Answer every repair report promptly, sort it into urgent or routine using written rules agreed with your landlords, pass urgent reports to the person on duty at once and confirm each call in writing. Landlords carry repair duties under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and under Awaab's Law the clock starts when the landlord becomes aware of a hazard.
When a tenant rings to say water is coming through the bathroom ceiling, they do not want a recorded greeting, and neither does the landlord who pays you to look after the property. Repair calls are part of every letting agent's day. How each one is answered, sorted and recorded affects the tenant's safety, the landlord's obligations and your agency's reputation. The practical answer is to answer every report promptly, triage it against written rules, pass urgent ones on at once and confirm everything in writing.
This article is general information for agency staff, not legal advice. Check the legislation and official guidance yourself, or speak to your own adviser or trade body, before changing your procedures.
Is a letting agent responsible for repairs?
The repairing duty sits with the landlord. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords on short leases to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the home, including drains, gutters and external pipes. It also requires them to keep installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating and heating water in repair and proper working order.
In practice, a managing agent is often the tenant's first point of contact, and what you do with a report depends on your management agreement with each landlord. That is why the phone matters so much. The tenant rings you, and your agency is the link between the problem and the person responsible for fixing it. Our page on call answering for letting agents explains how repair calls can be answered in your agency's name while your property managers are out on inspections.
Why does the moment a tenant reports a problem matter?
Awaab's Law has made this question sharper. According to government guidance for social landlords, it has been in force in the social rented sector since 27 October 2025. Social landlords must investigate potential emergency hazards and carry out safety work within 24 hours of becoming aware of the hazard. They must investigate potential significant hazards, including damp and mould, within 10 working days of becoming aware of them.
Notice where the clock starts: when the landlord becomes aware. Under rules like these, a repair report that sits in a voicemail box over a weekend, or in an email nobody has opened, is a risk rather than a mere inconvenience. The faster a report is heard, logged and passed on, the less room there is for doubt about what was reported and when.
Does Awaab's Law apply to private renting?
It is on its way. The government has legislated, through the Renters' Rights Act 2025, to extend Awaab's Law to the private rented sector in England. The timing is set separately, so check gov.uk for when the requirements apply to private landlords rather than relying on a date you have seen quoted elsewhere.
Whatever the timing, the sensible step for a private letting agent is the same: make sure every repair report is answered, logged with the time it came in and passed to the right person. You have plenty of other change to manage too, as the Renters' Rights Act 2025 brought big changes for private tenancies from 1 May 2026, and landlords will ring with questions. Those questions should reach your property manager as a clear message. Whoever answers your phone should never interpret the law for a landlord or a tenant.
How should you sort urgent and routine repairs?
Triage works best when the rules are written down before the phone rings. Agree with your landlords which problems count as urgent, who is called for each one and what the tenant is told. The table below is a common starting point, not a legal standard, and your own definitions should always decide.
| What the tenant reports | Typical category | What the call handler does |
|---|---|---|
| A smell of gas | Emergency | Tells the tenant to ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 straight away, then passes the report to your nominated contact at once |
| Water coming through a ceiling or a burst pipe | Urgent | Takes the address, a description and access details, then passes the call straight to the property manager on duty |
| No heating or no hot water | Urgent | Records the details, asks the questions on your script and flags the report as urgent |
| A front door or window that will not lock | Urgent | Records the details and passes it on as urgent so the property can be secured |
| Damp and mould | Priority, under your rules | Logs where it is, how long it has been there and whether it is spreading, then sends it to the property manager to assess |
| A dripping tap, a sticking door or a broken extractor fan | Routine | Logs the problem, contact details and access times for your maintenance team |
Two points matter here. The person answering never gives safety advice beyond what your script says, such as the gas emergency number, and never decides how serious a hazard is on the landlord's behalf. They ask your questions, record the answers and pass the report to the person you name.
What should you ask on every repair call?
A good repair log means the contractor turns up knowing what to expect, and nobody has to ring the tenant back just to ask basic questions. Build your script around this checklist.
- The tenant's name, phone number and full property address
- What the problem is, in the tenant's own words
- When it started and whether it is getting worse
- Which rooms are affected, and whether water is near any electrics
- Whether anyone in the home is vulnerable, if your policy asks
- Access: when someone can get in, keys, pets and parking
- Whether the tenant can send photos, and where to send them
- Whether the problem has been reported before, and when
A list like this keeps every call consistent, which is one of the five most important rules of call handling. Our guide to the information receptionists need to answer your calls shows how it becomes a working script.
Why should every repair report be confirmed in writing?
Shelter and other tenant guides advise tenants to report repairs in writing as well as by phone. That advice protects your agency as much as the tenant. A phone call that only exists in someone's memory is easy to dispute, while a written note of what was reported, when and to whom is not.
With Onwards Answering, every call produces a summary by email or SMS, which gives your agency a timestamped written record of what the tenant reported. Messages can also go to the Onwards Answering Connect app and portal, as our article on how you receive messages from a call answering service explains. You can forward the summary to the landlord or contractor in line with your own processes.
How can an answering service help with repair calls?
Onwards receptionists answer in your agency's name, follow your triage rules and pass urgent reports straight through by warm transfer or flag them as urgent, as you prefer. They take full messages for landlord questions and never give legal advice. Our receptionists are based in Scotland and work from home, and our call handling service can cover every call or only those your team cannot reach.
Be clear about nights and weekends. Calls are answered live during business hours. After hours, an included voicemail service records messages, but voicemail is not emergency cover, so if your agency runs an out-of-hours emergency repair line, keep it in place. Our article on whether an answering service can handle emergency call-outs looks at the same question for trades.
There is a free 2 week trial, then packages from £72 per month with no per-call charges and no call caps, reviewed after 3 months. See our prices and plans, our page on call answering for estate agents if you handle sales too, or our wider call handling for letting and estate agents.
Frequently asked questions
Can a receptionist tell a tenant whether a repair is the landlord's responsibility?
No. Deciding who is responsible for a repair is a question for your agency and the landlord, and it can depend on the tenancy and the management agreement. An Onwards receptionist takes a full report, follows your script and passes it to the person you name, so any answer about responsibility comes from your team.
What happens if a tenant reports an emergency at night?
Onwards answers live during business hours. After hours, callers reach an included voicemail on your number, which is not emergency cover. If your agency offers an out-of-hours emergency line, keep that arrangement and tell tenants about it, and use Onwards for daytime calls and overflow. Anyone who smells gas should ring 0800 111 999.
Are tenant details safe with an answering service?
They should be handled under a written agreement. Your agency is normally the data controller and the answering service is its processor. Onwards works under UK GDPR as a data processor, handles details only on your instructions, uses secure systems with restricted access and trains staff on confidentiality and data protection. Ask any provider for a data processing agreement.