Maintenance
Your tenant reports a repair. No app, no account.
Repairs get reported by text at 11pm, by voicemail, and by being mentioned in passing at a viewing. Then the boiler fails, and nobody can say what was reported in March or what was done about it. LetBuddy gives every tenancy one link: your tenant tells you what is wrong, it arrives sorted and ready to answer, and the whole exchange stays on the record.
You share one link
Each tenancy has its own reporting link, ready on the tenancy record, with a button that hands it straight to WhatsApp with the message already written. Send it there, by email, or print it in the welcome pack. That is the whole setup — there is nothing for your tenant to download, no account to create, and no password for either of you to reset in eighteen months' time.
Your tenant describes the problem
They open the link, say what is wrong in their own words, and add a photo if they have one — on a phone that opens the camera straight away. No form to decipher and no login wall between a person with a leak and telling somebody about it, which is the point: the reports you never receive are the ones that turn into the expensive repairs and the disrepair counterclaims. If it is a real emergency, the page tells them what to do about it before it tells them anything about you — where the stopcock is, and the free numbers for gas, power and 999.
It arrives sorted, with a reply ready
The report lands on your maintenance board as a tracked request, already given a title and a priority — a gas leak or no heating in January is flagged as an emergency, a dripping tap is not — and you get an email. Alongside it is a draft reply to your tenant, acknowledging the specific problem and offering a realistic next step. Read it, change what you want, send it.
And the job goes to a trade
If it needs a tradesperson, search for one near the property by its postcode, or pick somebody you already use. LetBuddy drafts the quote request with the job details, and gives that job its own private link the trade can reply through — a price, an invoice, photos of what they found — without creating an account. It waits for you to accept it, so their quote becomes the job's cost only when you say so, and the whole exchange stays on the record rather than in your text messages.
Then it chases you, not the tenant
Every issue gets a target from its priority — a day for an emergency, three for high, a week for medium — and one that runs past it comes back at you, louder each time, at 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days late. This happens whether or not you have opened LetBuddy since. Three days after you mark a tenant's repair resolved, it asks you to check the fix held, because a repair your tenant confirms in writing is worth more later than one only you recorded.
The repairs nobody reports
A serviced boiler generates no reports right up until it does. Set the jobs that come round on their own — an annual service, gutters after leaf fall, an alarm test, a mid-tenancy inspection — and each one arrives on your board ahead of the date it is wanted, by however much notice you decide that job needs. From the moment it appears it is an ordinary request: same statuses, same photos, same handoff to a trade, same dated record against the property.
Gas safety, EICR and EPC are deliberately not set up here. Those have statutory expiry dates rather than intervals you choose, and they live in the compliance calendar, which holds the legal renewal limit for each one and chases them before and after they lapse. Two places to track the same certificate is how one of them stops being read.
What this is not
It is not a tenant app with a login, a chat thread and a status board. Your tenant reports an issue, opens their certificates and — if you have allowed it on that job — picks a visit time. They do not get a portal account, they do not watch your job progress in real time, and there is no message box: not between you and them, and not between them and a tradesperson. Choosing a time is choosing a time.
It is not automatic dispatch either. A rule that sends a contractor without anyone seeing the report first is spending someone's money and answering to someone's tenant, and triage is the part worth keeping whether you are looking after four properties or four hundred: whether that leak needs a plumber this afternoon or a look on Saturday is a judgement, and it is routinely worth a few hundred pounds. What LetBuddy removes is the reading, sorting and re-typing around that judgement — not the judgement.
The record it builds
Every report, reply, quote and invoice lands on the tenancy’s dated timeline alongside the rent ledger, the certificates and the notices. That is the same record a possession claim runs on now that Section 21 has gone — and the same one a disrepair counterclaim is answered with.
Readiness checklist
Signed tenancy agreement on file
Uploaded 14 Mar 2025
Deposit protected with a reference recorded
MyDeposits · ref ending 4471
Gas safety, EICR and EPC in date
Earliest expiry 2 Feb 2027
No open repair older than 28 days
Boiler service open 31 days
Timeline
2 Aug · Phone call · You → Tenant
Discussed missed July rent, agreed a plan
14 Jul · Repair logged
Boiler not firing — engineer booked
1 Jul · Rent due, unpaid
£700 · balance now £1,400
More on why that matters: the possession evidence checklist.
Common questions
Does my tenant need to download an app or create an account?
No. They open a link and fill in one box. There is no app, no account, no password and nothing to install — which matters most for the tenants least likely to set one up, and those tend to be the tenancies where you most want to hear about a problem early.
How does the landlord get the link to the tenant?
From the tenancy's record, however you already talk to that tenant. There is a WhatsApp button that opens the message pre-written with the link in it, an email button that does the same, and the link itself to copy anywhere else. The WhatsApp button hands the message to your own WhatsApp and stops there — you still choose the recipient and press send. LetBuddy does not message your tenant on your behalf without you asking it to.
Does LetBuddy chase repairs, or do I have to remember?
