"The shower's broken." It's how most repair reports start, and it's nowhere near enough to send a contractor. Which house? Which bathroom? Since when? Can they get in? Here's the short checklist we built Hauz around, so a vague message becomes a job that gets fixed first time.
The six things to ask
1. Which property?
Get the full address, including the flat number. You may manage several houses on the same street, and tenants often use a nickname ("the Crookes house") rather than an address.
2. Which room?
A shared house may have two or three bathrooms. "Top-floor bathroom" or "bedroom 4" saves the contractor a search and tells you who's affected.
3. What's wrong, and since when?
Ask what they can see or hear, and when it started. "No hot water since this morning" is a different job to "the boiler has been making a noise for a month".
4. A photo
A photo of the fault, the boiler display or the leak tells a contractor more than a paragraph. It also gives you a record of exactly what was reported.
5. When someone's in
Students have lectures, shifts and weekends away. Ask for times when someone will be home, so the contractor doesn't turn up to an empty house.
6. Permission to use a key
If nobody can be in, ask whether a contractor can let themselves in with a key. Write the answer down: it matters if anyone asks later.
How urgent is it?
Sort every report before you pass it on:
- Emergency: a gas smell or carbon monoxide alarm, flooding, sparks or a burning smell, no power at all, or a house that can't be locked. Safety comes first: for gas, tell tenants to leave the property and call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999.
- Urgent: no heating or hot water, leaks, or a broken toilet if it's the only one.
- Routine: everything else, like a dripping tap or a loose door handle.
Keep a record as you go
Note when each report came in, what was said, the photos, what you decided and when the repair was finished. Good records help with accreditation schemes like Snug, settle disagreements quickly, and will matter even more when Awaab's Law comes to private renting.
How Hauz does this for you
Hauz asks tenants these questions on WhatsApp, sorts the urgency, gives safety advice in an emergency and puts everything on one time-stamped ticket for your team. See how Hauz works, or read about repair reporting for student letting agents.