Three quotes, one tap: how vetted repairs should work

A modern repairs workflow should turn a tenant's maintenance report into a filed, photo-evidenced job with as little friction as possible: the tenant reports the issue in-app with photos, the job is triaged for urgency, three vetted contractors return ranked quotes, the agent (or landlord) approves with one tap, access is arranged directly with the tenant, and completion photos are filed against the property. Done well, the agency owner sees the whole thing on one screen and only steps in to approve — no phone tag, no chasing three tradespeople for prices, no lost paper trail.

That is the standard to aim for. Here is how each stage should actually work, and where the compliance obligations sit.

How should a tenant report a repair?

Reporting should start where the problem is: in the tenant's hand, on their phone, at the moment they notice it. A good workflow lets the tenant log the issue in-app, pick a category (leak, heating, electrical, appliance, damp), add a short description and — crucially — attach photos or a short video.

Photos do three things at once:

• They let a coordinator triage without a site visit.
• They give contractors enough to quote accurately, so fewer jobs need a paid inspection first.
• They create a timestamped record of the property's condition, which matters if a dispute or deposit claim follows.

The alternative — a phone call to a busy office, a note on a pad, a promise to "get someone out" — is exactly how repairs slip, tenants escalate, and small problems become expensive ones. Structured intake is the foundation everything else rests on.

What does good triage look like?

Triage is the judgement layer, and it is the part most software gets wrong by ignoring it entirely. Every incoming report should be sorted by urgency and by the landlord's and agent's legal repairing obligations before anyone requests a quote.

A workable priority split:

1. Emergency — anything affecting safety or making the property uninhabitable: a gas leak, total loss of heating or hot water in winter, a major water leak, an electrical fault, a broken external door or window on the ground floor. These need same-day attention.
2. Urgent — issues that will worsen or seriously inconvenience the tenant: a persistent leak, a failed single appliance, intermittent heating.
3. Routine — cosmetic or non-critical repairs that can be planned around a contractor's schedule.

Triage is also where the compliance overlay belongs. Under the landlord's repairing obligations (broadly, the structure and exterior, and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating), certain reports are not discretionary — they must be actioned within a reasonable time, and safety-critical ones quickly. A report of a suspected gas escape, a carbon monoxide alarm sounding, or exposed wiring should be flagged and routed to a qualified contractor immediately, not left in a general queue. This is the same discipline that a well-run lettings compliance calendar applies to gas, electrical and alarm obligations — repairs and compliance are two views of the same duty of care.

Why three vetted quotes, and how should they be ranked?

Three quotes is the sweet spot between speed and value. One quote gives you no benchmark and invites overcharging. Five quotes wastes everyone's time and slows the job. Three vetted contractors give the landlord a genuine choice while keeping the process quick.

The word doing the real work here is vetted. A quote is only useful if the contractor behind it is competent, insured and appropriately qualified. Before a contractor ever appears in a ranking, they should be checked for:

• Public liability insurance, current and adequate.
• Trade qualifications and registration for the job in question — a Gas Safe registered engineer for any gas work (it is a legal requirement, not a preference), a qualified electrician working to BS 7671 for electrical work, and so on.
• Track record — previous jobs, response times and quality on this agency's own portfolio.

Once quotes come back, they should be ranked — not just listed. A sensible ranking weighs price against the contractor's rating, availability and distance, so the agent can see at a glance which quote represents the best overall value rather than simply the cheapest number. The cheapest quote from a slow, poorly rated contractor is rarely the right call, and a good workflow makes that trade-off visible instead of hiding it.

How does one-tap approval and completion actually run?

Once the ranked quotes are in front of the decision-maker, approval should be a single action. Depending on the landlord's arrangement, either the agent approves within a pre-agreed spending limit, or the quote is pushed to the landlord to approve in-app. Either way, no email chains, no "can you call me back to confirm".

After approval, the workflow should carry the job to completion without the office becoming the bottleneck:

• Access is arranged directly between the contractor and tenant, with the required notice, and the appointment logged.
• The work is done by the vetted, qualified contractor.
• Completion photos and any certificates (for example, a gas safety record or an electrical certificate where relevant) are uploaded and filed against the property.
• The invoice is reconciled and paid from the correct account, with the landlord's statement updated.

That final step is where repairs meet client money. Paying a contractor promptly and from the right ledger keeps good tradespeople loyal and keeps your client accounting clean — the same rigour that makes same-day landlord payments possible also gets your contractors paid without a month-end scramble. A repair that ends in a filed photo, a reconciled invoice and an updated landlord statement is a repair that will never come back to bite you in an audit or a deposit dispute.

Frequently asked questions

Does the landlord have to approve every repair?

Not necessarily. Most agencies agree a spending threshold with each landlord — repairs below the limit proceed automatically, and anything above it goes to the landlord for one-tap approval. For genuine emergencies affecting safety, the agent should be able to instruct a qualified contractor first and inform the landlord straight after.

Who is responsible for the repair, the landlord or the agent?

The repairing obligation for the structure, exterior and key installations sits with the landlord by law, and cannot be contracted out to the tenant for those core items. A managing agent acts on the landlord's behalf to organise and evidence the work — which is why a clear, photo-backed workflow protects both parties.

Why does using a Gas Safe engineer matter so much?

Any work on gas appliances or pipework must, by law, be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Using an unregistered person is both unsafe and unlawful, so a compliant workflow should only ever route gas jobs to registered contractors.

A repairs process that runs like this — reported in-app, triaged against your obligations, three vetted quotes ranked, approved in one tap, evidenced on completion — is the difference between reactive fire-fighting and a back office that quietly looks after itself. That is exactly how our vetted contractor repairs and maintenance service is built to run, white-labelled under your agency's brand so tenants and landlords only ever see you. If you would like to see the full workflow end to end, book a demo and we will walk you through it on your own properties.