and that’s exactly what Lanten is designed to deliver.