It chases. Emergencies are chased in hours: one still sitting untouched two, six and twelve hours after it was reported comes back at you, because a day-old reminder about a flooding kitchen is not a reminder. Everything else runs on its priority target — three days for high, a week for medium, a fortnight for low — and one still open past that returns at 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days late, escalating as it goes. All of it runs on our side whether or not you have signed in. It goes to you and nobody else: your tenant is never chased, and no contractor is instructed.
What if it's a genuine emergency — a flood, or a gas smell?
The reporting page says what to do about it first, before it says anything about telling you: turn the water off at the stopcock, the free 24-hour gas emergency numbers, 105 for power, and 999. That is deliberately the first thing on the page, because reporting a gas leak to a landlord is not the right first move and the minutes spent filling in a form are the minutes that matter. Then the report reaches you flagged as an emergency, and keeps coming back — at two hours, six hours and twelve — until you have actually picked it up.
Can I book a repair for today?
Yes, and the app will not pretend you gave notice you did not. Times a tradesperson offers through their link are always at least 24 hours out, because that is the written notice your tenant is entitled to. When something needs somebody this afternoon you ring your tenant, agree it, and record it as a visit you arranged directly — it goes on the case record as agreed with them rather than as 24 hours' written notice. Those are different facts if this is ever read in a dispute, and the record keeps them apart.
Can I schedule work that nobody reports, like an annual boiler service?
Yes. Set a job to repeat — a boiler service, gutters cleared, an alarm test, an inspection — and choose how much notice you want. It appears on your maintenance board that far ahead of the date it is wanted, as an ordinary request with the same statuses, trade handoff and photos as anything else, then rolls itself forward to next time. A boiler service that turns up on your board on the day is no use in January, which is why the notice is yours to set rather than ours.
What happens to a report after it is submitted?
It becomes a maintenance request against that property and tenancy, with a title, a priority and the tenant's own words preserved. You are emailed, the request appears on your maintenance board, and a draft reply to the tenant is waiting for you to review and send. The whole exchange is logged against the tenancy as a dated record.
Does my tradesperson need an account?
No — and that is the point, because a self-employed plumber will not sign up to your software to quote a gutter. Each job can carry its own private link. They open it, see what the job is and roughly where, and send back a price, an invoice or photos. It works from a WhatsApp message or a text, which is where most UK trades actually are. The link covers that one job, expires after 30 days, and you can revoke it in one click.
What does the tradesperson get to see?
The job, its priority, and the outward half of the postcode — enough to price the work and decide if it is in their patch. Not your tenant's name, not their contact details, not your other properties, and not the other jobs on that one. You can share the full address with a tick when you have decided they are attending. Nothing they send back changes your records until you accept it: their quote becomes the cost when you say so, their invoice is filed when you say so.
Can the tradesperson and my tenant sort out a time between them?
Only if you say so, per job. With it switched on, the trade offers up to three windows through their link and your tenant picks one through theirs — no earlier than 24 hours away, so the notice your tenant is entitled to is on the record. Neither of them ever gets the other's phone number or email, and neither can send the other a message; it is times and an answer, nothing else. You are told at every step, including when none of the times work, which is the answer that matters if it ever ends up in front of a judge. Leave it switched off and you arrange access yourself, exactly as before.
Can LetBuddy send the job straight to my contractor?
It drafts the quote request — the job description, the property address, the trade you need — and sends it once you click. Nothing goes to a contractor automatically. For a repair that will cost money at somebody else's property, the decision to instruct is yours, and an automatic dispatch is a feature until the first time it books a plumber you did not want.
Can my tenant see their gas safety and electrical certificates?
Yes. The same link shows the gas safety, electrical (EICR) and energy (EPC) certificates for their property, and they can open and download them whenever they want. Those are the three you have a duty to give the tenant rather than merely to hold. Everything else the compliance calendar tracks — licensing, alarm checks — stays landlord-side.
Is the link secure? What if a tenant leaves?
The link contains an unguessable token that resolves to exactly one tenancy, and it only works while that tenancy is active — it shows nothing about your other properties, your finances or your other tenants. You can replace the link at any time from the tenancy record, which immediately kills the old one. That is what to do when a tenancy ends or a link is forwarded somewhere it should not have gone.
Does the triage decide anything or contact anyone?
No. It reads the description, suggests a title and a priority, and writes a draft reply for you. It never emails your tenant, never contacts a tradesperson, and never books anything. LetBuddy does email you on its own — reminders about certificates, chases on repairs running late, jobs coming round again — but every one of those is addressed to you. Anything going outward to a tenant or a trade leaves because you sent it.
Why does this matter for possession or a disrepair claim?
Because a tenant defending an arrears claim will routinely counterclaim for disrepair, which puts your maintenance history in front of the judge. A dated record of what was reported, when you responded and what you did about it is the answer to that — and it has to have been kept as the tenancy ran. A log written afterwards is argument; one written at the time is evidence.
Set it up on your first tenancy
Your first property is free, permanently — the whole product, no card, no countdown. Add a tenancy, copy the link, send it to your tenant.
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