Log Repairs Yourself, Including Work Already Done

Why this matters

Maintenance in LetSorted used to be a tenant inbox. A repair existed only if a tenant reported it through their portal.

That is not how repairs actually arise. Most work never starts with a tenant at all — planned and preventative jobs, work done between tenancies, remedials that come out of an inspection, defects flagged on an EICR or gas safety certificate. And when a tenant does report something, they usually ring, text, or mention it at the door.

The result was a repair history with holes in it. That is a problem, because a dated repair history is evidence. It is what shows a repair was reported and dealt with, what a job actually cost, and who did it. If you take on a property that is already let, it is also the only way to get the work you have already done onto the record.

What changed

Maintenance is now a full property repair record. A tenant-submitted request is one source among several:

• Reported by the tenant through the portal — unchanged
• Reported another way — by phone, text, or in person
• Landlord-initiated — planned or preventative work you arranged yourself
• From an inspection — a remedial arising from a property inspection
• Compliance remedial — a defect flagged on a safety certificate

Each record can now carry cost, the contractor who did the work, and photos or invoices. Cost is recorded for your own reference only — LetSorted makes no tax determination and nothing here is accounting advice.

You can also back-fill work that is already finished. Set the real date it was reported and the real date it was completed, mark it Completed, and it is stored with those dates. It is not forced through an open-then-in-progress-then-resolved lifecycle it never went through.

A repair history you can actually rely on. Log the work, the cost and the contractor, and keep the photos with it. See how issue management works →

Your tenant is only emailed if you tick the box

This is the part worth being precise about, because getting it wrong means surprising someone else's tenant.

A record you create never emails the tenant by default. An email is sent only when all three of these are true: you explicitly tick the notify-tenant option, the record is linked to a tenant who has an email address, and the record is open. The option is off every time and is unavailable otherwise.

Completed and historical records never contact the tenant, whatever else is set. Neither do later status changes on a record you created.

Records the tenant raised through their portal behave exactly as before — both of you are notified on creation and on status changes.

One more thing worth knowing: if a tenant is removed, the property's repair history survives. The records stay on the property with the tenant link cleared, rather than disappearing with them.

What you need to do

1. Go to Maintenance and choose New record
2. Pick the property, describe the work, and set where it came from
3. Add cost, contractor, dates and photos as you have them
4. Leave the notify-tenant box unticked unless you actively want them emailed

If you are onboarding a property that is already let, back-filling the last year or two of work is the fastest way to get a useful record in place.

This is general information about how LetSorted works, not legal, tax or accounting advice.