Every repair, on the record
Repair requests often arrive as a text message or a phone call, and the details drift. A few weeks later it’s hard to say when the leak was first reported or what the job cost.
Maintenance requests keep it all in one place. Each request holds your tenant’s description and photos, every status change with its date, the notes between you, the tradie’s details and the invoices. A request is never deleted, so if a repair is ever questioned, at bond time or later, the history is there to show what happened and when.
How a repair request works
Your tenant logs the problem
From their tenant portal, your tenant picks a category and then the specific problem from a list, so you know what you’re dealing with before you open it. They add a description, where it is in the property, photos and the best times for access, and tick whether they’re happy for a tradie to come in while they’re out. The form also prompts them for an appliance’s brand, model and serial number, which helps the tradie turn up with the right part.
Your tenant gets an email confirming what they sent and when, and you get an email about the new request.
You approve or decline it
New requests wait in your Requests tab until you act. Approve one and it moves to your Active tab as To do, then In progress, until you mark it Completed. If you decline, you give a reason, and your tenant receives it by email. Declined and cancelled requests move to your Closed tab.
Your tenant can cancel a request while it’s still waiting for you (you’re emailed if they do), and you can cancel any open request that’s no longer needed.
You can also log a request yourself, for example after a routine inspection, and choose whether your tenant can see it.
Book the tradie
Add the tradie’s name, phone number and booked date. When you set the date, you’ll see your state’s entry notice period and the form to use, and the tradie’s details are shared with your tenant unless you untick the box. Your tenant is emailed the booking. Our guide to entry notice rules by state covers the detail.
- Either of you can add dated notes with photos, and email a copy to the other person or simply keep it on the record.
- Your tenant’s notes are always visible to you. The notes and files you add stay private unless you share them.
Close it off with the costs
Upload the quote or invoice to the request. Mark a file as an invoice or receipt, enter the amount, GST, date and whether it’s paid, and it’s saved as a repairs and maintenance expense with the invoice attached. A job can carry several costs, and the request shows the total.
When you mark the job completed, you’ll see the costs recorded so far and any invoices still missing an amount, so you can tidy up the costs before tax time. Every file also goes into your document vault, and every cost shows up in your expense tracking and reports.
If your tenant is responsible for a cost, you can bill them for it with a tenant invoice.
Urgent repairs get flagged straight away
Each state and territory defines urgent repairs in its own way (Queensland and the NT call them emergency repairs). Common examples are a burst water service or a hot water system that’s stopped working. When your tenant picks a problem on your state’s urgent list, the request is marked urgent automatically. If they choose “something else”, they’re asked whether it’s urgent.
Your tenant then sees a short note for your state along with your phone number and any nominated repairers listed in the lease, so they can reach you, or a nominated repairer where the lease and your state’s rules allow. The request still comes to you, and if it’s still waiting for you 12 hours later, you get a reminder email.